Loading an Image

 // This call returns immediately and pixels 
 // are loaded in background.
 
 // The following 2 lines of code must be 
 // on the same line
 Image image = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().getImage(
   "image.gif");
     
 // This method ensures that all pixels have 
 // been loaded before returning.
 image = new ImageIcon("image.gif").getImage();