## cairo_surface_t cairo_surface_t — Base class for surfaces |

## Synopsis

    typedef             cairo_surface_t;
    enum                cairo_content_t;
    cairo_surface_t *   cairo_surface_create_similar        (cairo_surface_t *other,
                                                             cairo_content_t content,
                                                             int width,
                                                             int height);
    cairo_surface_t *   cairo_surface_reference             (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    void                cairo_surface_destroy               (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    cairo_status_t      cairo_surface_status                (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    void                cairo_surface_finish                (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    void                cairo_surface_flush                 (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    void                cairo_surface_get_font_options      (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             cairo_font_options_t *options);
    cairo_content_t     cairo_surface_get_content           (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    void                cairo_surface_mark_dirty            (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    void                cairo_surface_mark_dirty_rectangle  (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             int x,
                                                             int y,
                                                             int width,
                                                             int height);
    void                cairo_surface_set_device_offset     (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             double x_offset,
                                                             double y_offset);
    void                cairo_surface_get_device_offset     (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             double *x_offset,
                                                             double *y_offset);
    void                cairo_surface_set_fallback_resolution
                                                            (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             double x_pixels_per_inch,
                                                             double y_pixels_per_inch);
    void                cairo_surface_get_fallback_resolution
                                                            (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             double *x_pixels_per_inch,
                                                             double *y_pixels_per_inch);
    enum                cairo_surface_type_t;
    cairo_surface_type_t  cairo_surface_get_type            (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    unsigned int        cairo_surface_get_reference_count   (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    cairo_status_t      cairo_surface_set_user_data         (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             const cairo_user_data_key_t *key,
                                                             void *user_data,
                                                             cairo_destroy_func_t destroy);
    void *              cairo_surface_get_user_data         (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             const cairo_user_data_key_t *key);
    void                cairo_surface_copy_page             (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    void                cairo_surface_show_page             (cairo_surface_t *surface);
    cairo_bool_t        cairo_surface_has_show_text_glyphs  (cairo_surface_t *surface);

## Description

cairo_surface_t is the abstract type representing all different drawing targets that cairo can render to. The actual drawings are performed using a cairo context.

A cairo surface is created by using backend-specific constructors, typically of the form cairo_backend`_surface_create()`.

## Details

### cairo_surface_t

    typedef struct _cairo_surface cairo_surface_t;

A cairo_surface_t represents an image, either as the destination of a drawing operation or as source when drawing onto another surface. To draw to a cairo_surface_t, create a cairo context with the surface as the target, using `cairo_create()`.

There are different subtypes of cairo_surface_t for different drawing backends; for example, `cairo_image_surface_create()` creates a bitmap image in memory. The type of a surface can be queried with `cairo_surface_get_type()`.

Memory management of cairo_surface_t is done with `cairo_surface_reference()` and `cairo_surface_destroy()`.

### enum cairo_content_t

    typedef enum _cairo_content {
        CAIRO_CONTENT_COLOR		= 0x1000,
        CAIRO_CONTENT_ALPHA		= 0x2000,
        CAIRO_CONTENT_COLOR_ALPHA	= 0x3000
    } cairo_content_t;

cairo_content_t is used to describe the content that a surface will contain, whether color information, alpha information (translucence vs. opacity), or both.

Note: The large values here are designed to keep cairo_content_t values distinct from cairo_format_t values so that the implementation can detect the error if users confuse the two types.

`CAIRO_CONTENT_COLOR` | The surface will hold color content only.
`CAIRO_CONTENT_ALPHA` | The surface will hold alpha content only.
`CAIRO_CONTENT_COLOR_ALPHA` | The surface will hold color and alpha content.

### cairo_surface_create_similar ()

    cairo_surface_t *   cairo_surface_create_similar        (cairo_surface_t *other,
                                                             cairo_content_t content,
                                                             int width,
                                                             int height);

Create a new surface that is as compatible as possible with an existing surface. For example the new surface will have the same fallback resolution and font options as `other`. Generally, the new surface will also use the same backend as `other`, unless that is not possible for some reason. The type of the returned surface may be examined with `cairo_surface_get_type()`.

