Can I use Java to make a program like this?

http://www.banglatyper.com/images/btimage.gif

This program was originally made using VB6. Now, I would like to make it web-based and I guess Java is the best way of doing this. The problem is that I am not sure if Java would be capable of doing something like this, since I want it done in such a way, that the end-user does not require the specific font to be available on their computer.

So, basically I am asking if it would be possible to make a virtual-keyboard based word processor, that has the fonts used kept on a server?

John

Yes, would be possible. Quite some work though.

Seems like you are looking to redevelop your application into an applet. You shoud have to store nothing on the server except the applet.class file. Java uses unicode as the underlying character set so the only thing you shoud have to do is set the locale of your application to the appropriate country or region to display your fonts in a different language other than the default.

Only, if the client doesn't have a font capable of displaying those characters (quite likely) then all Unicode in the world won't make the characters appear. This is why he needs some custom drawing routine that can load a font from the server and use it.