# Chapter 26 The graphics library

The `graphics` library provides a set of portable drawing primitives. Drawing takes place in a separate window that is created when `Graphics.open_graph` is called.

> Unix: This library is implemented under the X11 windows system. Programs that use the `graphics` library must be linked as follows:

>             ocamlc other options graphics.cma other files

> For interactive use of the `graphics` library, do:

>             ocamlmktop -o mytop graphics.cma
>             ./mytop

> or (if dynamic linking of C libraries is supported on your platform), start `ocaml` and type `#load "graphics.cma";;`.

> Here are the graphics mode specifications supported by `Graphics.open_graph` on the X11 implementation of this library: the argument to `Graphics.open_graph` has the format `"`display-name geometry`"`, where display-name is the name of the X-windows display to connect to, and geometry is a standard X-windows geometry specification. The two components are separated by a space. Either can be omitted, or both. Examples:

> `Graphics.open_graph "foo:0"`
>   connects to the display `foo:0` and creates a window with the default geometry
> `Graphics.open_graph "foo:0 300x100+50-0"`
>   connects to the display `foo:0` and creates a window 300 pixels wide by 100 pixels tall, at location (50,0)
> `Graphics.open_graph " 300x100+50-0"`
>   connects to the default display and creates a window 300 pixels wide by 100 pixels tall, at location (50,0)
> `Graphics.open_graph ""`
>   connects to the default display and creates a window with the default geometry.

> Windows: This library is available both for standalone compiled programs and under the toplevel application `ocamlwin.exe`. For the latter, this library must be loaded in-core by typing

>             #load "graphics.cma";;

The screen coordinates are interpreted as shown in the figure below. Notice that the coordinate system used is the same as in mathematics: y increases from the bottom of the screen to the top of the screen, and angles are measured counterclockwise (in degrees). Drawing is clipped to the screen.

- Module `Graphics`: machine-independent graphics primitives