GdkRGB displays RGB images (as well as grayscale and colormapped) to the native window. GdkRgb converts RGB, grayscale, and colormapped images into the native window pixel format and displays them. It takes care of colormaps, visuals, dithering, and management of the temporary buffers. You must call gdk_rgb_init() before using any GdkRgb functionality. If you fail to do so, expect coredumps. All Gtk+ widgets that use GdkRgb (including #GtkPreview) call gdk_rgb_init() in their class_init method. Thus, if you use GdkRgb only indirectly, you don't need to worry about it. GdkRgb tries to use the system default visual and colormap, but doesn't always succeed. Thus, you have to be prepared to install the visual and colormap generated by GdkRgb. The following code sequence (before any widgets are created) should work in most applications: gdk_rgb_init (); gtk_widget_set_default_colormap (gdk_rgb_get_cmap ()); gtk_widget_set_default_visual (gdk_rgb_get_visual ()); You can also push the colormap and visual, but in general it doesn't work unless the push wraps the window creation call. If you wrap the push around a widget which is embedded in a window without the GdkRgb colormap and visual, it probably won't work, and is likely to cause colormap flashing, as well. On 8-bit systems, the colormaps used by Imlib and GdkRgb may conflict. There is no good general solution to this other than phasing out the dependence on Imlib. You can set the threshold for installing colormaps with gdk_rgb_set_min_colors (). The default is 5x5x5 (125). If a colorcube of this size or larger can be allocated in the default colormap, then that's done. Otherwise, GdkRgb creates its own private colormap. Setting it to 0 means that it always tries to use the default colormap, and setting it to 256 means that it always creates a private one. Note, however, that setting it to 0 doesn't let you get away with ignoring the colormap and visual - a colormap is always created in grayscale and direct color modes, and the visual is changed in cases where a "better" visual than the default is available. A simple example program using GdkRGB. #include <gtk/gtk.h> #define IMAGE_WIDTH 256 #define IMAGE_HEIGHT 256 guchar rgbbuf[IMAGE_WIDTH * IMAGE_HEIGHT * 3]; gboolean on_darea_expose (GtkWidget *widget, GdkEventExpose *event, gpointer user_data); int main (int argc, char *argv[]) { GtkWidget *window, *darea; gint x, y; guchar *pos; gtk_init (&argc, &argv); gdk_rgb_init (); window = gtk_window_new (GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL); darea = gtk_drawing_area_new (); gtk_drawing_area_size (GTK_DRAWING_AREA (darea), IMAGE_WIDTH, IMAGE_HEIGHT); gtk_container_add (GTK_CONTAINER (window), darea); gtk_signal_connect (GTK_OBJECT (darea), "expose-event", GTK_SIGNAL_FUNC (on_darea_expose), NULL); gtk_widget_show_all (window); /* Set up the RGB buffer. */ pos = rgbbuf; for (y = 0; y < IMAGE_HEIGHT; y++) { for (x = 0; x < IMAGE_WIDTH; x++) { *pos++ = x - x % 32; /* Red. */ *pos++ = (x / 32) * 4 + y - y % 32; /* Green. */ *pos++ = y - y % 32; /* Blue. */ } } gtk_main (); return 0; } gboolean on_darea_expose (GtkWidget *widget, GdkEventExpose *event, gpointer user_data) { gdk_draw_rgb_image (widget->window, widget->style->fg_gc[GTK_STATE_NORMAL], 0, 0, IMAGE_WIDTH, IMAGE_HEIGHT, GDK_RGB_DITHER_MAX, rgbbuf, IMAGE_WIDTH * 3); } #GdkColor The underlying Gdk mechanism for allocating colors. A private data structure which maps color indices to actual RGB colors. This is used only for gdk_draw_indexed_image(). Selects whether or not GdkRgb applies dithering to the image on display. There are three values: %GDK_RGB_DITHER_NONE: Never use dithering. %GDK_RGB_DITHER_NORMAL: Use dithering in 8 bits per pixel (and below) only. %GDK_RGB_DITHER_MAX: Use dithering in 16 bits per pixel and below. Since GdkRgb currently only handles images with 8 bits per component, dithering on 24 bit per pixel displays is a moot point. Initializes GdkRgb statically. It may be called more than once with no ill effects. It must, however, be called before any other GdkRgb operations are performed. The GdkRgb "context" is allocated statically. Thus, GdkRgb may be used to drive only one visual in any given application. GdkRgb automatically selects a best visual and sets its own colormap, if necessary. gdk_rgb_get_visual() and gdk_rgb_get_cmap () retrieve the chosen visual and colormap, respectively. Creates a new #GdkRgbCmap structure. The cmap maps color indexes to RGB colors. If @n_colors is less than 256, then images containing color values greater than or equal to @n_colors will produce undefined results, including possibly segfaults. @colors: The colors, represented as 0xRRGGBB integer values. @n_colors: The number of colors in the cmap. @Returns: The newly created #GdkRgbCmap Frees the memory associated with a #GdkRgbCmap created by gdk_rgb_cmap_new(). @cmap: The #GdkRgbCmap to free. Sets the foreground color in @gc to the specified color (or the closest approximation, in the case of limited visuals). @gc: The @GdkGC to modify. @rgb: The color, represented as a 0xRRGGBB integer value. Sets the background color in @gc to the specified color (or the closest approximation, in the case of limited visuals). @gc: The @GdkGC to modify. @rgb: The color, represented as a 0xRRGGBB integer value. Draws an RGB image in the drawable. This is the core GdkRgb function, and likely the only one you will need to use other than the initialization stuff. The @rowstride parameter allows for lines to be aligned more flexibly. For example, lines may be allocated to begin on 32-bit boundaries, even if the width of the rectangle is odd. Rowstride is also useful when drawing a subrectangle of a larger image in memory. Finally, to replicate the same line a number of times, the trick of setting @rowstride to 0 is allowed. In general, for 0 <= i < @width and 