Thread: Background image on GUI

Hello all, i've just started java and i'm really not good at it, i've read about JPanel JFrame and the different layouts I can use and I still can't get my head round to setting an image as background with two simple buttons on top, I've tried every single combination I could think and have googled for ages, nothing seems to work... here is my code:

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
 
class Intro implements Runnable
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
Intro program = new Intro();
SwingUtilities.invokeLater(program);
}
public void run()
{
JFrame inicio = new JFrame("Videogame");
inicio.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
JPanel bt = new JPanel();
ImageIcon image = new ImageIcon("image.jpg");
bt.add(new JButton("START"));
bt.add(new JButton("QUIT"));
inicio.add(new JLabel(image));
inicio.add(bt, BorderLayout.SOUTH);
inicio.setDefaultCloseOperation(inicio.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
inicio.setSize(800,600);
inicio.setLocationByPlatform(true);
inicio.setVisible(true);
}
}

any ideas? what happens is that the BorderLayout.SOUTH makes a huge white space next to the buttons and "over-rides" the image... is there a simpler way to do this or is there a way to make the SOUTH border translucent or similar?

Thanks!

There are a few ways you can do this.

One way is to use an OverlayLayout: 1) create a JPanel and set its layout to OverlayLayout 2) add the ImageIcon to another newly created JPanel and add this to the panel created in step 1 3) create another JPanel and add your buttons there, add this JPanel to the JPanel created in step 1 4) add the JPanel created in step 1 to the JFrame.

Another way is to override the paintComponent method of the JPanel, load the image as an Image object, and then draw the image at the position you wish.

Both ways may require a bit of fiddling to position your buttons in the correct position.

For future reference, using the code tags to place your code into a post make your code a lot more readable for those of us trying to diagnose the problem.