[Freegis-list] Geospatial graphics library based on Cairo?

[Sean Gillies]

Ari Jolma wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Does anybody know of a geospatial graphics library that is built on 
> Cairo? Would anybody be interested in starting a project to build one? I 
> know we have Mapnik, which seems to be very good etc (I haven't tried 
> it), and maybe others but my point here is Cairo. Having a Cairo based 
> library, would open up possibilities for building GTK (Since 2.8, GTK+ 
> does most of its drawing using Cairo.) and Gnome geospatial applications.
> 
> Cairo (http://cairographics.org/) from it web page: Cairo is a 2D 
> graphics library with support for multiple output devices. Currently 
> supported output targets include the X Window System, Win32, image 
> buffers, and PostScript, PDF, and SVG file output. Experimental backends 
> include OpenGL (through glitz), Quartz, and XCB.
> 
> I've been wanting to have a library like this for a while now. Basically 
> the library would use the services of Cairo and GDAL (and OGR). It would 
> be written in C.
> 
> I'm not very sure what would be the best way to feed the style etc. 
> information into the library. OGR has at least some support for styles, 
> but I'm thinking that the usage of this library would be more in "visual 
> geoanalytics" and thus the styling information needs to be very flexible 
> and extendable.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Ari
> 

Ari,

I have a package in the works for Python:

http://trac.gispython.org/projects/PCL/browser/PCL/branches/cairographics/PCL-Cairo

The following C extension module renders a few GEOS C geometries using 
Cairo:

http://trac.gispython.org/projects/PCL/browser/PCL/branches/cairographics/PCL-Cairo/cartography/engine/cairo/_rcairomodule.c

Cheers,
Sean

-- 
Sean Gillies
http://zcologia.com/news