Convert Image to BufferedImage in Java

In this tutorial, we'll see the easiest way to convert the image type to BufferedImage. The cast (BufferedImage) image;   doesn't work, but it is possible to create a new BufferedImage object with the parameters:
  • Length: img.getWidth()
  • Height: image.getHeight()
  • Pixels and colors:  BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB.
The conversion is very simple since the BufferedImage  inherits from the super Image class.

public static BufferedImage toBufferedImage(Image img)
{
 //if the image is of type BufferedImage 
 //then we only cast
 //because the image passed is of type BufferedImage
 if (img instanceof BufferedImage)
 {
 return (BufferedImage) img; 
 }

 // Create a BufferedImage
 BufferedImage bufimage = new BufferedImage(img.getWidth(null),
 img.getHeight(null), BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB); 

 return bufimage; 
}
TYPE_INT_ARGB represents an image with 8-bit RGB (RGB) type  and supports the alpha rendering and transparency parameter  of the class  alphaComposite.

References:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/221830/set-bufferedimage-alpha-mask-in-java