GDI +
GDI + (GDI stands for Graphics Device Interface) is the successor to Microsoft's graphics system GDI and has been integrated into the operating system since Windows XP , but can be installed on older Microsoft operating systems (at least Windows 2000 , not Windows NT ) via Windows Update . In Windows Vista , GDI + has almost completely replaced the older GDI, so that outdated GDI graphics are only forwarded to the Desktop Window Manager . For this reason, in contrast to GDI +, GDI is no longer hardware accelerated since Windows Vista.
New features of GDI + include the native representation of JPEG and PNG , improved path management (for vector graphics) and colors in ARGB . This simplifies the implementation of PDF , SVG and related technologies. Comparable graphics libraries are Quartz for Apple's macOS and Cairo for Linux .
