The gifplot example does not work straight out of the box, I had to change ../Interface/gifplot.i slightly for java. a) The colors (e.g. BLACK) where defined as: #define BLACK 0 and the functions expect 'Pixel color' where Pixel is a unsigned char. #define constants contain no type information and are translated to integer constants. Because of that, you have to cast every Pixel to a byte in java. Changing the definition to: const Pixel BLACK = 0; fixes this. b) The definitions: const PixMap *SQUARE = &PixMap_SQUARE; const PixMap *TRIANGLE = &PixMap_TRIANGLE; const PixMap *CROSS = &PixMap_CROSS; don't work. The wrapper code expects actual variables SQUARE, etc. and they are not defined in gifplot.h. c) In shadow mode the method ColorMap::default() clashes with the reserved name default.