How to write text over an image inside a rectangular area rendered in a JPanel

The basic concept is similar to any normal Swing shape. You just need to add a little extra work to put it all together.

The first thing you need to decide is - do you need multi-line support or not?

The example below is used JLayeredPane

to provide a free layout and a custom one JTextArea

to supply editable fields.

The best thing about this is that resizing will mostly take care of you as well as "editable", just click on the text and you will see what I mean.

I'll leave the permutation up to you;)

public class TextOverImage {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        new TextOverImage();
    }

    public TextOverImage() {
        EventQueue.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
                } catch (ClassNotFoundException ex) {
                } catch (InstantiationException ex) {
                } catch (IllegalAccessException ex) {
                } catch (UnsupportedLookAndFeelException ex) {
                }

                JFrame frame = new JFrame("Test");
                frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
                frame.setLayout(new BorderLayout());
                frame.add(new ImagePane());
                frame.pack();
                frame.setLocationRelativeTo(null);
                frame.setVisible(true);
            }

        });
    }

    public class ImagePane extends JLayeredPane {

        private BufferedImage background;

        public ImagePane() {
            setFocusable(true);
            try {
                background = ImageIO.read(new File("Your/image/here"));
            } catch (Exception e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
            addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
                @Override
                public void mouseClicked(MouseEvent e) {
                    Component focusOwner = FocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager().getFocusOwner();
                    if (!(focusOwner instanceof OverlayEditor)) {
                        OverlayEditor field = new OverlayEditor();
                        field.setLocation(e.getPoint());
                        add(field);
                        invalidate();
                        repaint();
                        field.requestFocusInWindow();
                    } else {
                        requestFocusInWindow();
                    }
                }

            });
            InputMap im = getInputMap(WHEN_IN_FOCUSED_WINDOW);
            ActionMap am = getActionMap();
            im.put(KeyStroke.getKeyStroke(KeyEvent.VK_ESCAPE, 0), "cancel");
            am.put("cancel", new AbstractAction() {
                @Override
                public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
                    Component focusOwner = FocusManager.getCurrentKeyboardFocusManager().getFocusOwner();
                    if (focusOwner instanceof OverlayEditor) {
                        remove(focusOwner);
                        invalidate();
                        repaint();
                    }
                }

            });
        }

        @Override
        public Dimension getPreferredSize() {
            return new Dimension(400, 400);
        }

        @Override
        protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
            super.paintComponent(g);
            if (background != null) {
                int x = (getWidth() - background.getWidth());
                int y = (getHeight() - background.getHeight());
                g.drawImage(background, x, y, this);
            }
        }

    }

    public class OverlayEditor extends JTextArea {

        public OverlayEditor() {
            super(1, 10);
            setBorder(null);
            setForeground(Color.WHITE);
            setOpaque(false);
            setSize(getPreferredSize());

            getDocument().addDocumentListener(new DocumentListener() {
                public void update() {
                    setSize(getPreferredSize());
                }

                @Override
                public void insertUpdate(DocumentEvent e) {
                    update();
                }

                @Override
                public void removeUpdate(DocumentEvent e) {
                    update();
                }

                @Override
                public void changedUpdate(DocumentEvent e) {
                    update();
                }

            });

            addFocusListener(new FocusListener() {
                @Override
                public void focusGained(FocusEvent e) {
                    setBorder(new LineBorder(Color.WHITE));
                    repaint();
                }

                @Override
                public void focusLost(FocusEvent e) {
                    setBorder(null);
                    repaint();
                }

            });
        }

        @Override
        protected void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
            super.paintComponent(g);
            Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D) g.create();
            if (hasFocus()) {
                g2d.setColor(new Color(0, 0, 0, 32));
                g2d.fill(new Rectangle(getWidth(), getHeight()));
            }
            g2d.dispose();
        }

    }

}