Question about loading and using Images.

Question

I know how to load an image and to draw it onto a canvas etc etc. However my question is to do with the efficiency of loading multiple images (possibly the same image!) and using them together. I have multiple objects, all instances of the same class, which all draw themselves onto a screen in different positions. However they all use the same 3 images (depending on an internal state).
So if I create 5 of these objects and each object calls to load the same image using something along the lines of:
url = this.getClass().getResource("MyImage.png");
normalImage = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(url);Does this mean that in the memory there are 5 exactly the same copies of this image? Or does java do something clever and use one image that they would all reference? I suspect I will have 5 in memory but I wanted to ask about this before going and making an imageManager class where I load all the images and just use getMethods in that when drawing. I will not be preforming any transforms or anything on any of the images so they can all literally be the same image but simply drawn in multiple positions on the one canvas.
(note: I am using active rendering to draw these images myself and then blit it to the screen ...).

Answer 1

Use ImageIO rather than Toolkit--with Toolkit you need to use a MediaTracker to ensure you have your image loaded before you try to use it.
If you load an image and then do this:
MyImage1 = MyImage;
MyImage2 = MyImage;
MyImage3 = MyImage;
There are 4 references to the Image in MyImage. If you don't specifically use a method that gives you a new Image, usually, you are getting a refrence to an image already loaded in memory.