What's New in JFormDesigner 6

MigLayout support

MigLayout is a superbly versatile and powerful layout manager. It is grid-based, but also supports docking, grouping, flowing and absolute positioning (with links).

MigLayout is open source on GitHub.
Visit miglayout.com for documentation.

MigLayout is the new default layout manager for new forms.

All forms used in JFormDesigner have been converted from JGoodies FormLayout to MigLayout and optimized to use in-cell flow instead of nested panels (see radio buttons in screenshot).

Support for HiDPI monitors

User interface and images are now automatically scaled on HiDPI (e.g. 4k) monitors according to your system scale factor (set in system settings).

JFormDesigner includes 2x resolution images, which are used for 200% scaling factor on Windows/Linux and on Macs with Retina displays. For other scaling factors (e.g. 150% or 225%), they are scaled down or up.

New modern icons

The previously used (nearly ten years old) icons have been replaced with new modern flat icons (including 2x resolution).

New modern user interface

The JFormDesigner user interface has been redesigned.

Wide Layout

The new Wide Layout option in the Stand-alone edition shows Properties and Structure views side by side, which allows you to benefit from Widescreen monitors and gives you more room for properties.

Darcula L&F support improved

The support for the Darcula L&F has been completely reworked. Better colors and better icons.

Support Darcula L&F in NetBeans

If you've installed the Darcula LAF for NetBeans plug-in, you can use the Darcula L&F in JFormDesigner.

Linux: GTK+ L&F

The GTK+ look and feel is now used on Linux by default, which looks much better than the previously used L&F.

Improved grid selection figure

The selection handles in grid-based layout managers are now displayed at cell bounds (previously was component bounds), which makes it easy to see what cells are occupied by the component.

The red rectangle marks the component bounds and the blue rectangle the occupied cell bounds.

Search for multiple property names

The Properties view now supports searching for multiple property names. You can use space, comma or semicolon as separators.

Improved property editors

The new property editors for Dimension, Insets, Point and Rectangle support editing multiple values (e.g. width and height) with labels in a single line.

Use Tab, PageDown, Comma or Space keys to navigate to the next value. Shift+Tab or PageUp keys navigates to the previous value.

Hex color values

The Color property editor now supports hex color values (e.g. 0x00ff00 or 0xaa00ff00), which makes it easier to copy colors from other programs.

Increment or decrement numbers in text fields

In all text fields you can now increment or decrement numbers in text. Place the caret at a number and press Up or Down keys. In multi-line text fields use Ctrl+Up or Ctrl+Down.

Convert layout managers

The Command-line tool can convert layout managers used in forms. E.g. if you want convert from FormLayout to MigLayout, you can run:

cd C:\MyProject
java -classpath <jfd-install>/lib/JFormDesigner.jar
    com.jformdesigner.application.CommandLineMain
    --convert-layout
    --old-layout=com.jgoodies.forms.layout.FormLayout
    --new-layout=net.miginfocom.swing.MigLayout
    --recursive
    src