the graphicimage tag supplies a URL that serves up the image. That URL can be mapped to a servlet that creates an image or locates it somewhere and transmits it via its output stream. The servlet would be a normal servlet configured in the normal way for J2EE and would be totally unaware of JSF.
Sometimes the only way things ever got fixed is because people became uncomfortable.
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Building a Better World in your Backyard by Paul Wheaton and Shawn Klassen-Koop