Difference between the Image and BufferedImage in Java

Question

What is the difference between Image and BufferedImage?

Can I create a BufferedImage directly from an Image source \"image.png\"?

Answer 1

Image is an abstract class. You can't instantiate Image directly. BufferedImage is a descendant, and you can instantiate that one. So, if you understand abstract classes and inheritance, you'll understand when to use each.

For example, if you were using more than one Image descendant, they're going to share some common properties, which are inherited from Image.

If you wanted to write a function that would take either kind of descendant as a parameter you could do something like this:

function myFunction(Image myImage) {
  int i = myImage.getHeight();
  ...
}

You could then call the function by passing it a BufferedImage or a VolatileImage.

BufferedImage myBufferedImage;
VolatileImage myVolatileImage;
...
myFunction(myVolatileImage);
myFunction(myBufferedImage);

You won't convert an Image to a BufferedImage because you'll never have an Image.