Initially the surface contents are all 0 (transparent if contents have transparency, black otherwise.)

`other` : | an existing surface used to select the backend of the new surface
`content` : | the content for the new surface
`width` : | width of the new surface, (in device-space units)
`height` : | height of the new surface (in device-space units)
Returns : | a pointer to the newly allocated surface. The caller owns the surface and should call `cairo_surface_destroy()` when done with it. This function always returns a valid pointer, but it will return a pointer to a "nil" surface if `other` is already in an error state or any other error occurs.

### cairo_surface_reference ()

    cairo_surface_t *   cairo_surface_reference             (cairo_surface_t *surface);

Increases the reference count on `surface` by one. This prevents `surface` from being destroyed until a matching call to `cairo_surface_destroy()` is made.

The number of references to a cairo_surface_t can be get using `cairo_surface_get_reference_count()`.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
Returns : | the referenced cairo_surface_t.

### cairo_surface_destroy ()

    void                cairo_surface_destroy               (cairo_surface_t *surface);

Decreases the reference count on `surface` by one. If the result is zero, then `surface` and all associated resources are freed. See `cairo_surface_reference()`.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t

### cairo_surface_status ()

    cairo_status_t      cairo_surface_status                (cairo_surface_t *surface);

Checks whether an error has previously occurred for this surface.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
Returns : | `CAIRO_STATUS_SUCCESS`, `CAIRO_STATUS_NULL_POINTER`, `CAIRO_STATUS_NO_MEMORY`, `CAIRO_STATUS_READ_ERROR`, `CAIRO_STATUS_INVALID_CONTENT`, `CAIRO_STATUS_INVALID_FORMAT`, or `CAIRO_STATUS_INVALID_VISUAL`.

### cairo_surface_finish ()

    void                cairo_surface_finish                (cairo_surface_t *surface);

This function finishes the surface and drops all references to external resources. For example, for the Xlib backend it means that cairo will no longer access the drawable, which can be freed. After calling `cairo_surface_finish()` the only valid operations on a surface are getting and setting user, referencing and destroying, and flushing and finishing it. Further drawing to the surface will not affect the surface but will instead trigger a `CAIRO_STATUS_SURFACE_FINISHED` error.

When the last call to `cairo_surface_destroy()` decreases the reference count to zero, cairo will call `cairo_surface_finish()` if it hasn't been called already, before freeing the resources associated with the surface.

`surface` : | the cairo_surface_t to finish

### cairo_surface_flush ()

    void                cairo_surface_flush                 (cairo_surface_t *surface);

Do any pending drawing for the surface and also restore any temporary modification's cairo has made to the surface's state. This function must be called before switching from drawing on the surface with cairo to drawing on it directly with native APIs. If the surface doesn't support direct access, then this function does nothing.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t

### cairo_surface_get_font_options ()

    void                cairo_surface_get_font_options      (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             cairo_font_options_t *options);

Retrieves the default font rendering options for the surface. This allows display surfaces to report the correct subpixel order for rendering on them, print surfaces to disable hinting of metrics and so forth. The result can then be used with `cairo_scaled_font_create()`.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
`options` : | a cairo_font_options_t object into which to store the retrieved options. All existing values are overwritten

### cairo_surface_get_content ()

    cairo_content_t     cairo_surface_get_content           (cairo_surface_t *surface);

This function returns the content type of `surface` which indicates whether the surface contains color and/or alpha information. See cairo_content_t.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
Returns : | The content type of `surface`.

Since 1.2

### cairo_surface_mark_dirty ()

    void                cairo_surface_mark_dirty            (cairo_surface_t *surface);

Tells cairo that drawing has been done to surface using means other than cairo, and that cairo should reread any cached areas. Note that you must call `cairo_surface_flush()` before doing such drawing.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t

### cairo_surface_mark_dirty_rectangle ()

    void                cairo_surface_mark_dirty_rectangle  (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             int x,
                                                             int y,
                                                             int width,
                                                             int height);

Like `cairo_surface_mark_dirty()`, but drawing has been done only to the specified rectangle, so that cairo can retain cached contents for other parts of the surface.

