| Developer(s) | GNOME |
|---|---|
| Type | Software library |
| License | GNU Lesser General Public License |
| Website | library.gnome.org/devel/gdk |
GDK (GIMP Drawing Kit) is a computer graphics library that acts as a wrapper around the low-level drawing and windowing functions provided by the underlying graphics system. Originally developed on the X Window System for the GIMP image manipulation program,[1] GDK lies between the X server and the GTK+ library, handling basic rendering such as drawing primitives, raster graphics (bitmaps), cursors, fonts, as well as window events and drag-and-drop functionality.
Like GTK, GDK is licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License.
GDK is an important part of GTK+'s portability. Since low-level cross-platform functionality is already provided by GLib, all that is needed to make GTK+ run on other platforms is to port GDK to the underlying operating system's graphics layer. Hence, the GDK ports to Win32 and Quartz are what makes GTK+ applications run on Windows and Mac OS X, respectively.
Starting with GTK+ 2.8, GDK supports Cairo.