JTabbedPane: icon on left side of tabs

Question

hello i am using the nimbus look-and-feel and have a tabbedpane with an icon and text. now the icon appears on the right side of the text, while i would like to have it on the left side.

also i would like to add some spacing between the icon and the text.

thanks!

Answer 1

You need to set the tab component yourself; which governs how the tab title is rendered.

// Create tabbed pane and add tabs.
JTabbedPane tabbedPane = ...

// Create bespoke component for rendering the tab.
JLabel lbl = new JLabel("Hello, World");
Icon icon = new ImageIcon(getClass().getResource("/foo/bar/hello.jpg"));
lbl.setIcon(icon);

// Add some spacing between text and icon, and position text to the RHS.
lbl.setIconTextGap(5);
lbl.setHorizontalTextPosition(SwingConstants.RIGHT);

// Assign bespoke tab component for first tab.
tabbedPane.setTabComponentAt(0, lbl);

Obviously you could encapsulate this in a utility method:

private void addTab(JTabbedPane tabbedPane, Component tab, String title, Icon icon) {
  tabbedPane.add(tab);

  JLabel lbl = ... // Create bespoke label for rendering tab title.

  tabbedPane.setTabComponentAt(tabbedPane.getTabCount() - 1, lbl);
}