Any cached clip set on the surface will be reset by this function, to make sure that future cairo calls have the clip set that they expect.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
`x` : | X coordinate of dirty rectangle
`y` : | Y coordinate of dirty rectangle
`width` : | width of dirty rectangle
`height` : | height of dirty rectangle

### cairo_surface_set_device_offset ()

    void                cairo_surface_set_device_offset     (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             double x_offset,
                                                             double y_offset);

Sets an offset that is added to the device coordinates determined by the CTM when drawing to `surface`. One use case for this function is when we want to create a cairo_surface_t that redirects drawing for a portion of an onscreen surface to an offscreen surface in a way that is completely invisible to the user of the cairo API. Setting a transformation via `cairo_translate()` isn't sufficient to do this, since functions like `cairo_device_to_user()` will expose the hidden offset.

Note that the offset affects drawing to the surface as well as using the surface in a source pattern.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
`x_offset` : | the offset in the X direction, in device units
`y_offset` : | the offset in the Y direction, in device units

### cairo_surface_get_device_offset ()

    void                cairo_surface_get_device_offset     (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             double *x_offset,
                                                             double *y_offset);

This function returns the previous device offset set by `cairo_surface_set_device_offset()`.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
`x_offset` : | the offset in the X direction, in device units
`y_offset` : | the offset in the Y direction, in device units

Since 1.2

### cairo_surface_set_fallback_resolution ()

    void                cairo_surface_set_fallback_resolution
                                                            (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             double x_pixels_per_inch,
                                                             double y_pixels_per_inch);

Set the horizontal and vertical resolution for image fallbacks.

When certain operations aren't supported natively by a backend, cairo will fallback by rendering operations to an image and then overlaying that image onto the output. For backends that are natively vector-oriented, this function can be used to set the resolution used for these image fallbacks, (larger values will result in more detailed images, but also larger file sizes).

Some examples of natively vector-oriented backends are the ps, pdf, and svg backends.

For backends that are natively raster-oriented, image fallbacks are still possible, but they are always performed at the native device resolution. So this function has no effect on those backends.

Note: The fallback resolution only takes effect at the time of completing a page (with `cairo_show_page()` or `cairo_copy_page()`) so there is currently no way to have more than one fallback resolution in effect on a single page.

The default fallback resoultion is 300 pixels per inch in both dimensions.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
`x_pixels_per_inch` : | horizontal setting for pixels per inch
`y_pixels_per_inch` : | vertical setting for pixels per inch

Since 1.2

### cairo_surface_get_fallback_resolution ()

    void                cairo_surface_get_fallback_resolution
                                                            (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             double *x_pixels_per_inch,
                                                             double *y_pixels_per_inch);

This function returns the previous fallback resolution set by `cairo_surface_set_fallback_resolution()`, or default fallback resolution if never set.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
`x_pixels_per_inch` : | horizontal pixels per inch
`y_pixels_per_inch` : | vertical pixels per inch

Since 1.8

### enum cairo_surface_type_t

    typedef enum _cairo_surface_type {
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_IMAGE,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_PDF,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_PS,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_XLIB,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_XCB,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_GLITZ,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_QUARTZ,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_WIN32,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_BEOS,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_DIRECTFB,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_SVG,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_OS2,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_WIN32_PRINTING,
        CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_QUARTZ_IMAGE
    } cairo_surface_type_t;

cairo_surface_type_t is used to describe the type of a given surface. The surface types are also known as "backends" or "surface backends" within cairo.

The type of a surface is determined by the function used to create it, which will generally be of the form cairo_type`_surface_create()`, (though see `cairo_surface_create_similar()` as well).

The surface type can be queried with `cairo_surface_get_type()`

The various cairo_surface_t functions can be used with surfaces of any type, but some backends also provide type-specific functions that must only be called with a surface of the appropriate type. These functions have names that begin with cairo_type_surface such as `cairo_image_surface_get_width()`.

The behavior of calling a type-specific function with a surface of the wrong type is undefined.

