Direct2D

Direct2D is a 2D vector graphics application programming interface (API) designed by Microsoft and implemented in Windows 10,Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and also Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 (with Platform Update installed).

Direct2D takes advantage of hardware acceleration via the graphics processing unit (GPU) found in compatible graphics cards within personal computer, tablet, smartphone and modern graphical device. It offers high visual quality and fast rendering performance while maintaining full interoperability with classic Win32 graphics APIs such as GDI/GDI+ and modern graphics APIs such as Direct3D.

An updated version of Direct2D was launched with Windows 8. It was also backported to Windows 7 SP1 (but not to Windows Vista) via the Windows 7 platform update. The original version of Direct2D was tied to DirectX 10, whereas this version of Direct2D integrates with DirectX 11.1. Windows 8 also added interoperability between XAML and Direct2D along with Direct3D components, which can be all mixed in an application. New features were added to Direct2D in Windows 8.1:Geometry realizations, Direct2D effects API, command list API, multithreading API's, per-device rendering priority, support for JPEG YCbCr images for smaller memory footprint, and support for block compressed formats (DDS files).

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