A
graphics library is a
program library designed to aid in rendering
computer graphics to a monitor. This typically involves providing optimized versions of functions that handle common
rendering tasks. This can be done purely in
software and running on the
CPU, common in
embedded systems, or being
hardware accelerated by a
GPU, more common in
PCs. By employing these functions, a program can assemble an image to be output to a monitor. This relieves the programmer of the task of creating and optimizing these functions, and allows them to focus on building the graphics program. Graphics libraries are mainly used in
Video Games and
Simulations.