diff options
Diffstat (limited to 'README')
| -rwxr-xr-x | README | 194 |
1 files changed, 194 insertions, 0 deletions
@@ -0,0 +1,194 @@ +Cairo - Multi-platform 2D graphics library +http://cairographics.org + +What is cairo +============= +Cairo is a 2D graphics library with support for multiple output +devices. Currently supported output targets include the X Window +System (via both Xlib and XCB), quartz, win32, and image buffers, +as well as PDF, PostScript, and SVG file output. Experimental backends +include OpenGL, BeOS, OS/2, and DirectFB. + +Cairo is designed to produce consistent output on all output media +while taking advantage of display hardware acceleration when available +(for example, through the X Render Extension). + +The cairo API provides operations similar to the drawing operators of +PostScript and PDF. Operations in cairo include stroking and filling +cubic Bézier splines, transforming and compositing translucent images, +and antialiased text rendering. All drawing operations can be +transformed by any affine transformation (scale, rotation, shear, +etc.). + +Cairo has been designed to let you draw anything you want in a modern +2D graphical user interface. At the same time, the cairo API has been +designed to be as fun and easy to learn as possible. If you're not +having fun while programming with cairo, then we have failed +somewhere---let us know and we'll try to fix it next time around. + +Cairo is free software and is available to be redistributed and/or +modified under the terms of either the GNU Lesser General Public +License (LGPL) version 2.1 or the Mozilla Public License (MPL) version +1.1. + +Where to get more information about cairo +========================================= +The primary source of information about cairo is: + + http://cairographics.org/ + +The latest versions of cairo can always be found at: + + http://cairographics.org/download + +Documentation on using cairo and frequently-asked questions: + + http://cairographics.org/documentation + http://cairographics.org/FAQ + +Mailing lists for contacting cairo users and developers: + + http://cairographics.org/lists + +Roadmap and unscheduled things to do, (please feel free to help out): + + http://cairographics.org/roadmap + http://cairographics.org/todo + +Dependencies +============ +The set of libraries needed to compile cairo depends on which backends +are enabled when cairo is configured. So look at the list below to +determine which dependencies are needed for the backends of interest. + +For the surface backends, we have both "supported" and "experimental" +backends. Further, the supported backends can be divided into the +"standard" backends which can be easily built on any platform, and the +"platform" backends which depend on some underlying platform-specific +system, (such as the X Window System or some other window system). + +As an example, for a standard Linux build, (with image, png, pdf, +PostScript, svg, and xlib surface backends, and the freetype font +backend), the following sample commands will install necessary +dependencies: + + Debian (and similar): + + apt-get install libpng12-dev libz-dev libxrender-dev libfontconfig1-dev + + Fedora (and similar): + + yum install libpng-devel zlib-devel libXrender-devel fontconfig-devel + +(Those commands intentionally don't install pixman from a distribution +package since if you're manually compiling cairo, then you likely want +to grab pixman from the same place at the same time and compile it as +well.) + +Supported, "standard" surface backends +------------------------------------ + image backend (required) + ------------------------ + pixman >= 0.20.2 http://cairographics.org/releases + + png support (can be left out if desired, but many + ----------- applications expect it to be present) + libpng http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng.html + + pdf backend + ----------- + zlib http://www.gzip.org/zlib + + postscript backend + ------------------ + zlib http://www.gzip.org/zlib + + svg backend + ----------- + [none] + +Supported, "platform" surface backends +----------------------------------- + xlib backend + ------------ + X11 http://freedesktop.org/Software/xlibs + + xlib-xrender backend + -------------------- + Xrender >= 0.6 http://freedesktop.org/Software/xlibs + + quartz backend + -------------- + MacOS X >= 10.4 with Xcode >= 2.4 + + win32 backend + ------------- + Microsoft Windows 2000 or newer[*]. + + xcb backend + ----------- + XCB http://xcb.freedesktop.org + +Font backends (required to have at least one) +--------------------------------------------- + freetype font backend + --------------------- + freetype >= 2.1.9 http://freetype.org + fontconfig http://fontconfig.org + + quartz-font backend + ------------------- + MacOS X >= 10.4 with Xcode >= 2.4 + + win32 font backend + ------------------ + Microsoft Windows 2000 or newer[*]. + + [*] The Win32 backend should work on Windows 2000 and newer + (excluding Windows Me.) Most testing has been done on + Windows XP. While some portions of the code have been + adapted to work on older versions of Windows, considerable + work still needs to be done to get cairo running in those + environments. + + Cairo can be compiled on Windows with either the gcc + toolchain (see http://www.mingw.org) or with Microsoft + Visual C++. If the gcc toolchain is used, the standard + build instructions using configure apply, (see INSTALL). + If Visual C++ is desired, GNU make is required and + Makefile.win32 can be used via 'make -f Makefile.win32'. + The compiler, include paths, and library paths must be set + up correctly in the environment. + + MSVC versions earlier than 7.1 are known to miscompile + parts of cairo and pixman, and so should be avoided. MSVC + 7.1 or later, including the free Microsoft Visual Studio + Express editions, produce correct code. + +Experimental surface backends +----------------------------- + beos backend + ------------ + No dependencies in itself other than an installed BeOS system, but cairo + requires a font backend. See the freetype dependency list. + + os2 backend + ----------- + Cairo should run on any recent version of OS/2 or eComStation, but it + requires a font backend. See the freetype dependency list. Ready to use + packages and developer dependencies are available at Netlabs: + ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/cairo + +Compiling +========= +See the INSTALL document for build instructions. + +History +======= +Cairo was originally developed by Carl Worth <cworth@cworth.org> and +Keith Packard <keithp@keithp.com>. Many thanks are due to Lyle Ramshaw +without whose patient help our ignorance would be much more apparent. + +Since the original development, many more people have contributed to +cairo. See the AUTHORS files for as complete a list as we've been able +to compile so far. |