Editing Standard Widget Toolkit (section)

=== Look and feel ===
[[File:Eclipse SWT Mac example.png|thumb|The same demo application on macOS]]
SWT widgets have the same ''[[look and feel]]'' as native widgets because they often are the same native widgets. This is in contrast to the Swing toolkit where all widgets are emulations of native widgets. In some cases the difference is distinguishable. For example, the [[macOS]] tree widget features a subtle animation when a tree is expanded and default buttons have an animated pulsing glow to focus the user's attention on them. The default Swing version of these widgets does not animate.

Since SWT is simply a wrapper around native GUI code, it does not require large numbers of updates when that native code is changed, providing that operating system vendors are careful not to break clients of their API when the operating systems are updated. The same cannot be said of Swing, which supports the ability to change the look and feel of the running application with "pluggable looks and feels". These enable emulating the native platform user interface using [[theme (computing)|theme]]s, which must be updated to mirror operating system GUI changes, such as theme or other look and feel updates.

SWT aims for "deep platform integration", the Eclipse reference to SWT's use of native widgets. According to Mauro Marinillia of developer.com, "whenever one needs a tight integration with the native platform, SWT can be a plus".<ref name="taleof2guis">{{cite web |title= Swing and SWT: A Tale of Two Java GUI Libraries |url= http://www.developer.com/java/other/article.php/2179061 |first= Mauro |last= Marinilli |access-date= 2006-11-07}}</ref> This deep integration can be useful in a number of ways, for example enabling SWT to wrap [[ActiveX]] objects on [[Microsoft Windows]].