Creating images with transparent backgrounds

Hello all,
     I've got a swing app drawing program where you have multiple layers, with each layer containing many components that can be moved and resized. So, in the most simple form, I have a JComponent which has a list of images to be drawn. If I setOpaque to false, the background (and other layers) can be seen through the empty spaces of this component, as expected.
     The problem was that once the number of components grew above 300, performance started suffering. So I decided to optimize it. Instead of redrawing all of the components each time I need to paint, I 'cache' that layer by drawing all of the components in a layer onto an Image's graphic. Then I do a 'graphics.drawImage(cachedImage);' in my main JComponent's paint method.
     Very fast, but now I can't see the background (and other layers) beneath the topmost one.
     So now the question. Is there a way to preserve the 'setOpaque(false)' call when painting to the image. To be more specific, I want an image that is transparent except for graphics that I've drawn into it. I've even tried first filling the image with a 'new Color(255,255,255,0)', but I'm still getting an opaque image.
thanks for any help,
Steven
A Dynamic character with an ability to survive certain death, and a questionable death scene leaving no corpse? Face it, we'll never see her again... - Riff from Sluggy Freelance

Using a TYPE_INT_ARGB BufferedImage worked beautifully. I had played around with Image for hours, but it never occurred to me that BufferedImage would be needed. :)
many, many thanks,
Steven

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i'm trying to find a way to frame images with transparent background png frames...
what i'm doing now is
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Have you looked into the Border interface? If what you really want to do
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import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.net.*;
import javax.imageio.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Example extends JComponent {
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        this.foregroundImage = foregroundImage;
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Sorry if this question has already been asked, but I couldn't find anything similar to it in a search through the archives.
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http://indesignsecrets.com/eliminating-ydb-yucky-discolored-box-syndrome.php
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I totally forgot to put that in my post. Yes, I am putting logos with transparent backgrounds in front of colored rectangles. That's how I noticed that this one logo is showing up with a white background. The weird thing is that the other two logos are fine. I did find a different version of this logo and this one works fine. The one that works fine is a JPG and the one that shows up with a white background is a JPG.

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unclebump gets 5 stars for referring you to a document that I wrote.
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Hello all! I've searched for this topic in previous threads, but was unsuccessful. Therefore I'll ask the question again:
If I create a Photoshop image with a transparent background, why does it import into iWeb with a WHITE background? Is there a setting in iWeb where I can drag and drop images and not have a white background on the image? Thanks so much in advance!

Captain Maniac wrote:
Hello all! I've searched for this topic in previous threads, but was unsuccessful. Therefore I'll ask the question again:
If I create a Photoshop image with a transparent background, why does it import into iWeb with a WHITE background? Is there a setting in iWeb where I can drag and drop images and not have a white background on the image? Thanks so much in advance!
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Creating images with transparent backgrounds

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