Setting the background color of JFrame isn't working

Question

I've spent a fair bit of time researching how to change the background color of JFrame, but haven't managed to make anything work. My code in its current state looks like this:

final ImageIcon cardIcon = new ImageIcon("cardImages/aceSpades.gif");

JPanel panel = new JPanel()
    {

        public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
            super.paintComponent(g);
            cardIcon.paintIcon(this, g, 20, 20);
            }
    };

JFrame window = new JFrame("Deck of Cards");
window.add(panel);
window.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
window.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(200,200));
window.pack();
window.getContentPane().setBackground(Color.green);
window.setVisible(true);

This is the result of all of the searches I've done on stackoverflow, so some help would be appreciated. I know I need to change the content pane instead of the actual frame, but all of my efforts seem to result in the default grey background. Thanks in advance.

edit: panel is for an image that's being loaded in. edit 2: Sounds like panel is blocking the background from changing.

Answer 1

The JPanel you're adding to the frame is blocking the background color. Either set the panel's background color via panel.setBackground or make the panel transparent by setting panel.setOpaque(false) .