I know that Java supports TrueType Fonts (.ttf) and that .ttc is extension of TrueType format, but i can't find information that Java also supports the TrueType collection (.ttc) to be explicitly set as font on JLabel for example.
I made an example, where I successfully load a .ttc file in my application with the following code:
InputStream is = getClass().getResourceAsStream("/resources/simsun.ttc");
Font font = Font.createFont(Font.TRUETYPE_FONT, is);
Font fontBase = font.deriveFont(15f);
field.setFont(fontBase);
The code is working well, there are no exceptions related to the creation, loading or setting of the .ttc file as a font in Swing components.
My question is: Can someone confirm this to be working well and that all glyphs from the fonts inside the .ttc are used in components, or there are any disadvantages related to this?
Also, is there any difference if the .ttc is loaded from jar on client machine or it has to be installed in system fonts?
I'm using Windows 7.
First of all, the difference between TTC and TTF is: TTC can (and usually) contain multiple fonts, but TTF only have font defined. The reason to put multiple font into one file is to save space by share glyphs (or sub glyphs). For example, in SimSun and NSimSun, most of glyphs are same, save them together can save lots of space.
Second, Java support TTC font format, but by using Font.createFont() you can only get the first font defined in the TTC file. Currently, there is no way to specify the font index. Take a look at sun.font.FontManager.createFont2D(), when they invoke new TrueTypeFont(), the fontIndex is alway zero. Shame!
For your question: if all you need is the first font in TTC file, then everything would be okay. All the glyphs defined for first font would be available. But, if you expect second or other font defined in that file, then you hit a block. You cannot even get the font name by using this API.
There is no difference between system loaded fonts and created font. However there is no good way to specify the font index, you may try to hack into FontManager and come up with some platform specific code.