java - Inserting an image under a JTextArea

Question

so I'm trying to insert an image underneath a JTextArea, but I havent had much luck, could anyone please help? Basically what I'm asking is if anybody could help make another class or subclass that does this. Heres my code:

import java.awt.*;
import javax.swing.*;


public class t{
    private JFrame f; //Main frame
    private JTextArea t; // Text area   private JScrollPane sbrText; // Scroll pane for text area
    private JButton btnQuit; // Quit Program

    public t(){ //Constructor
        // Create Frame
        f = new JFrame("Test");         
        f.getContentPane().setLayout(new FlowLayout());         
        String essay = "Test"; 
        // Create Scrolling Text Area in Swing
        t = new JTextArea(essay, 25, 35);
        t.setEditable(false); 
        Font f = new Font("Verdana", Font.BOLD, 12 );
        t.setFont( f );         
        t.setLineWrap(true);        
        sbrText = new JScrollPane(t);
        sbrText.setVerticalScrollBarPolicy(JScrollPane.VERTICAL_SCROLLBAR_ALWAYS);
                // Create Quit Button
        btnQuit = new JButton("Quit");
        btnQuit.addActionListener(new ActionListener(){
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
                    System.exit(0);         
                }           }       );
    }


    public void launchFrame(){ // Create Layout
        // Add text area and button to frame 
       f.getContentPane().add(sbrText);
        f.getContentPane().add(btnQuit);
                 // Close when the close button is clicked
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        //Display Frame
        f.pack(); // Adjusts frame to size of components
        f.setSize(450,480);
        f.setResizable(false);
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
    }

    public static void main(String args[]){
        t gui = new t();     
        gui.launchFrame();
    } 

}

Answer 1

The basic issue is that JTextArea will paint it's background and it's text within the paintComponent.

The simplest solution is to make the JTextArea transparent and take over the control of painting the background.

This example basically fills the background with the background color, paints the image and then calls super.paintComponent to allow the text to be rendered.

import java.awt.BorderLayout;
import java.awt.EventQueue;
import java.awt.Graphics;
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JScrollPane;
import javax.swing.JTextArea;
import javax.swing.UIManager;
import javax.swing.UnsupportedLookAndFeelException;

public class TransparentTextArea {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new TransparentTextArea();
    }

    public TransparentTextArea() {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
                } catch (ClassNotFoundException | InstantiationException | IllegalAccessException | UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ex) {
                }

                JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");
                frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
                frame.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
                frame.add(new JScrollPane(new CustomTextArea()));
                frame.pack();
                frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
                frame.setVisible(true);
            }

        });
    }

    public class CustomTextArea extends JTextArea {

        private BufferedImage image;

        public CustomTextArea() {
            super(20, 20);
            try {
                image = ImageIO.read(new File("/Users/swhitehead/Dropbox/MegaTokyo/Miho_Small_02.png"));
            } catch (IOException ex) {
                ex.printStackTrace();
            }
        }

        @Override
        public boolean isOpaque() {
            return false;
        }

        @Override
        protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
            Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g.create();
            g2d.setColor(getBackground());
            g2d.fillRect(0, 0, getWidth(), getHeight());
            if (image != null) {
                int x = getWidth() - image.getWidth();
                int y = getHeight() - image.getHeight();
                g2d.drawImage(image, x, y, this);    
            }
            super.paintComponent(g2d);
            g2d.dispose();
        }

    }

}