ADDITIONAL SYSTEM INFORMATION :
Windows 10, Java 15 and 16, with monitor display scaling set to 125% or greater.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
This looks like a problem with the rendering pipeline when the monitor display scaling is 125% or greater on Windows. It's a severe regression since Java 8, there are very noticeable rendering artifacts.

REGRESSION : Last worked in version 8

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
1. Create JButtons with icons containing text, see attached test case.
2. Run with Java 8 and then Java 15 or 16 using monitor with display scaling set to 125% or greater on Windows 10.

Run the attached test case with good quality png icons containing text. I have screenshot showing the bug, and png icons, but don't see a way to attach them here.

EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
Good quality button icon, same as with Java 8
ACTUAL -
Very poor quality button icon with Java 15 and 16, image is noticeably degraded with rendering artifacts

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
import javax.swing.ImageIcon;
import javax.swing.JButton;
import javax.swing.JFrame;
import javax.swing.JPanel;
import javax.swing.UIManager;

public class TestButtonImage {

    /**
     * Create the GUI and show it. For thread safety,
     * this method should be invoked from the
     * event-dispatching thread.
     */
    private static void createAndShowGUI() {
        //Create and set up the window.
        JFrame frame = new JFrame();
        frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

        //Set up the content pane.
        JPanel panel = new JPanel();
String url = "C:\\temp\\36point.png";
String url72 = "C:\\temp\\72point.png";
// Image image = Toolkit.getDefaultToolkit().createImage(url);
// ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(image);
ImageIcon icon = new ImageIcon(url);
JButton button = new JButton(icon);

ImageIcon icon72 = new ImageIcon(url72);
JButton button72 = new JButton(icon72);

        panel.add(button);
        panel.add(button72);

        frame.getContentPane().add(panel);

        //Display the window.
        String javaVersion = System.getProperty("java.version");
        String osName = System.getProperty("os.name");
        frame.setTitle("Java " + javaVersion + " " + osName);
        frame.pack();
        frame.setSize(500,500);
        frame.setVisible(true);
  }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
            UIManager.setLookAndFeel(UIManager.getSystemLookAndFeelClassName());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        //Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
        //creating and showing this application's GUI.
        javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                createAndShowGUI();
            }
        });
    }
}
---------- END SOURCE ----------

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
-Dsun.java2d.uiScale=1

FREQUENCY : always