Libart is a

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

graphics library of functions for 2D graphics supporting a superset of the

PostScript PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...

imaging model. Libart was designed to be integrated with graphics, artwork, and illustration programs. It is written in optimized C and is fully compatible with C++. With a small footprint of 10,000 lines of code, it is especially suitable for embedded applications. Libart provides a

vector graphics Vector graphics is a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector display a ...

-based

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

obsoletes almost all uses of libart. Libart supports a very powerful imaging model, basically the same as SVG and the Java 2D API. It includes all PostScript imaging operations, and adds antialiasing and alpha-transparency.

History

Libart was a library for high-performance 2D graphics. Prior to being replaced with Cairo, it had been used as the

anti-aliased Anti-aliasing may refer to any of a number of techniques to combat the problems of aliasing in a sampled signal such as a digital image or digital audio recording. Specific topics in anti-aliasing include: * Anti-aliasing filter, a filter used be ...

rendering engine Rendering or image synthesis is the process of generating a physically-based rendering, photorealistic or Non-photorealistic rendering, non-photorealistic image from a 2D model, 2D or 3D model by means of a computer program. The resulting im ...

for the Gnome Canvas and for Gill, the Gnome Illustration app.

Gdk-pixbuf GDK (GIMP Drawing Kit) is a library that acts as a wrapper around the low-level functions provided by the underlying windowing and graphics systems. GDK lies between the display server and the GTK library, handling basic rendering such as dr ...

used to be a wrapper around libart. A LGPL'd component of libart was also written, containing all functions needed for running the Gnome Canvas, and for printing support. The GPL'd contained various enhanced functions for specific applications.

Notable usage

Eye of GNOME Eye of GNOME is the official and default image viewer for the GNOME desktop environment, where it is also known as Image Viewer. There is also another official image viewer for GNOME called gThumb that has more advanced features like image organ ...

depends on libart *

GNOME A gnome is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy, first introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and later adopted by more recent authors including those of modern fantasy literature. Its characte ...

Canvas uses Libart as its rendering API. *

GIMP GIMP ( ; GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor used for image manipulation (retouching) and image editing, free-form drawing, transcoding between different image file formats, and more specialized task ...

used Libart for vector rendering. * Dia can use Libart for

antialiasing Anti-aliasing may refer to any of a number of techniques to combat the problems of aliasing in a sampled signal such as a digital image or digital audio recording. Specific topics in anti-aliasing include: * Anti-aliasing filter, a filter used be ...

and PNG export.

References

External links

*
Gnome Illustration app
(levien.com)

(gnome.org) Graphics libraries X-based libraries GNOME libraries GTK {{compu-graphics-stub