Because of possible rounding errors it is recommended you ask for the baseline with two consecutive heights and use the return value to determine if you need to pad calculations by 1. The following shows how to calculate the baseline for any height:

   Dimension preferredSize = component.getPreferredSize();
   int baseline = getBaseline(preferredSize.width,
                              preferredSize.height);
   int nextBaseline = getBaseline(preferredSize.width,
                                  preferredSize.height + 1);
   // Amount to add to height when calculating where baseline
   // lands for a particular height:
   int padding = 0;
   // Where the baseline is relative to the mid point
   int baselineOffset = baseline - height / 2;
   if (preferredSize.height % 2 == 0 &&
       baseline != nextBaseline) {
       padding = 1;
   }
   else if (preferredSize.height % 2 == 1 &&
            baseline == nextBaseline) {
       baselineOffset--;
       padding = 1;
   }
   // The following calculates where the baseline lands for
   // the height z:
   int calculatedBaseline = (z + padding) / 2 + baselineOffset;