0 <= j < height, the pixel (x + i, y + j) is colored with red value @rgb_buf[@j * @rowstride + @i * 3], green value @rgb_buf[@j * @rowstride + @i * 3 + 1], and blue value @rgb_buf[@j * @rowstride + @i * 3 + 2]. @drawable: The #GdkDrawable to draw in (usually a #GdkWindow). @gc: The graphics context (all Gdk drawing operations require one; its contents are ignored). @x: The x coordinate of the top-left corner in the drawable. @y: The y coordinate of the top-left corner in the drawable. @width: The width of the rectangle to be drawn. @height: The height of the rectangle to be drawn. @dith: A #GdkRgbDither value, selecting the desired dither mode. @rgb_buf: The pixel data, represented as packed 24-bit data. @rowstride: The number of bytes from the start of one row in @rgb_buf to the start of the next. Draws an indexed image in the drawable, using a #GdkRgbCmap to assign actual colors to the color indices. @drawable: The #GdkDrawable to draw in (usually a #GdkWindow). @gc: The graphics context. @x: The x coordinate of the top-left corner in the drawable. @y: The y coordinate of the top-left corner in the drawable. @width: The width of the rectangle to be drawn. @height: The height of the rectangle to be drawn. @dith: A #GdkRgbDither value, selecting the desired dither mode. @buf: The pixel data, represented as 8-bit color indices. @rowstride: The number of bytes from the start of one row in @buf to the start of the next. @cmap: The #GdkRgbCmap used to assign colors to the color indices. Draws a grayscale image in the drawable. @drawable: The #GdkDrawable to draw in (usually a #GdkWindow). @gc: The graphics context. @x: The x coordinate of the top-left corner in the drawable. @y: The y coordinate of the top-left corner in the drawable. @width: The width of the rectangle to be drawn. @height: The height of the rectangle to be drawn. @dith: A #GdkRgbDither value, selecting the desired dither mode. @buf: The pixel data, represented as 8-bit gray values. @rowstride: The number of bytes from the start of one row in @buf to the start of the next. Draws a padded RGB image in the drawable. The image is stored as one pixel per 32-bit word. It is laid out as a red byte, a green byte, a blue byte, and a padding byte. It's unlikely that this function will give significant performance gains in practice. In my experience, the performance gain from having pixels aligned to 32-bit boundaries is cancelled out by the increased memory bandwidth. @drawable: The #GdkDrawable to draw in (usually a #GdkWindow). @gc: The graphics context. @x: The x coordinate of the top-left corner in the drawable. @y: The y coordinate of the top-left corner in the drawable. @width: The width of the rectangle to be drawn. @height: The height of the rectangle to be drawn. @dith: A #GdkRgbDither value, selecting the desired dither mode. @buf: The pixel data, represented as padded 32-bit data. @rowstride: The number of bytes from the start of one row in @buf to the start of the next. Draws an RGB image in the drawable, with an adjustment for dither alignment. This function is useful when drawing dithered images into a window that may be scrolled. Pixel (x, y) will be drawn dithered as if its actual location is (x + @xdith, y + @ydith). Thus, if you draw an image into a window using zero dither alignment, then scroll up one pixel, subsequent draws to the window should have @ydith = 1. Setting the dither alignment correctly allows updating of small parts of the screen while avoiding visible "seams" between the different dither textures. @drawable: The #GdkDrawable to draw in (usually a #GdkWindow). @gc: The graphics context. @x: The x coordinate of the top-left corner in the drawable. @y: The y coordinate of the top-left corner in the drawable. @width: The width of the rectangle to be drawn. @height: The height of the rectangle to be drawn. @dith: A #GdkRgbDither value, selecting the desired dither mode. @rgb_buf: The pixel data, represented as packed 24-bit data. @rowstride: The number of bytes from the start of one row in @rgb_buf to the start of the next. @xdith: An x offset for dither alignment. @ydith: A y offset for dither alignment. Finds the X pixel closest in color to the @rgb color specified. This value may be used to set the pixel field of a #GdkColor struct. @rgb: The color, represented as a 0xRRGGBB integer value. @Returns: The X pixel value. Sets the "verbose" flag. This is generally only useful for debugging. @verbose: TRUE if verbose messages are desired. Determine whether the visual is ditherable. This function may be useful for presenting a user interface choice to the user about which dither mode is desired; if the display is not ditherable, it may make sense to gray out or hide the corresponding UI widget. @Returns: TRUE if the visual is ditherable. If @install is TRUE, directs GdkRgb to always install a new "private" colormap rather than trying to find a best fit with the colors already allocated. Ordinarily, GdkRgb will install a colormap only if a sufficient cube cannot be allocated. A private colormap has more colors, leading to better quality display, but also leads to the dreaded "colormap flashing" effect. @install: TRUE to set install mode. Sets the minimum number of colors for the color cube. Generally, GdkRgb tries to allocate the largest color cube it can. If it can't allocate a color cube at least as large as @min_colors, it installs a private colormap. @min_colors: The minimum number of colors accepted. Gets the visual chosen by GdkRgb. This visual and the corresponding colormap should be used when creating windows that will be drawn in by GdkRgb. @Returns: The @GdkVisual chosen by GdkRgb. Gets the colormap set by GdkRgb. This colormap and the corresponding visual should be used when creating windows that will be drawn in by GdkRgb. @Returns: The @GdkColormap set by GdkRgb.