Drawing operation

Drawing ports and graphics devices are multi-tasking. This means that the same graphics device can be used by any number of drawing ports, and the same drawing port can be used by any number of graphics.

You execute a drawing operation by drawing the graphic or by drawing the geometry. Both of these methods are described in the two headings that follow. Either way, the geometries, graphic state, and graphics device are made known to the drawing port as follows:

• The geometries provide the drawing shapes.
• The graphic state describes the graphic and scene attributes, model and view transformations, and a clipping region. See the heading "Graphic state" on page 360 for more information.
• The graphics device determines the method by which the drawing occurs; for example, frame buffer, PostScript, plotter, video, or screen device.