ARCHIVED: For Mac OS, what is QuickDraw?

Note: This document does not apply to Mac OS X; QuickDraw is not supported in Mac OS X, and has been replaced by Quartz. For more information, see ARCHIVED: For Mac OS X, what are Quartz and Quartz Extreme?

As the imaging language for Mac OS, QuickDraw is tasked with constructing windows, text, dialogs, icons, and other graphical objects. Analogous to PostScript, but designed for monitors and low-end printers, QuickDraw draws, orients, and updates all objects in the Mac OS graphical interface. It supports multiple monitors, placing all devices on a single coordinate plane. This makes it possible for an application, or even a window, to use more than one monitor at a time with ease.

QuickDraw has been an integral part of Mac OS since the original Macintosh 128k was released in 1984. However, over the years it has gone through several revisions.

• Basic QuickDraw: The original QuickDraw (now called Basic QuickDraw) supports a fixed palette of eight colors: black, white, red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, and magenta. For most purposes, this was sufficient for the original Macintosh models, which were all black and white. Macintosh computers equipped with the 68000 processor are limited to Basic QuickDraw, but, with Mac OS 7.0 and higher installed, may take advantage of certain features of Color QuickDraw.
• Color QuickDraw: As color displays became more common, Apple released Color QuickDraw. It was built into the Macintosh II series and has been with Mac OS ever since. The first version of Color QuickDraw could display only 256 colors at a time, but with the development of 32-bit Color QuickDraw, it became possible to display millions of colors. Color QuickDraw will attempt to draw only as many colors as a given device can support.
• QuickDraw GX: Rather than a replacement of earlier versions of QuickDraw, QuickDraw GX introduced new features such as advanced typography and printing, and an object-based graphics model. Unfortunately, applications had to be rewritten in order to take advantage of the new features. Because GX was always an optional install, however, few developers felt it was worth the effort to incorporate it into their programs. Consequently, QuickDraw GX was never broadly adopted and development on it has ceased.
• QuickDraw 3D: Performing a distinctly different function than other members of the QuickDraw family, QuickDraw 3D provides a three-dimensional development environment. As with QuickDraw GX, developers must specifically write QuickDraw 3D support into their programs, but QuickDraw 3D has enjoyed much more success than GX. Now a component of QuickTime, QuickDraw 3D support has been incorporated into many games, and with hardware acceleration it can substantially improve the quality of 3D rendered objects.