Double-Buffering (Java Foundation Classes)

3.13. Double-Buffering

Double-buffering is the process of drawing graphics into an off-screen image buffer and then copying the contents of the buffer to the screen all at once. For complex graphics, using double-buffering can reduce flickering. Swing automatically supports double-buffering for all of its components. To enable it, simply call the setDoubleBuffered() method (inherited from JComponent) to set the doubleBuffered property to true for any components that should use double-buffered drawing.

Remember that double-buffering is memory intensive. Its use is typically only justified for components that are repainted very frequently or have particularly complex graphics to display. Note, however, that if a container uses double-buffering, any double-buffered children it has share the off-screen buffer of the container, so the required off-screen buffer is never larger than the on-screen size of the application.