Fast 2D Raster Rendering with GUI

[dave]

Hi All. I've been formulating in my head a simple image editor. I
actually started prototyping is some time ago in Java, but am liking
Python more and more. My editor will be nowhere near the level of Gimp/
Photoshop, but I do need fast pixel level control and display. For
instance, that means no automatic anti-aliasing and that I will be
implementing my own line drawing algorithms.

I've got the high level architectual aspects of my program down, but
am stuck on what graphics API to use. I want a canvas area of
adjustable size which users can draw on with as little lag as
possible. The canvas area will be composed of layers (i.e. I require
an alpha channel) and I need to be able to zoom in and out of it (zoom
levels will be at fixed intervals, so this can be simulated if need
be.)

I started looking at PyGame but realize that I need to integrate a GUI
into the whole thing (or integrate the image  into the GUI rather) and
I didn't see a straightforward way to do that. Of course, I don't even
know if PyGame is the right API for the job anyways :P

Any thoughts or ideas that could help me get started? Thanks!