How do I paint an image as a background on a JPanel?

This question gets asked quite frequently in the Swing forum. There are different methods of doing this however this is the simplest and most common.

class BackgroundPanel extends JPanel { Image image; public BackgroundPanel() { try { image = javax.imageio.ImageIO.read(new java.net.URL(getClass().getResource("Test.gif"), "Test.gif")); } catch (Exception e) { /*handled in paintComponent()*/ } } @Override protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) { super.paintComponent(g); if (image != null) g.drawImage(image, 0,0,this.getWidth(),this.getHeight(),this); } }

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SwingFaq