New to Java

hi,
i'm trying to find a way to frame images with transparent background png frames...

what i'm doing now is
1-drawing my image on a panel
2-creating a 2nd image using the frame's filename, stretching this 'frame-image' to a size slighlty larger than that of my main image and drawing the 'frame-image'

the problems with this method are:
1-depending on the width of the frame, the frame sometimes hides parts of the image (thick frame), and sometimes there is a gap between the frame and the image (thin frame).

2-if the image file containing the frame is larger than the frame (Ex: The image is 300x300, the frame is centered in this image and is 200x200; as opposed to the image is 200x200 and the frame takes up all the space), when i position the 'frame-image' near the top left corner of the image i want to frame, the frame appears at the wrong place (shifted down and to the right). This is due to the fact that i'm placing the top corner of the created 'frame-image' and not the frame, who is not in the top corner of my 'frame-image'.


Is there a way to do what i'm trying to do???

My ideas (which i don't know how to achieve are)
1-To 'analyse' my transparent background png file and
1-only keep the frame,
2-calculate the frame's thickness
OR
2-Let java do the analyzing for me and tell it to frame my image with the frame in the png file

please feel free to ask for more explanations if my description/question is confusing,
thanks.