Editing Graphical Kernel System (section)

==Overview==
GKS provides a set of drawing features for two-dimensional [[vector graphics]] suitable for charting and similar duties. The calls are designed to be portable across different [[programming language]]s, graphics devices and hardware, so that applications written to use GKS will be readily portable to many platforms and devices.

GKS was fairly common on computer [[workstation]]s in the 1980s and early 1990s.<ref name="CW_1986"/>
GKS formed the basis of [[Digital Research]]'s [[Graphics System Extension|GSX]] which evolved into VDI, one of the core components of [[Graphics Environment Manager|GEM]]. GEM was the native GUI on the [[Atari ST]] and was occasionally seen on PCs, particularly in conjunction with [[Corel Ventura|Ventura Publisher]]. GKS was little used commercially outside these markets, but remains in use in some scientific visualization packages. It is also the underlying [[API]] defining the [[Computer Graphics Metafile]]. A descendant of GKS was [[PHIGS]]. One popular application based on an implementation of GKS is the GR Framework,<ref name=gr>{{cite web|title=GR Framework|author1=Josef Heinen|display-authors=etal|date=1985–2019|url=https://gr-framework.org/|access-date=2020-11-16}}</ref> a C library for high-performance scientific visualization that has become a common plotting backend among [[Julia (programming language)|Julia]] users.

A main developer and promoter of the GKS was [[José Luis Encarnação]], formerly director of the [[Fraunhofer Institute]] for Computer Graphics (IGD) in [[Darmstadt]], [[Germany]].

GKS has been standardized in the following documents:<ref name="ISO_cat1"/><ref name="ISO_cat2"/>
* [[ANSI]] standard '''ANSI X3.124''' of 1985.
* '''ISO 7942:1985''' standard, revised as '''ISO 7942:1985/Amd 1:1991''' and '''ISO/IEC 7942-1:1994''', as well as '''ISO/IEC 7942-2:1997''', '''ISO/IEC 7942-3:1999''' and '''ISO/IEC 7942-4:1998'''
* The language bindings are ISO standard '''ISO 8651'''.
* GKS-3D (Graphical Kernel System for Three Dimensions) functional definition is ISO standard '''ISO 8805''', and the corresponding [[C (programming language)|C]] bindings are '''ISO/IEC 8806'''.

The functionality of GKS is wrapped up as a data model standard in the STEP standard, section [[ISO 10303]]-46.