How to save graphics into file?

Question

I've written application "Drawing Pad" - simple draw line, scribble, etc. I need to save into file graphics from the pad. How to do it, please help!!!
I've tried the following:
File outputFile=new File("mylife.txt"); // declare a file output object
FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(outputFile);
     try
          DrawPad fileData = pad;
          out.write(fileData);
          out.close();
     catch (Exception e)
          System.err.println ("Error writing to file");
     }It doesn't work. Do I need to convert data into string? Or what else to do?

Answer 1

...what exactly are you trying to do? If you want to save the image your pad shows, it's pretty easy:
1. Create a BufferedImage with the same size as your pas
2. Call pad.paint(image.getGraphics()); to put the pad's content into the image
3. Use ImageIO.write(...) to store your image in a jpg/png file.
If, on the other hand, you are trying to store your pad object in a byte stream (which is generally not a good idea for long time persistence), you will have to use ObjectOutputStream as mentioned above and have your DrawPad class implement java.io.Serializable. Check out the tutorials on this issue, but i really doubt this is what you are trying to do.