How to load an image from a URL in java

Assuming you want to load the image from the URL into memory in order to display or manipulate it:

try {
    URL imageUrl = new URL("http//example/image.jpg");
    InputStream in = imageUrl.openStream();
    BufferedImage image = ImageIO.read(in);
    in.close();
}
catch (IOException ioe) {
    //log the error
}

Loading an image from a URL is as simple as that.  Now you’ve got a BufferedImage.

It can be even simpler, and if all you are doing is cropping or resizing the image, you may be interested in a little java image utility I wrote.  Using my ImageLoader and Image classes, the code would look like:

try {
    Image image = ImageLoader.fromUrl("http//example/image.jpg");
}
catch (IOException ioe) {
    //log the error
}

The Image class is a wrapper on a BufferedImage and provides some useful methods for cropping, resizing, and writing (saving) the image.  Let me know in the comments below if you’ve found this helpful.