The Java 2D API implements a new imaging model that supports the manipulation of fixed-resolution images stored in memory. A new Image class in the java.awt.image package, BufferedImage, can be used to hold and to manipulate image data retrieved from a file or a URL. For example, a BufferedImage can be used to implement double buffering--the graphic elements are rendered off-screen to the BufferedImage and are then copied to the screen through a call to Graphics2D drawImage. The classes BufferedImage and BufferedImageOp also enable you to perform a variety of image-filtering operations, such as blur and sharpen. The producer/consumer imaging model provided in previous versions of the JDK is supported for backward compatibility.