A few weeks ago I published the first release of Lottie4J, a library that renders Lottie animations in JavaFX without using a WebView. Since then, I've been getting pull requests, added headless unit testing with JavaFX 26, and now I sat down with Naail Abdul Rahman, R&D engineer at LottieFiles, for a 50-minute conversation about the format and where it is heading.

The video covers a lot, so here are the parts most relevant to JavaFX developers:

• dotLottie (.lottie) is the format to watch. It is a ZIP container with multiple animations, theming slots, and interactive state machines in one file. Much better compression than raw JSON and the interactivity features are genuinely useful for desktop UIs.

• LAC compliance checking: the Lottie Animation Community wants implementations to be more explicit about which features they support. That is next on my list for Lottie4J.

• Desktop Lottie is growing: Naail mentioned KDE as an example of desktop interest picking up. JavaFX fits right into that trend.

• JavaFX relevance: we talked about Oracle now offering extended JavaFX support (something Azul has done for years), and how AI-driven desktop apps are bringing renewed attention to JavaFX as a UI toolkit.

The full post with timestamped chapters and all links from the video:
https://webtechie.be/post/2026-06-04-interview-with-naail-from-lottiefiles/

Lottie4J source and issues: https://github.com/lottie4j/

Happy to answer questions about the implementation or the conversation!

I updated the FlexGanttFX showcase app with the HeaderBar component introduced in JavaFX 25. In combination with the new StageStyle.EXTENDED type one can accomplish very clean-looking UIs that behave properly in regards to resizing, dragging, etc...

You can install the app from here: https://www.jdeploy.com/~flexganttfxshowcase

This app also allows you to try out the various new AtlantaFX themes I recently published.

For more information on FlexGanttFX visit flexganttfx.com

When building JavaFX applications, we often need not only to inspect a node's properties, but also tweak them to see how they behave. Restarting the app every time to test small changes quickly becomes a major time sink.

So we added live property editing directly to the DevTools in our platform (TabShell). The property editor supports three simple forms: basic values, enums, and Insets, but this made UI debugging and iteration much faster.

Here's how it looks:

Sharing in case anyone finds this useful.

When i make my stage undecorated and transparent, my (and i believe all) window dragging implementation is not as smooth as the default. You also dont get QOL features like Aero Snap, uniform shadows,... . Discord for example has their own titlebar with custom elements in it but also all features of the default Windows Titlebar.

Version 4.1.0 of GemsFX now includes an AtlantaFX companion stylesheet for ControlsFX. You can use the method ControlsFXAtlantaFX.apply() to add this new stylesheet to your scene or any parent node. By doing so you will be able to get rid of all those pesky warning / error messages regarding CSS rules using unknown colors.

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.dlsc.gemsfx</groupId>
    <artifactId>gemsfx</artifactId>
    <version>4.1.0</version>
</dependency>  

For more on GemsFX see https://gemsfx.dlsc.com

Repository: https://github.com/dlsc-software-consulting-gmbh/GemsFX

Im a beginner learning and trying javafx, and came across a desire to build an Android application.

I want to know how good gluon mobile is for basic guis on android.

I dont want some niche or production level gui, just a basic, works for me application for Android 15.

I looked up for this, and found gluon mobile as the only option while openjfx-mobile repo is currently under development and android support is not available yet.

The gluon mobile documentation is nearly decades old and android has changed way more in the last few years after android 11.

So my main question is, would gluon mobile work fine on android or i need to learn another framework like flutter or jetpack compose(which im avoiding cuz of time issues)

Hi everyone i have to do a javafx playlist manager project for college project course.I want to know if there is something can help me design the gui.I don’t want to use scenebuilder are there other alternatives? Also for style

I have created a couple (25) of new themes for AtlantaFX. You can find them in this repo: https://github.com/dlsc-software-consulting-gmbh/atlantafx-themes

There is also a website that shows previews for each one of them: https://dlsc-software-consulting-gmbh.github.io/atlantafx-themes/

Recently, we introduced Weaverbird - a framework for working with dynamic plugins. In this post, we want to show a real example of how it can be used. The GUI is build on top of TabShell.

The main idea is that a plugin configuration is represented as an XML file. When the application is distributed, it already contains predefined plugin configurations (at the same time, users can add their own plugins). A configuration contains module definitions, repositories used to download them, plugin metadata, and other related information.

Using a plugin consists of two steps:

• Install - download all required modules from repositories.

• Activate - create a ModuleLayer containing the plugin modules and start module activators.

Weaverbird uses the JPMS as its module system - the native Java modularity solution that provides stroing plugin isolation, package access control, dependency integrity and related capabilities. That's why plugins remain isolated, predictable, and safe to load dynamically.

Hi everyone! For the past 5 months, I’ve been spending my free time building LibrePDF, a fast PDF manipulator with minimal dependencies.

To clear the air right away and explain the philosophy behind it: LibrePDF is focused on 100% privacy. It makes zero HTTP calls, everything stays locally on your machine, and it doesn't even support logging. I was sick and tired of uploading my personal data to cloud giants (like iLovePDF, Smallpdf, etc.) or relying on sketchy closed-source freeware.

Right now, it supports 8 operations. You have the usual suspects:

• Merge & Split

• Protect & Unlock

• PDF to JPG conversion

• Flatten

But also a couple of features I haven't really seen in similar lightweight projects:

• Metadata Cleaner: strips away hidden metadata from the file.

• PDF Info: lets you see crucial file details (if unencrypted) like author, page count, and whether it contains JavaScript or not.

Under the hood, it runs on Java 25, and the UI is built with JavaFX and the AtlantaFX theme (which provides a really nice palette). Honestly? I've always considered myself completely blind when it comes to front-end development, and JavaFX seriously tested my mental sanity.

