*Free High-Fidelity Windows and Multi-Platform Appearance*

Hello,

I've published a stable beta of the free JGoodies Looks 2.0.
The major changes are better support for Windows Vista,
Java 5 and 6, and an overhauled font lookup in all L&fs.
The RELEASE-NOTES.txt provides detailed information about
changes that affect the binary and visual compatibility,
and how to get an appearance compatible with version 1.x.

The JGoodies Looks is a bundle that consists of a professional
Windows look&feel and the Plastic look&feel family.
These L&fs make your Swing apps and applets look better.
The JGoodies L&fs have been optimized for readability,
precise micro-design and consistency. And they simplify the
multi-platform support by using similar widget dimensions.
In addition many people have reviewed them as elegant.

The JGoodies Looks library is licensed under the terms of
the BSD open source license and is available at no charge.

Although this is a beta, the contained Windows L&f
and Plastic L&fs supercede all previous version w.r.t.
consistency, micro design precision, and support
for new Java runtimes and Windows editions.

The beta state shall indicate that the user community
can still change the new font lookup mechnism before
the 2.0 final is released. So speak up now if you need
API changes or implementation changes.

*Help required from users with non-western Windows*

The Looks 2.0 shall better support non-western environments.
Especially it shall be able to display Chinese, Japanese,
Korean and other non-western languages easily (Issue #10).
This should work on non-Windows platforms, because the Looks
then use the logical fonts defined by the Java runtime.
And it may work on non-western Windows too; but I'd like
to verify the latter before publishing the 2.0 final.

Therefore I'd like to get feedback from users that run Java 1.4.2,
Java 5 or Java 6 on a non-western Windows, especially XP and Vista.
This Beta ships with a FontTest tool ("fonttest.jar") that
displays detailed information about the Java environment,
platform, and font settings. I should appreciate if some users
of non-western Windows could run the tool, copy the information
to the clipboard and send it to dev@looks.dev.java.net.

*Please do not send personal mail* if you have
questions around the Looks. Instead please follow
the support instructions described in the README.html
and at the project home page. Basically you should use
the user mailing lists at java.net!

The JGoodies Looks have been financed by customers
of the JGoodies Swing Suite and by the Sun desktop crew.
It is only with their money that I can provide, maintain,
and improve this library at no charge. If you save time
and money using the Looks, please help me finance my Java
desktop activities by licensing the commercial Swing Suite.

I hope the JGoodies Looks package improves the readability,
consistency and elegance of your multi-platform screen design.

Best regards,
Karsten Lentzsch

Project Home
https://looks.dev.java.net/

Downloads
https://looks.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList

Demo Editions
https://looks.dev.java.net/servlets/ProjectDocumentList?folderID=624

Release Notes:
https://looks.dev.java.net/files/documents/31/22629/RELEASE-NOTES.txt

JGoodies Swing Suite
http://www.JGoodies.com/products/index.html