[java] How to set a transparent background of JPanel?

Can JPanels background be set to transparent?

My frame is has two JPanels:

• Image Panel and
• Feature Panel.

Feature Panel is overlapping Image Panel. The Image Panel is working as a background and it loads image from a remote URL.

On Feature Panel I want to draw shapes. Now Image Panel cannot be seen due to Feature Panel's background color.

I need to make Feature Panel background transparent while still drawing its shapes and I want Image Panel to be visible (since it is doing tiling and cache function of images).

I'm using two JPanel's, because I need to seperate the image and shape drawing .

Is there a way the overlapping Jpanel have a transparent background?

To set transparent you can set opaque of panel to false like

   JPanel panel = new JPanel();
   panel.setOpaque(false);

But to make it transculent use alpha property of color attribute like

   JPanel panel = new JPanel();
   panel.setBackground(new Color(0,0,0,125));

where last parameter of Color is for alpha and alpha value ranges between 0 and 255 where 0 is full transparent and 255 is fully opaque

 public void paintComponent (Graphics g)
    { 
((Graphics2D) g).setComposite(AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER,0.0f)); // draw transparent background
     super.paintComponent(g);
    ((Graphics2D) g).setComposite(AlphaComposite.getInstance(AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER,1.0f)); // turn on opacity
    g.setColor(Color.RED);
    g.fillRect(20, 20, 500, 300);
     } 

I have tried to do it this way, but it is very flickery

In my particular case it was easier to do this:

 panel.setOpaque(true);
 panel.setBackground(new Color(0,0,0,0,)): // any color with alpha 0 (in this case the color is black

As Thrasgod correctly showed in his answer, the best way is to use the paintComponent, but also if the case is to have a semi transparent JPanel (or any other component, really) and have something not transparent inside. You have to also override the paintChildren method and set the alfa value to 1. In my case I extended the JPanel like that:

public class TransparentJPanel extends JPanel {

private float panelAlfa;
private float childrenAlfa;

public TransparentJPanel(float panelAlfa, float childrenAlfa) {
    this.panelAlfa = panelAlfa;
    this.childrenAlfa = childrenAlfa;
}

@Override
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
    Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
    g2d.setColor(getBackground());
    g2d.setRenderingHint(
            RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
            RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
    g2d.setComposite(AlphaComposite.getInstance(
            AlphaComposite.SRC_OVER, panelAlfa));
    super.paintComponent(g2d);

}

@Override
protected void paintChildren(Graphics g) {
    Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g;
    g2d.setColor(getBackground());
    g2d.setRenderingHint(
            RenderingHints.KEY_ANTIALIASING,
            RenderingHints.VALUE_ANTIALIAS_ON);
    g2d.setComposite(AlphaComposite.getInstance(
            AlphaComposite.SRC_ATOP, childrenAlfa));
  
    super.paintChildren(g); 
}
 //getter and setter
}

And in my project I only need to instantiate Jpanel jp = new TransparentJPanel(0.3f, 1.0f);, if I want only the Jpanel transparent. You could, also, mess with the JPanel shape using g2d.fillRoundRect and g2d.drawRoundRect, but it's not in the scope of this question.

(Feature Panel).setOpaque(false);

Hope this helps.

Calling setOpaque(false) on the upper JPanel should work.

From your comment, it sounds like Swing painting may be broken somewhere -

First - you probably wanted to override paintComponent() rather than paint() in whatever component you have paint() overridden in.

Second - when you do override paintComponent(), you'll first want to call super.paintComponent() first to do all the default Swing painting stuff (of which honoring setOpaque() is one).

Example -

import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Graphics;

import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;


public class TwoPanels {
    public static void main(String[] args) {

        JPanel p = new JPanel();
        // setting layout to null so we can make panels overlap
        p.setLayout(null);

        CirclePanel topPanel = new CirclePanel();
        // drawing should be in blue
        topPanel.setForeground(Color.blue);
        // background should be black, except it's not opaque, so 
        // background will not be drawn
        topPanel.setBackground(Color.black);
        // set opaque to false - background not drawn
        topPanel.setOpaque(false);
        topPanel.setBounds(50, 50, 100, 100);
        // add topPanel - components paint in order added, 
        // so add topPanel first
        p.add(topPanel);

        CirclePanel bottomPanel = new CirclePanel();
        // drawing in green
        bottomPanel.setForeground(Color.green);
        // background in cyan
        bottomPanel.setBackground(Color.cyan);
        // and it will show this time, because opaque is true
        bottomPanel.setOpaque(true);
        bottomPanel.setBounds(30, 30, 100, 100);
        // add bottomPanel last...
        p.add(bottomPanel);

        // frame handling code...
        JFrame f = new JFrame("Two Panels");
        f.setContentPane(p);
        f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
        f.setSize(300, 300);
        f.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
        f.setVisible(true);
    }

    // Panel with a circle drawn on it.
    private static class CirclePanel extends JPanel {

        // This is Swing, so override paint*Component* - not paint
        protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
            // call super.paintComponent to get default Swing 
            // painting behavior (opaque honored, etc.)
            super.paintComponent(g);
            int x = 10;
            int y = 10;
            int width = getWidth() - 20;
            int height = getHeight() - 20;
            g.drawArc(x, y, width, height, 0, 360);
        }
    }
}