StackOverflow2013

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POChoosing a cross-platform graphics library for perfect text rendering
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copied!<p>I want to write a simple text editing application in c/c++ ( mainly devoted to source code editing ) with these specifications:</p> <ul> <li>cross-platform ( Windows, OS X, Linux )</li> <li>with the as much as possible the same appearence on each os</li> <li>insanely fast</li> <li>a superior font printing quality <strong>* MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL *</strong></li> <li>it's not very important the widget support, I don't really need a complex support of widget</li> <li>precedence to software code architecture and its speed instead of speed coming from support of hardware acceleration</li> </ul> <p>Before writing I made a study and some search on the net, but I need some advice to choose better:</p> <ul> <li>GTK+ and wxwidgets: complete set of libraries to complete my task</li> <li>SDL: offers a virtualization layer over platform, so I can write platform independend graphics using SDL primitives</li> <li>Cairo ( or pango ):</li> <li>Skia</li> <li>views ( use inside chromium <a href="http://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/chromeviews">http://www.chromium.org/developers/design-documents/chromeviews</a>)</li> <li>AGG ( anti grain geometry: it seems the best text rendering library with its subpixel feature, but what about the speed and the support? )</li> <li>fog-framework ( <a href="http://code.google.com/p/fog/">http://code.google.com/p/fog/</a> ): seems good too, but misses some functionalities</li> <li>open GL</li> <li>scintilla</li> </ul> <p>I discarded QT, I don't like how to use it.</p> <p>Which things I miss using a library instead of another? And what about the support? In some cases, it's not very clear to me what each library offers to me and what is the work I have to do to reach my goal ( eg. other layers to add to graphics project ).</p> <p>An example of graphic stack organization helps me very much too choose the right tool. I have to choose the right balance to customization and deploy speed. Eg: what SDL offers less than Cairo or Skia? Etc. Eg. ( starting from layers closer to the OS )</p> <ul> <li>Backend ( = virtualization of the OS graphics )</li> <li>?</li> <li>?</li> <li>?</li> <li>Rapid Application Toolkit to compose widgets into application</li> </ul>

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