Until the advent of the Internet as a viable development
platform, desktop applications were developed with strict
user interface guidelines. This put constraints on a developer's
ability to let components integrate custom interfaces or designs
that could jeopardize the application's accessibility.
Nevertheless, the Internet, and more specifically HTML, promoted
a new breed of applications. Today, both desktop and browser-based
applications must distinguish themselves with original designs
and innovative user interfaces. In this regard, Chart FX has
pioneered the charting industry by adding features and tools
that help developers to integrate extraordinary charts into
their desktop applications and web sites with minimal programming
effort.
No other charting product provides the graphic pizzazz and
innovative tools that Chart FX for Java offers today. Charts
now support features like smoothing, transparency, gradients,
double-buffering repainting and many others. However, of all
the features built into Chart FX for Java geared to enhance
the chart's presentation layer, none stand out more than Image
Borders.

The Java API alpha blending capability
is used to display Chart FX for Java image borders. These
borders consist of a series of bitmaps that have transparent
or semi-transparent pixels. In addition to a red, green,
and blue color channel, each pixel in a border bitmap
has a transparency component known as its alpha channel.
The alpha channel lets you control the color of the
chart background as well as the color of the HTML page
or form while keeping the effect of the border intact,
resulting in an outstanding presentation effect for
your charts without the restrictions imposed by static
bitmaps that can't be changed programmatically.
Image Borders are very simple to integrate and require little
or no programming efforts on your part. Also, image borders
are supported in a separate assembly that allows you to decide
if you want to use and deploy them as part of your application
or server.
This section will show you how you can display image borders
on your Chart FX for Java applications.
Borders and Background Color
The Chart FX ImageBorders use shading and great edge
detail to give a multidimensional effect when they are placed
in your forms. When using image borders, you will want them
to seamlessly integrate into your page or form design.
If you have set the background color of your form to a color
other that white, an undesirable white block will be visible
around the chart.

The PageColor property can be used to modify the background
color of the shaded area around ImageBorders. Setting the
PageColor property to match the background color of the webpage
will achieve a seamless visual effect.
chart1.setPageColor(new java.awt.Color(0,255,0));
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The following code instantiates a new border object and assigns
it to the chart. Please note how the Border Object exposes
a variable called Color that can be used to change the border
color
ImageBorder myBorder = new ImageBorder(ImageBorderType.SOLID_LINES); myBorder.setColor(new java.awt.Color(128, 128, 0)); chart1.setBorderObject(myBorder);
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Note: You can also integrate and display image borders
from the Chart FX for Java Wizard and Properties List (if
supported, through the BorderObject property). The advantage
of adding borders using these tools is that you can quickly
select among the different supported borders visually, instead
of adding the code, compiling and running the application.
Borders and other chart tools

Finally, it is important to mention, Chart FX for Java
image borders are prepared to handle additional tools
and windows that can be displayed in the chart area,
including Toolbar, Legend windows and Data Editor.
The chart displayed uses an Embed image border and
notice how the different elements are properly rendered
with the same border type.
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