New entries may be added in future versions.

`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_IMAGE` | The surface is of type image
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_PDF` | The surface is of type pdf
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_PS` | The surface is of type ps
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_XLIB` | The surface is of type xlib
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_XCB` | The surface is of type xcb
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_GLITZ` | The surface is of type glitz
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_QUARTZ` | The surface is of type quartz
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_WIN32` | The surface is of type win32
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_BEOS` | The surface is of type beos
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_DIRECTFB` | The surface is of type directfb
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_SVG` | The surface is of type svg
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_OS2` | The surface is of type os2
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_WIN32_PRINTING` | The surface is a win32 printing surface
`CAIRO_SURFACE_TYPE_QUARTZ_IMAGE` | The surface is of type quartz_image

Since 1.2

### cairo_surface_get_type ()

    cairo_surface_type_t  cairo_surface_get_type            (cairo_surface_t *surface);

This function returns the type of the backend used to create a surface. See cairo_surface_type_t for available types.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
Returns : | The type of `surface`.

Since 1.2

### cairo_surface_get_reference_count ()

    unsigned int        cairo_surface_get_reference_count   (cairo_surface_t *surface);

Returns the current reference count of `surface`.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
Returns : | the current reference count of `surface`. If the object is a nil object, 0 will be returned.

Since 1.4

### cairo_surface_set_user_data ()

    cairo_status_t      cairo_surface_set_user_data         (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             const cairo_user_data_key_t *key,
                                                             void *user_data,
                                                             cairo_destroy_func_t destroy);

Attach user data to `surface`. To remove user data from a surface, call this function with the key that was used to set it and `NULL` for `data`.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
`key` : | the address of a cairo_user_data_key_t to attach the user data to
`user_data` : | the user data to attach to the surface
`destroy` : | a cairo_destroy_func_t which will be called when the surface is destroyed or when new user data is attached using the same key.
Returns : | `CAIRO_STATUS_SUCCESS` or `CAIRO_STATUS_NO_MEMORY` if a slot could not be allocated for the user data.

### cairo_surface_get_user_data ()

    void *              cairo_surface_get_user_data         (cairo_surface_t *surface,
                                                             const cairo_user_data_key_t *key);

Return user data previously attached to `surface` using the specified key. If no user data has been attached with the given key this function returns `NULL`.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
`key` : | the address of the cairo_user_data_key_t the user data was attached to
Returns : | the user data previously attached or `NULL`.

### cairo_surface_copy_page ()

    void                cairo_surface_copy_page             (cairo_surface_t *surface);

Emits the current page for backends that support multiple pages, but doesn't clear it, so that the contents of the current page will be retained for the next page. Use `cairo_surface_show_page()` if you want to get an empty page after the emission.

There is a convenience function for this that takes a cairo_t, namely `cairo_copy_page()`.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t

Since 1.6

### cairo_surface_show_page ()

    void                cairo_surface_show_page             (cairo_surface_t *surface);

Emits and clears the current page for backends that support multiple pages. Use `cairo_surface_copy_page()` if you don't want to clear the page.

There is a convenience function for this that takes a cairo_t, namely `cairo_show_page()`.

`surface` : | a cairo_Surface_t

Since 1.6

### cairo_surface_has_show_text_glyphs ()

    cairo_bool_t        cairo_surface_has_show_text_glyphs  (cairo_surface_t *surface);

Returns whether the surface supports sophisticated `cairo_show_text_glyphs()` operations. That is, whether it actually uses the provided text and cluster data to a `cairo_show_text_glyphs()` call.

Note: Even if this function returns `FALSE`, a `cairo_show_text_glyphs()` operation targeted at `surface` will still succeed. It just will act like a `cairo_show_glyphs()` operation. Users can use this function to avoid computing UTF-8 text and cluster mapping if the target surface does not use it.

`surface` : | a cairo_surface_t
Returns : | `TRUE` if `surface` supports `cairo_show_text_glyphs()`, `FALSE` otherwise

Since 1.8

## See Also

- #`cairo_t()`
- #`cairo_pattern_t()`