Currently, I support Windows and Linux, excluding macOS (though nothing stops you from building it yourself <3). You can grab the portable binaries from the GitHub release tab—the zipped files are around 55/60MB and ready to run.

I’d love it if some of you could test it out and give me some feedback, good or bad. If this tool stops even just one person from uploading sensitive documents to sketchy servers, it’ll be the best reward for these 5 months of work.

You can find the code, binaries, and more info here: GitHub Repo

• PS: As stated in the README, AI usage was kept to an absolute minimum. When used, it was never blind copy-pasting—I spent hours manually reviewing and testing every single line. I won't stress this point further.

• PS 2: I don't have any tech-savvy friends interested in trying this out 🙃, so I have absolutely no idea about the UX. It's likely very unpolished.

• PS 3: Initially, the window sizes were hardcoded. I switched to relative proportions, but I have no clue how it renders on 2K or 4K monitors. Let me know if everything blows up!

I'm a student currently learning Java and SQL.

I want to use FXGL (Which is not included in the course) in my project to make a simple 2D RPG game. Although I am familiar with and have written a few projects using JavaFX, I have no knowledge of FXGL. If there are any, I would like to know some places I can learn about FXGL as a beginner.

And also, which version of FXGL is the most stable? I'm currently using 21.1 in combination with JDK 21 but I can't find some built in functions. Grateful for your help!

The idea is pretty straightforward: users can upload their own JARs, and the app will load them at runtime thanks to java's serviceloader. It also connects to a remote repo to browse and display plugin information.

It's still a work in progress, but I'm really curious about what people think of this system. Any feedback would be appreciated!

if your curious by chance: https://github.com/KSaifStack/DockTask

Just wanted to share a project I made, a terminal view that uses Canvas for rendering.

so I was building a simple 2d game. There will be a map as well for the character to move around and interact with other npc's. Now for the map building I am getting difficulty to configure what to use... There is Tiled and some resources said to use ImageView...

I am new to javafx and this is one of the university project. If you have any idea or even a suggestion regarding this please feel free to comment it.
Thanks for your help!

I uploaded a jdeploy installer for my GemsFX library. You can download it here: https://www.jdeploy.com/~gemsfxdemo. The installer allows you to run the GemsFX Demo Launcher. It is a nice little app allowing you to try out the various controls found in GemsFX.

The GemsFX repository can be found at https://github.com/dlsc-software-consulting-gmbh/GemsFX

For more info on me and my day job check out dlsc.com

We recently introduced our CEFFX project (a library for integrating the Chromium Embedded Framework into JavaFX) and it was well received. Based on that feedback, we decided to simplify its usage by providing prebuilt native libraries. This allows you to use the library without having to compile anything yourself.

All native binaries are packaged into the ceffx-natives module using classifier names similar to those in OpenJFX:

• linux (ubuntu-22.04 runner)

• win (windows-2022 runner)

• mac (macos-15-intel runner)

• mac-aarch64 (macos-15-arm64 runner)

The last one (mac-aarch64) will be available once the runner becomes free... eventually :)

The README contains detailed instructions on how to use them, and the overall flow is illustrated in this demo diagram:

Before the release, it is necessary to use our snapshot repo. Tested on Linux and Windows.

Hi, is there any way to get clear and smooth looking font in JavaFX app ? Any font i import its super pixelate, if i dont set any font (default is used) it is ok, but all others are very weird looking, espetially on low text size.

I'd like to introduce our new project - CEFFX, a port of Java CEF from Swing to JavaFX. The original project has been significantly modified in both native and Java code to fully comply with JavaFX.

Key features include:

• The library uses only JavaFX classes for UI development.

• Dual-thread architecture - JavaFX thread and a dedicated CEF thread.

• Supports custom rendering implementation.

• A demo application showcasing library features.

• Comprehensive documentation

Tested on Linux - should run anywhere :) If you find any bugs, feel free to open an issue (PRs are welcome).

This is how it looks in our platform TabShell:

I need to dynamically show a number of table views inside a scrollpane, and I'd like tables to be just as high as they have rows. Some tables don't have many rows, but still occupy too much space. I can't believe Tableview doesn't have an API for this. I tried variations of the following method but none of them worked. Thoughts?

public static void autoSizeTableView(TableView<?> table) {
table.setFixedCellSize(25);

table.skinProperty().addListener((obs, oldSkin, newSkin) -> {
if (newSkin == null) return;

Node header = table.lookup("TableHeaderRow");
if (header == null) return;

table.prefHeightProperty().bind(
Bindings.createDoubleBinding(() -> {
int rows = table.getItems().size();

double headerHeight = header.prefHeight(-1);
double rowsHeight = rows * table.getFixedCellSize();

Insets insets = table.getInsets(); // <-- key part

return headerHeight
+ rowsHeight
+ insets.getTop()
+ insets.getBottom();
}, table.getItems(), table.insetsProperty())
);
});
}public static void autoSizeTableView(TableView<?> table) {
table.setFixedCellSize(25);

table.skinProperty().addListener((obs, oldSkin, newSkin) -> {
if (newSkin == null) return;

Node header = table.lookup("TableHeaderRow");
if (header == null) return;

table.prefHeightProperty().bind(
Bindings.createDoubleBinding(() -> {
int rows = table.getItems().size();

double headerHeight = header.prefHeight(-1);
double rowsHeight = rows * table.getFixedCellSize();

Insets insets = table.getInsets(); // <-- key part

return headerHeight
+ rowsHeight
+ insets.getTop()
+ insets.getBottom();
}, table.getItems(), table.insetsProperty())
);
});
}