How to add an image to a JPanel?

Question

I have a JPanel to which I'd like to add JPEG and PNG images that I generate on the fly.

All the examples I've seen so far in the Swing Tutorials, specially in the Swing examples use ImageIcons.

I'm generating these images as byte arrays, and they are usually larger than the common icon they use in the examples, at 640x480.

1. Is there any (performance or other) problem in using the ImageIcon class to display an image that size in a JPanel?
2. What's the usual way of doing it?
3. How to add an image to a JPanel without using the ImageIcon class?

Edit: A more careful examination of the tutorials and the API shows that you cannot add an ImageIcon directly to a JPanel. Instead, they achieve the same effect by setting the image as an icon of a JLabel. This just doesn't feel right...

Answer 1

If you are using JPanels, then are probably working with Swing. Try this:

BufferedImage myPicture = ImageIO.read(new File("path-to-file"));
JLabel picLabel = new JLabel(new ImageIcon(myPicture));
add(picLabel);

The image is now a swing component. It becomes subject to layout conditions like any other component.