Editing Cairo (graphics) (section)

=== Available back-ends ===
Cairo supports output (including [[rasterisation]]) to a number of different [[front and back ends|back-ends]], known as "surfaces" in its code. Back-ends support includes output to the [[X Window System]], via both [[Xlib]] and [[XCB]], [[Graphics Device Interface|Win32 GDI]], [[Quartz Compositor|OS X Quartz Compositor]], the [[BeOS]] API, [[OS/2]], [[OpenGL]] contexts (directly<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lists.cairographics.org/archives/cairo/2009-July/017713.html |title=New OpenGL backend merged |author=Chris Wilson |date=July 22, 2009 |access-date=February 12, 2010}}</ref> and via glitz), local image buffers, [[Portable Network Graphics|PNG]] files, [[Portable document format|PDF]], [[PostScript]], [[DirectFB]] and [[Scalable Vector Graphics|SVG]] files.

There are other back-ends in development targeting the graphics APIs [[OpenVG]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/cairo/2008-January/012833.html |title=Announcing OpenVG backend |author=Øyvind Kolås |date=January 24, 2008 |access-date=February 12, 2010}}</ref> [[Qt (framework)|Qt]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://blog.vlad1.com/2008/05/06/well-isnt-that-qt/ |title=Well Isn't That Qt |author=Vladimir Vukićević |date=May 6, 2008 |access-date=February 12, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100409072817/http://blog.vlad1.com/2008/05/06/well-isnt-that-qt/ |archive-date=April 9, 2010}}</ref> [[Skia Graphics Engine|Skia]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lists.cairographics.org/archives/cairo/2009-August/018052.html |title=Cool Stuff |author=Chris Wilson |date=August 31, 2009 |access-date=February 12, 2010}}</ref> and Microsoft's [[Direct2D]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.basschouten.com/blog1.php/2009/11/22/direct2d-hardware-rendering-a-browser |title=Direct2D: Hardware Rendering a Browser |author=Bas Schouten |date=November 22, 2009 |access-date=February 12, 2010}}</ref> The BeOS, OS/2, DirectFB and OpenGL backends were dropped in 2022.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Cairo-2022-Drops-Old-Code|title=Cairo graphics library drops many old backends|first=Michael|last=Larabel|publisher=Phoronix|date=February 27, 2022|accessdate=June 5, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Larabel |first1=Michael |title=Cairo Graphics Library Drops OpenGL Support After A Decade Of Inactivity |url=https://www.phoronix.com/news/Cairo-Drops-OpenGL |website=Phoronix |access-date=7 February 2025 |date=January 29, 2023}}</ref>