[GRASS-dev] Cairo monitor driver

[Hamish]

> > The problem with translucency is that not all rendering systems
> > support it. The core X11 protocol doesn't, so you either need the
> > Render extension or to perform the rendering client-side.

Not quite replying to right part of the thread, but I thought it should be
mentioned that (AFAIR) translucency in PDF >=1.4 is limited to vector fills.

> Doing it client side can be a major performance hit. Apart from
> anything else, all of the rendering has to be done in software; your
> graphics hardware can't help.

Even if we use the much faster PNG(PPM) driver for fast GUI rendering, it sure
would be nice to click a "quality mode" switch in the GUI to switch to the
Cairo driver to create presentation quality output. For hardcopies (or softcopy
raster output for presentation or web publication) quality is much more
important than speed. (up the point it takes all night to render)  For the GUI
speed becomes the important factor, quality is reduced to a nice bonus.


Hamish



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