Editing Graphics Device Interface (section)

==Version history==

===Early versions===
GDI was present in the initial release of Windows. MS-DOS programs had manipulated the graphics hardware using [[software interrupt]]s (sometimes via the [[Video BIOS]]) and by manipulating [[video memory]] directly. Code written in this way expects that it is the only user of the video memory, which was not tenable on a [[Computer multitasking|multi-tasked environment]], such as Windows. The ''[[BYTE]]'' magazine, in December 1983, discussed Microsoft's plans for a system to output graphics to both printers and monitors with the same code in the forthcoming first release of Windows.<ref name="butler198312">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1983-12/1983_12_BYTE_08-12_Easy_Software#page/n49/mode/2up | title=Device-Independent Graphics Output for Microsoft Windows | work=BYTE | date=December 1983 | access-date=20 October 2013 | author=Butler, John | pages=49}}</ref>

On [[Windows 3.1x]] and [[Windows 9x]], GDI can use [[Bit blit]] features for 2D acceleration, if suitable [[graphics card]] driver is installed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dosdays.co.uk/media/cirrus_logic/CL-GD543X_Applications_and_Eratta_Book_Apr94.pdf|title=CL-GD543X Applications and Errata Book - Revision 1.2|publisher=[[Cirrus Logic]]|date=April 1994|access-date=January 4, 2025}}</ref>

===Windows XP===
With the introduction of [[Windows XP]], '''GDI+''' complemented GDI. GDI+ has been written in C++. It adds anti-aliased 2D graphics, floating point coordinates, gradient shading, more complex path management, intrinsic support for modern graphics-file formats like [[JPEG]] and [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]], and support for composition of [[affine transformation]]s in the 2D view pipeline. GDI+ uses [[RGBA]] values to represent color. Use of these features is apparent in Windows XP components, such as [[Microsoft Paint]], [[Windows Picture and Fax Viewer]], Photo Printing Wizard, and the My Pictures Slideshow screensaver. Their presence in the basic graphics layer greatly simplifies implementations of vector-graphics systems such as [[Adobe Flash]] or [[Scalable Vector Graphics|SVG]]. Besides, [[.NET Framework]] provides a managed interface for GDI+ via the <code>System.Drawing</code> [[namespace]].

While GDI+ is included with Windows XP and later, the GDI+ dynamic library can also be shipped with an application and used on older versions of Windows.<ref>[http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=6A63AB9C-DF12-4D41-933C-BE590FEAA05A&displaylang=en Platform SDK Redistributable: GDI+]</ref>

Because of the additional text processing and resolution independence capabilities in GDI+, the CPU undertakes text rendering.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/directx/archive/2009/05/12/2d-drawing-apis-in-windows.aspx |title=2D Drawing APIs in Windows - |work=DirectX Developer Blog |publisher=MSDN Blogs |date=May 12, 2009 |access-date=July 19, 2012}}</ref> The result is an order of magnitude slower than the [[Hardware acceleration|hardware-accelerated]] GDI.<ref>{{cite web
|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/cjacks/archive/2006/05/19/gdi-vs-gdi-text-rendering-performance.aspx
|title=GDI vs. GDI+ Text Rendering Performance
|last=Jackson
|first=Chris
|work=Chris Jackson's Semantic Consonance
|publisher=Microsoft
}}</ref>  Chris Jackson published some tests indicating that a piece of text rendering code he had written could render 99,000 glyphs per second in GDI, but the same code using GDI+ rendered 16,600 glyphs per second.

GDI+ is similar (in purpose and structure) to [[Apple Inc.|Apple]]{{'}}s ''[[QuickDraw GX]]'' subsystem, and the open-source ''[[libart]]'' and [[Cairo (graphics)|Cairo]] libraries.

===Windows Vista===
In Windows Vista, all Windows applications including GDI and GDI+ applications run in the new compositing engine, [[Desktop Window Manager]] (DWM), which is hardware-accelerated. As such, the GDI itself is no longer hardware-accelerated.<ref>[http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff729480 MSDN: Comparing Direct2D and GDI Hardware Acceleration]</ref><ref name="Greg SchechterBlog">[http://blogs.msdn.com/greg_schechter/archive/2006/03/10/549310.aspx GDI is not hardware accelerated in Windows Vista]</ref><ref>[http://blogs.msdn.com/seema/archive/2006/10/25/layered-windows-sw-is-sometimes-faster-than-hw.aspx Layered windows...SW is sometimes faster than HW]. Avalite on MSDN Blogs.</ref> Because of the nature of the composition operations, window moves can be faster or more responsive because underlying content does not need to be re-rendered by the application.<ref name="Greg SchechterBlog" />

===Windows 7===
[[Windows 7]] includes GDI hardware acceleration for [[blitting]] operations in the [[Windows Display Driver Model#WDDM 1.1|Windows Display Driver Model v1.1]]. This improves GDI performance and allows DWM to use local video memory for compositing, thereby reducing system [[memory footprint]] and increasing the performance of graphics operations. Most [[Geometric primitive|primitive]] GDI operations are still not hardware-accelerated, unlike [[Direct2D]]. GDI+ continues to rely on software rendering in Windows 7.<ref name="Direct2D_intro">{{cite web |url=https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/thomasolsen/2008/10/29/introducing-the-microsoft-direct2d-api/ |title=Introducing the Microsoft Direct2D API |author=Thomas Olsen |date=October 29, 2008}}</ref>