Fast 2D Raster Rendering with GUI

[Miki]

Hello 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!
Apart from PIL, some other options are:
1. Most GUI frameworks (wxPython, PyQT, ...) give you a canvas object
you can draw on
2. A bit of an overkill, but you can use PyOpenGL
3. ImageMagick bindings? (http://www.imagemagick.org/script/api.php)

HTH,
--
Miki <miki.tebeka at gmail.com>
http://pythonwise.blogspot.com