GdkRgb

26 Sep 1998: See the fps mailing list homepage for a proposal on a new mailing list devoted to maximizing Frames Per Second on the Linux desktop.

GdkRgb is an upgrade to the Gtk+ toolkit, enhancing the display of RGB image data. Simply put, the module draws RGB images (from a 24-bit packed RGB image buffer) on the screen.

GdkRgb is very fast, renders at very high quality (including a 16 bit per pixel dithered mode that is truly excellent), and has a simple API. It is highly recommended for all applications that directly touch 24-bit RGB image data.

GdkRgb came about as part of the gfonted project. It is the low-level basis of GtkCaanvas, an antialiased canvas widget.

I'm working on integrating GdkRgb into the 1.2 release of Gtk+. In the meantime, you can use it in apps and still be compatible with Gtk+ 1.0, simply by including a few files in your source tree and making minor additions to your autoconf files. When Gtk 1.2 comes out, the make process will automatically switch over to the GdkRgb module included there. The testrgb program included in the distribution documents how to use GdkRgb by example.

Download the latest source here:

gdkrgb-0.9.0.tar.gz

27 Aug 1998: There's a CGI-based survey of GdkRgb performance. This should help test GdkRgb, as well as provide interesting benchmark data for 2D graphics performance.

I'm especially interested in results from slightly nonstandard X setups, including grayscale displays, SGI workstations, etc.

Other links that may be of interest:

• Imlib