How do I set the initial color of a JColorChooser?

To create an instance of a JColorChooser with a default or initial color such as Color.BLUE you can pass the Color object to the constructor of the JColorChooser component. The example below shows how to do it.

package org.kodejava.swing;

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;

public class JColorChooserDefaultColor extends JFrame {
    public JColorChooserDefaultColor() throws HeadlessException {
        initializeUI();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(
                () -> new JColorChooserDefaultColor().setVisible(true));
    }

    private void initializeUI() {
        setTitle("JColorChooser Demo");
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        // Creates an instance of JColorChooser and set Color.BLUE
        // as the default selected color.
        JColorChooser jcc = new JColorChooser(Color.BLUE);

        getContentPane().add(jcc, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        this.pack();
    }
}

JColorChooser Initial Color

How do I get the selected color from JColorChooser?

To get the selected color from JColorChooser we need to create an implementation of the ChangeListener interface. This interface provides a single method call stateChanged(ChangeEvent e). The instance of this interface implementation need to be passed to JColorChooser by calling the JColorChooser.getSelectionModel().addChangeListener() method.

In this example our ChangeListener implementation get the selected color and replace the foreground color the JLabel component.

package org.kodejava.swing;

import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeListener;
import java.awt.*;

public class JColorChooserColorSelection extends JFrame {
    private JColorChooser jcc = null;
    private JLabel label = null;

    public JColorChooserColorSelection() {
        initializeUI();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(
                () -> new JColorChooserColorSelection().setVisible(true));
    }

    private void initializeUI() {
        setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());

        jcc = new JColorChooser();
        jcc.getSelectionModel().addChangeListener(new ColorSelection());
        getContentPane().add(jcc, BorderLayout.PAGE_START);

        label = new JLabel("Selected Font Color", JLabel.CENTER);
        label.setFont(new Font("SansSerif", Font.BOLD, 24));
        label.setForeground(Color.BLACK);
        label.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(100, 100));
        getContentPane().add(label, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        this.pack();
    }

    /**
     * A ChangeListener implementation for listening the color
     * selection of the JColorChooser component.
     */
    class ColorSelection implements ChangeListener {
        public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
            Color color = jcc.getColor();
            label.setForeground(color);
        }
    }
}

JColorChooser get selected color

How do I use JColorChooser component?

The JColorChooser is a Swing component that provides a palette from where we can select a color code in RGB format. The JColorChooser component has two parts, the tabbed pane of color selection and a preview box. The tabbed has three tabs which allows us to select a color from a swatches, a HSB (Hue, Saturation and Brightness) combination and an RGB (Red Blue Green) color combination.

package org.kodejava.swing;

import javax.swing.*;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeEvent;
import javax.swing.event.ChangeListener;
import java.awt.*;

public class JColorChooserDemo extends JFrame implements ChangeListener {
    private JColorChooser colorChooser = null;

    public JColorChooserDemo() throws HeadlessException {
        initUI();
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SwingUtilities.invokeLater(
                () -> new JColorChooserDemo().setVisible(true));
    }

    private void initUI() {
        // Set title and default close operation of this JFrame.
        setTitle("JColorChooser Demo");
        setDefaultCloseOperation(WindowConstants.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());

        // Creates an instance of JColorChooser component and
        // adds it to the frame's content.
        colorChooser = new JColorChooser();
        getContentPane().add(colorChooser, BorderLayout.PAGE_END);

        // Add a change listener to get the selected color in this
        // JColorChooser component.
        colorChooser.getSelectionModel().addChangeListener(this);
        this.pack();
    }

    /**
     * Handles color selection in the JColorChooser component.
     *
     * @param e the ChangeEvent
     */
    public void stateChanged(ChangeEvent e) {
        // Get the selected color in the JColorChooser component
        // and print the color in RGB format to the console.
        Color color = colorChooser.getColor();
        System.out.println("color = " + color);
    }
}

When you run the program above a frame with JColorChooser component will be shown. A string of the color code in an RGB format will be printed in the console if you click a color from the color selection.

Here is an image of a JColorChooser component.

JColorChooser Component Demo