I recently started using the look and feel library BizLaf of Centigrade GmbH (Germany) and I have come to the conclusion that, after 13 years of programming Swing UIs, this is by far the best look and feel library for Java that I have ever used. Reason enough to blog about it and to share my thoughts.

Prologue

For the last 2 and a half years I have been working on my very own software project called “Collapp” for collaborative project planning. I have made it my mission to make it one of the most professional looking applications ever written for Java (this is probably the reason why I still haven’t been able to release it). To me this means that the application should look polished on all platforms and at the same time feel natively to the platform it runs on. On a MacIntosh it should look like a Mac application (e.g. iTunes, iWeb, iPhoto, …) with typical Mac features (unified toolbar, sourcelist, …). On Windows it should look like a Windows application with the frame containing the menubar, and so on. It should be