Department of Engineering

Graphics

Frequently Asked Questions

• Some common graphics file formats
• Some common graphics conversions
• Graphics viewers
• CUED's Frequently Asked Graphics Questions

Using other people's routines

A brief talk lists the options available locally and provides examples.

• The GLUE library combines features from GLUT and GLUI to produce a simple entry-level library.
• The C++ Templated Image Processing Library might be of use

Packages and Utilities

• Matlab
• xfig
• GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program)
• netpbm (a suite of conversion/manipulation programs)

Graphical User Interfaces

• Tcl/Tk
• wxwidgets can be used with Win32, Mac OS X, X11, Motif, etc from C++, Python, C#/.NET, etc.
• GTK+ (Open Source Free Software GUI Toolkit, primarily developed for use with the X Window System). It's installed on the linux-based Teaching System. gtk-- is also installed for C++ users - it's a C++ wrapper around the GDK/GTK toolkit. See the Tutorial.
• An alternative to GTK is Qt, which is used in the KDE project's desktop environment. The tutorials are useful. It's installed on the linux-based Teaching System.

X Windows

• X Windows
• X Security

OpenGL

OpenGL is a widely used and supported 2D and 3D graphics application programming interface (works with Win32, MacOS, X-Window, etc, from C++, Fortran, Python, Perl, Java, etc).

• The Official Guide to Learning OpenGL, Version 1.1 is a free introduction
• The GL Utility Kit (GLUT) makes it considerably easier to learn about and explore OpenGL programming. It's designed for constructing small to medium sized OpenGL programs. See our Using GLUT page for details of local use.
• The GLUI User Interface Library is a GLUT-based C++ user interface library which provides controls such as buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, and spinners to OpenGL applications. See our Using GLUI page for details of local use.

Tcl/Tk

CUED users can run example scripts (and see the code) by typing "cd /usr/share/tcl/iwidgets4.0.1/demos; wish catalog". To learn more, look at

• TCL/TK Home Page
• Tcl Fundamentals
• A short primer from Scriptics
• Tcl/Tk 8.4 Manual

Guidelines

• using Color in Information Display graphics
• GUI Guidelines

Video

See the Movies page for some information on digital movie production.

We also have information on Screencasts.