Background image in a JFrame

Question

This question has been asked a lot but everywhere the answers fall short. I can get a JFrame to display a background image just fine by extending JPanel and overriding paint

Answer 1

When using null layout (and you almost never should) you have to supply a bounds for every component, otherwise it defaults to (0 x,0 y,0 width,0 height) and the component won't display.

BackgroundPanel bg = new BackgroundPanel();
cp.add(bg);

isn't supplying a bounds. You'll need to do something like:

BackgroundPanel bg = new BackgroundPanel();
bg.setBounds(100, 100, 100, 100);
cp.add(bg);

Which would make bg size 100 x 100 and place it at 100 x, 100 y on the frame.