A graphics library or graphics API is a program library designed to aid in rendering computer graphics to a monitor. This typically involves providing optimized versions of functions that handle common rendering tasks. This can be done purely in software and running on the CPU, common in embedded systems, or being hardware accelerated by a GPU, more common in PCs. By employing these functions, a program can assemble an image to be output to a monitor. This relieves the programmer of the task of creating and optimizing these functions, and allows them to focus on building the graphics program. Graphics libraries are mainly used in video games and simulations.
The use of graphics libraries in connection with video production systems, such as Pixar RenderMan, is not covered here.
Latest Graphics Library usage across Operating Systems:| OS | Vulkan | Direct X | GNMX | Metal |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows 10 | Free, Nvidia and AMD | Free, MS | no | no |
| Mac | Free, MoltenVK | no | no | Free, Apple |
| Linux | Free | no | no | no |
| Android | Free | no | no | no |
| iOS | Free, MoltenVK | no | no | Free, Apple |
| Tizen | in Development | no | no | no |
| Sailfish | in Development | no | no | no |
| Xbox One | no | Free | no | no |
| Orbis OS (PS4) | no | no | Free | no |
| Nintendo Switch | Free | no | no | no |
| HarmonyOS | Free | no | no | no |
| OpenHarmony | Free | no | no | no |
Some APIs use Graphics Library (GL) in their name, notably OpenGL and WebGL.
Examples
- Allegro
- ANGLE
- Cairo (graphics)1
- DFPSR https://dawoodoz.com/dfpsr.html — GUI toolkit and software renderer
- DirectX2 — a library created by Microsoft, to run under Windows operating systems and 'Direct' Xbox
- Display PostScript
- emWin3 — an Embedded Graphics Library
- FLTK4 — GUI Toolkit and Graphics Library
- GTK — a GUI toolkit
- Mesa 3D5 — a library that implements OpenGL and Vulkan
- Mobile 3D Graphics API
- Qt6 — cross-platform application framework
- Quartz (graphics layer)
- SFML7
- SIGIL8 — Sound, Input, and Graphics Integration Library
- Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL)9
- Skia Graphics Library10
- X Window System
See also
- List of 3D graphics libraries
- List of open source code libraries
- Anti-Grain Geometry
- Software development kit (SDK)
- OpenGL ES
- Graphical Widget toolkit graphical control elements drawn on bitmap displays
References
"cairographics.org". cairographics.org. Retrieved 2016-01-03. http://cairographics.org ↩
"DirectX". DirectX Graphics and Gaming (Windows) - MSDN - Microsoft. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ee663274(v=vs.85).aspx ↩
"emWin Graphics Library | www.LPCware.com". Archived from the original on 2016-03-29. https://web.archive.org/web/20160329073825/https://www.lpcware.com/content/project/emwin-graphics-library ↩
"FLTK GUI and Graphics Library | www.fltk.org". http://www.fltk.org ↩
"The Mesa 3D Graphics Library". http://www.mesa3d.org ↩
"Qt - Home". http://www.qt.io ↩
"SFML". http://www.sfml-dev.org ↩
"SIGIL: Sound, Input, and Graphics Integration Library". www.libsigil.com. Retrieved 2016-06-21. http://www.libsigil.com ↩
"Simple DirectMedia Layer - Homepage". https://www.libsdl.org ↩
"Skia Graphics Library". https://skia.org ↩