Permanent magnet rings are presented, which exploit the image effect in the surrounding circular iron shields. The theory is given for a general permanent ring when the magnetization orientation Ψ at each coordinate angle Ψ changes by Ψ=(n+1)Ψ,where n is a positive or negative integer. For the uniformly magnetized case n=-1, the permanent ring produces no field in its bore, and the field is that of a dipole outside. When the ring is surrounded by a soft iron shield, its field becomes uniform in the bore, and zero outside the ring. The field can be varied continuously by moving the iron shield along the magnet axis.A small variable field device was constructed by using NdFeB permanent rings, which produced a field flux density of 0～0.5 T in the central region.