Pasting Image from Mac clipboard to Java Based Application.

Question

Hi,
I am working on "iMac 10.2.7". I need to paste an image from other
application using "Java version 1.4.1". I am trying to retrieve the image
from the system clipboard after it is copied from some other application. I
am pasting the code which illustrates my requirement. It works fine on
windows. But does not work on Mac.
On Mac it does not cross the supported data flavor check
(clipData.isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor.imageFlavor) where clipData is
the Transferable object). It seems Mac has some InputStream instead of Image
in the clipboard when some image is copied. I tried to read that InputStream
using ImageIO.read(java.io.InputStream). But that is also returning null.
Thanks
Santanu
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.datatransfer.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class ClipboardTest extends JFrame implements KeyListener{
     JLabel label;
     static Toolkit kit = null;
     static Clipboard clipboard = null;
     public static void main (String arg[]) {
          kit = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit();
          clipboard = kit.getSystemClipboard();
          JLabel l = new JLabel();
          JButton button = new JButton("Paste from clipboard");
          final ClipboardTest ct = new ClipboardTest(l);
          ct.getContentPane().add(l,BorderLayout.CENTER);
          ct.getContentPane().add(button,BorderLayout.SOUTH);
          ct.setVisible(true);
     button.addActionListener(
          new ActionListener() {
               public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
                    pasteImage(ct.label);
     button.addKeyListener(ct);
     public ClipboardTest (JLabel l) {
          label = l;
     public static void pasteImage(JComponent jComp) {
               jComp.setTransferHandler(new ImageSelection());
               TransferHandler handler = jComp.getTransferHandler();
               Transferable clipData = clipboard.getContents(null);
          if (clipData != null) {
          if (clipData.isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor.imageFlavor)) {
               handler.importData(jComp, clipData);
     //Key listener methods
     public void keyPressed(KeyEvent e) {
     int c = e.getKeyCode();
     if (c == 86) {
          if (e.isControlDown()) {
               pasteImage(label);
     public void keyReleased(KeyEvent e) {}
     public void keyTyped(KeyEvent e) {}
class ImageSelection extends TransferHandler implements Transferable {
     /* DataFlavor instance that holds imageflavor value*/
     private static final DataFlavor flavors[] = {DataFlavor.imageFlavor};
     private Image image;
     public boolean importData(JComponent comp, Transferable transferable) {
     try {
     if (transferable.isDataFlavorSupported(flavors[0])) {
     image = (Image)transferable.getTransferData(flavors[0]);
               if (comp instanceof JLabel) {
               ((JLabel)comp).setIcon(new ImageIcon(image));
               comp.repaint();
               return true;
     } catch (Exception ignored) {
          ignored.printStackTrace();
     return false;
     // Transferable Interface methods
     public Object getTransferData(DataFlavor flavor) {
     if (isDataFlavorSupported(flavor)) {
     return image;
     return null;
     public DataFlavor[] getTransferDataFlavors() {
     return flavors;
     public boolean isDataFlavorSupported(DataFlavor flavor) {
     return flavor.equals(flavors[0]);

Answer 1

Here are two commercial options:
JTwain + JSane
http://asprise.com/product/jtwain/index.php
Morena
http://www.gnome.sk/Twain/jtp.html
Haven't tested them, so don't no how good they are, nor how easy they are to use on multiple platforms.