Draw Context Objects

Overview

This chapter describes draw context objects (or draw contexts) and the functions you can use to manipulate them. You use draw contexts to connect your application to a specific drawing destination, such as a window system. For example, to draw into a Mac OS window, you create an instance of a Macintosh draw context object and attach it to a view.

To use this chapter, you should already be familiar with the QuickDraw 3D class hierarchy, described in the chapter "QuickDraw 3D Objects" earlier in this book. For information about attaching a draw context to a view, see the chapter "View Objects" in this book. You do not, however, need to know how to create or manipulate views to read this chapter.

This chapter begins by describing draw contexts and their features. Then it shows how to configure the settings of a draw context object. The section "Draw Context Objects Reference" provides a complete description of draw context objects and the routines you can use to create and manipulate them.