Is it possible to set different look and feel for different panels within a same frame?

Question

Say, I have 3 panels added to a frame and for the 1st panel i want to set the metal look and feel, for the 2nd panel I want windows look and feel, for the third panel it should be default swing style.

is it possible?

Answer 1

No, it's not possible.

Answer 2

The javax.swing.UIManager class, where the look and feel is set, is a singleton. Only one can be set at any one time.

However, you can (if you're so inclined) override UI delegates on individual components (see JComponent.setUI()). Using this method you could probably hack together some components that use UI delegates of alternate look and feels. But in most cases they'll look up the UIDefaults set by the "real" look and feel, so at best it's probably going to be a poor approximation.