System Properties

Java system properties can be used to change some behavior of FlatLaf.

They can be either passed at command line to any application that uses FlatLaf:

$ myapp -Dflatlaf.animation=false

Or set in Java code:

System.setProperty( "flatlaf.animation", "false" );

List of system properties used in FlatLaf:

Property Name Description Allowed Values Default
flatlaf.uiScale Specifies a custom scale factor used to scale the UI. If Java runtime scales (Java 9 or later), this scale factor is applied on top of the Java system scale factor. Java 8 does not scale and this scale factor replaces the user scale factor that FlatLaf computes based on the font. To replace the Java 9+ system scale factor, use system property sun.java2d.uiScale, which has the same syntax as this one.
Since FlatLaf 1.1.2: Scale factors less than 100% are allowed.
e.g. 1.5, 1.5x, 150% or 144dpi (96dpi is 100%) none
flatlaf.uiScale.enabled Specifies whether user scaling mode is enabled. false and true true
flatlaf.uiScale.allowScaleDown
v1.1.2
Specifies whether values smaller than 100% are allowed for the user scale factor. false and true false
flatlaf.useUbuntuFont Specifies whether Ubuntu font should be used on Ubuntu Linux. By default, if not running in a JetBrains Runtime, the Liberation Sans font is used because there are rendering issues (in Java) with Ubuntu fonts. false and true false
flatlaf.useWindowDecorations Specifies whether native window decorations should be used when creating JFrame or JDialog.
Setting this to true forces using native window decorations even if they are not enabled by the application. Setting this to false disables using native window decorations. This system property has higher priority than client property JRootPane.useWindowDecorations and UI default TitlePane.useWindowDecorations.
(requires Window 10/11)
false and true none
flatlaf.useJetBrains­CustomDecorations Deprecated: No longer used since FlatLaf 3.3.
Specifies whether JetBrains Runtime custom window decorations should be used when creating JFrame or JDialog.
Requires that the application runs in a JetBrains Runtime (based on OpenJDK).
Setting this to false disables using JetBrains Runtime custom window decorations. Then FlatLaf native window decorations are used.
(requires Window 10/11)
false and true false (since v2; was true in v1)
flatlaf.menuBarEmbedded Specifies whether the menu bar is embedded into the window title pane if window decorations are enabled.
Setting this to true forces embedding. Setting this to false disables embedding.
This system property has higher priority than client property JRootPane.menuBarEmbedded and UI default TitlePane.menuBarEmbedded.
(requires Window 10/11)
false and true none
flatlaf.useNativeLibrary
v3.2
Specifies whether FlatLaf native library should be used.
Setting this to false disables loading native library, which also disables some features that depend on the native library.
false and true true
flatlaf.nativeLibraryPath
v2

Specifies a directory in which the FlatLaf native libraries are searched for. The path can be absolute or relative to current application working directory. This can be used to avoid extraction of the native libraries to the temporary directory at runtime.

If the value is "system" (supported since FlatLaf 2.6), then System.loadLibrary(String) is used to load the native library. This searches for the native library in classloader of caller (using ClassLoader.findLibrary(String)) and in paths specified in system properties sun.boot.library.path and java.library.path.

If the native library can not be loaded from the given path (or via System.loadLibrary(String)), then the embedded native library is extracted to the temporary directory and loaded from there.

The file names of the native libraries must be either:

  • the same as in flatlaf.jar in package com/formdev/flatlaf/natives (required for "system") or
  • when downloaded from Maven central then as described here: Native Libraries distribution (requires FlatLaf 3.4)

Note: Since FlatLaf 3.1 it is recommended to download the FlatLaf native libraries from Maven central and distribute them with your application in the same directory as flatlaf.jar. Then it is not necessary to set this system property. See Native Libraries distribution for details.

absolute or relative path none
flatlaf.animation Specifies whether animations are enabled. false and true true
flatlaf.useTextYCorrection Specifies whether vertical text position is corrected when UI is scaled on HiDPI screens. false and true true
flatlaf.updateUIOn­SystemFontChange v2.5 Specifies whether FlatLaf updates the UI when the system font changes. If true, SwingUtilities.updateComponentTreeUI(java.awt.Component) gets invoked for all windows if the system font has changed. This is the similar to when switching to another look and feel (theme). Applications that do not work correctly when switching look and feel, should disable this option to avoid corrupted UI. false and true true