What is a good 2D graphics framework, for a drawing application?

I am trying to build a raster drawing application using C# and so far I have not been able to locate any versatile light weight 2D graphics frameworks, or guides.

I was hoping a few of you would be able to give me a good head start because currently my choices are using GDI+ or WPF and that is about it :(...

Basically I need something simple that will provide me with the ability to create a Canvas, Layers, Brushes, and the ability to import/export all of these things. I have looked through several graphic applications to see how they implemented their tools and looked online for books and have come out with no knowledge abo开发者_StackOverflow社区ut where to begin.

Thank You, Andrew

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You don't mention if you want to make a vector editor or a raster editor. I'm assuming raster.

If you don't have much graphics API experience, and just want to get something working as soon as possible, just go with GDI+. It is much simpler than WPF conceptually.

Both GDI+ and WPF can do what you want. Working with WPF will probably give better performance because it uses Direct-X for acceleration. It also uses a stored-scene paradigm, which may make a lot of drawing operations conceptually simpler. The learning curve is much higher than GDI+, though.

You could always use Open-GL, Direct-X, or unmanaged GDI. They all have good 2D performance. But you will have to make calls to unmanaged code.

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Well, two things.

One, you can take a look at Paint.Net. It is a free .Net program for working with 2D Graphics. Using the plugin model, you may be able to solve whatever problem you are working on more easily.

Second, a good 2D graphics library is SDL.Net. It's a set of OO wrappers for the C SDL library, and makes drawing 2D images pretty easy. I don't know if it will offer support for all of the more "manipulation" questions you have, though.

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If you are trying to learn 2D graphics, WinForms is much easier to learn than WPF. WinForms supports brushes, canvases, multiple graphics formats, file import/export, and such.

The Code Project site has many WinForms graphics tutorials, try starting here.

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Piccolo 2D is a 2d gfx framework for Java and C#. Free, open-source. Provides a scene graph, etc. Zoomable. Looks good.

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The XNA framework is easy use and performs well since it is actually just a wrapper for DirectX. The big advantage is that you can write all your code in managed C#. Have a look at this post on the xna forum to see how you can read out the display for export.

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There is also the Tao framework, which allows you to use either OpenGL or SDL for your drawing needs. It also is a set of OO wrappers around each. There are quite a few tutorials out there on Google for getting started as well.

Tao Framework