Graphics Devices

Overview

This chapter describes how Color QuickDraw manages video devices so that your application can draw to a window's graphics port without regard to the capabilities of the screen--even if the window spans more than one screen.

Read this chapter to learn how Color QuickDraw communicates with a video device--such as a plug-in video card or a built-in video interface--by automatically creating and managing a record of data type GDevice . Your application generally never needs to create GDevice records. However, your application may find it useful to examine GDevice records to determine the capabilities of the user's screens. When zooming a window, for example, your application can use GDevice records to determine which screen contains the largest area of a window, and then determine the ideal window size for that screen. You may also wish to use the DeviceLoop procedure, described in this chapter, if you want to optimize your application's drawing for screens with different capabilities.

This chapter describes the GDevice record and the routines that Color QuickDraw uses to create and manage such records. This chapter also describes routines that your application might find helpful for determining screen characteristics. For many applications, QuickDraw provides a device-independent interface; as described in other chapters of this book, your application can draw images in a graphics port for a window, and Color QuickDraw automatically manages the path to the screen--even if the user has multiple screens. However, if your application needs more control over how it draws images on screens of various sizes and with different capabilities, your application can use the routines described in this chapter.