Possible to change default color of empty Image?
I've started working on a program with heavy graphics use, a custom variable width font, and palette swapping. Because the latter two are fairly resource-intensive, and the program will have these (sometimes recolored) messages coming in regularly, I'm caching these messages by using Image.getImage(int w, int h) and drawing to its getGraphics(). The image is generated and the program can quickly draw it whenever needed.
The problem is, Image.getImage(int w, int h) defaults to a white background. I need to have a transparent background. I can easily swap the white pixels with transparent pixels, but this requires pulling out the rgb data, looping through each pixel and swapping opaque white with fully transparent when necessary, then creating a new image. It's really a waste of processor/memory. (and after experiences with a previous project, I want to minimize memory being used in short periods of time.)
Is there any way to have blank images created with a transparent background?
