Graphics device interface
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2009) |
For the graphics device interface in Windows, see Graphics Device Interface.
 |
This article is an orphan, as few or no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; suggestions may be available. (February 2009) |
A graphics device interface is a subsystem that most operating systems use for representing graphical objects and transmitting them to output devices such as monitors and printers. In most cases, the graphics device interface is only able to draw 2D graphics and simple 3D graphics, in order to make use of more advanced graphics and keep performance, an API such as DirectX or OpenGL needs to be installed.
In Microsoft Windows, the GDI functionality resides in gdi.exe on 16-bit Windows, and gdi32.dll on 32-bit Windows.
