Graphic images that exist only for the duration of one running of an application are of very limited value. Often, you either want to use the same picture every time, or you want to save a created picture for later use. The image component makes it easy to load pictures from a file and save them again. 

The components you use to load, save, and replace graphic images support many graphic formats including bitmap files, metafiles, glyphs, and so on. They also support installable graphic classes. 

The way to load and save graphics files is the similar to any other files and is described in these topics:

• Loading a picture from a file.
• Saving a picture to a file.
• Replacing the picture.