Kushal’s Java Blog

Java – How To Overlay One Image Over Another Using Graphics2D [Tutorial]

Kushal Paudyal November 20th, 2009.This post has 152 views

Image overlay is a process of laying one image over another one.You can use Java Graphics2d and easily place one image over another one.In the following tutorial, I am demonstrating how easily this can be achieved.

Here is what we will do:

Read the foreground image from file.
Read the background image from file.
Call the overlayImages method to place foreground image over the background image.
Write the overlayed image back to file.

Overlaying logic is simple.

First you will create a Graphics2D Object from the background image (BufferedImage)
In an optional step, you will set the anti aliasing render to the graphics so that you output image quality does not look bad.
Then you will write the background image on the graphics starting from co-ordinate (0,0).
Finally you will write the foreground image on the same graphics starting from co-ordinate (0,0). You can alter the co-ordinates to change the location of the overlapped image.

I am also doing some preliminary validations. In the following tutorial I am checking

If the height of the foreground image is greater than the background image and
If the width of the foreground image is greater than the background image

If one of the conditions is satisfied, I am prompting the user to enter an image of smaller dimension.

Although not a necessary step, this will insure that the overlapped forgeround image lies within the background image.

Source Code:

package com.kushal.graphics;
/**
 * @Author Kushal Paudyal
 * www.sanjaal.com/java
 * Last Modified On: 2009-11-20
 *
 * ImageOverLay.java
 *
 * Overlays one image over another image.
 */
import java.awt.Graphics2D;
import java.awt.RenderingHints;
import java.awt.image.BufferedImage;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;

import javax.imageio.ImageIO;
import javax.swing.JOptionPane;

public class ImageOverlay {

	public static void main(String args[]) {

		/**
		 * Read a background image
		 */
		BufferedImage bgImage = readImage("C:/temp/myBGImage.jpg");

		/**
		 * Read a foreground image
		 */
		BufferedImage fgImage = readImage("C:/temp/myFGImage.jpg");

		/**
		 * Do the overlay of foreground image on background image
		 */
		BufferedImage overlayedImage = overlayImages(bgImage, fgImage);

		/**
		 * Write the overlayed image back to file
		 */
		if (overlayedImage != null){
			writeImage(overlayedImage, "C:/temp/overLayedImage.jpg", "JPG");
			System.out.println("Overlay Completed...");
		}else
			System.out.println("Problem With Overlay...");

	}

	/**
	 * Method to overlay Images
	 *
	 * @param bgImage --> The background Image
	 * @param fgImage --> The foreground Image
	 * @return --> overlayed image (fgImage over bgImage)
	 */
	public static BufferedImage overlayImages(BufferedImage bgImage,
			BufferedImage fgImage) {

		/**
		 * Doing some preliminary validations.
		 * Foreground image height cannot be greater than background image height.
		 * Foreground image width cannot be greater than background image width.
		 *
		 * returning a null value if such condition exists.
		 */
		if (fgImage.getHeight() > bgImage.getHeight()
				|| fgImage.getWidth() > fgImage.getWidth()) {
			JOptionPane.showMessageDialog(null,
					"Foreground Image Is Bigger In One or Both Dimensions"
							+ "\nCannot proceed with overlay."
							+ "\n\n Please use smaller Image for foreground");
			return null;
		}

		/**Create a Graphics  from the background image**/
		Graphics2D g = bgImage.createGraphics();
		/**Set Antialias Rendering**/
		g.setRenderingHint(RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
				RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
		/**
		 * Draw background image at location (0,0)
		 * You can change the (x,y) value as required
		 */
		g.drawImage(bgImage, 0, 0, null);

		/**
		 * Draw foreground image at location (0,0)
		 * Change (x,y) value as required.
		 */
		g.drawImage(fgImage, 0, 0, null);

		g.dispose();
		return bgImage;
	}

	/**
	 * This method reads an image from the file
	 * @param fileLocation -- > eg. "C:/testImage.jpg"
	 * @return BufferedImage of the file read
	 */
	public static BufferedImage readImage(String fileLocation) {
		BufferedImage img = null;
		try {
			img = ImageIO.read(new File(fileLocation));
		} catch (IOException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
		return img;
	}

	/**
	 * This method writes a buffered image to a file
	 * @param img -- > BufferedImage
	 * @param fileLocation --> e.g. "C:/testImage.jpg"
	 * @param extension --> e.g. "jpg","gif","png"
	 */
	public static void writeImage(BufferedImage img, String fileLocation,
			String extension) {
		try {
			BufferedImage bi = img;
			File outputfile = new File(fileLocation);
			ImageIO.write(bi, extension, outputfile);
		} catch (IOException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}
	/*
	 * SANJAAL CORPS MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF
	 * THE SOFTWARE, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED
	 * TO THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A
	 * PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. SANJAAL CORPS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR
	 * ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY LICENSEE AS A RESULT OF USING, MODIFYING OR
	 * DISTRIBUTING THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS DERIVATIVES.
	 *
	 * THIS SOFTWARE IS NOT DESIGNED OR INTENDED FOR USE OR RESALE AS ON-LINE
	 * CONTROL EQUIPMENT IN HAZARDOUS ENVIRONMENTS REQUIRING FAIL-SAFE
	 * PERFORMANCE, SUCH AS IN THE OPERATION OF NUCLEAR FACILITIES, AIRCRAFT
	 * NAVIGATION OR COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL, DIRECT LIFE
	 * SUPPORT MACHINES, OR WEAPONS SYSTEMS, IN WHICH THE FAILURE OF THE
	 * SOFTWARE COULD LEAD DIRECTLY TO DEATH, PERSONAL INJURY, OR SEVERE
	 * PHYSICAL OR ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE ("HIGH RISK ACTIVITIES"). SANJAAL CORPS
	 * SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR
	 * HIGH RISK ACTIVITIES.
	 */
}

Here are the images:

[Background Image]