The graphics offerings in Windows Forms fall into
the following three broad categories:

Two-dimensional (2-D) vector graphics
Imaging
Typography


Two-dimensional vector graphics
are primitives; such as lines, curves, and figures; that are
specified by sets of points on a coordinate
system. For example, a straight line is specified by
its two endpoints, and a rectangle is specified by
a point giving the location of its upper-left corner
and a pair of numbers giving its width and height.

A simple path is specified by an array of points
that are connected by straight lines. A Bézier
spline is a sophisticated curve specified by four
control points.

GDI+ provides classes and structures that store
information about the primitives themselves,
classes that store information about how the
primitives will be drawn, and classes that actually
do the drawing. For example, the Rectangle
structure stores the location and size of a
rectangle; the Pen class stores information about
line color, line width, and line style; and the
Graphics class has methods for drawing lines,
rectangles, paths, and other figures. There are
also several Brush classes that store information
about how closed figures and paths will be filled
with colors or patterns.

You can record a vector image, which is a
sequence of graphics commands, in a metafile. GDI
+ provides the Metafile class for recording,
displaying, and saving metafiles. With the
MetafileHeader and MetaHeader classes, you can
inspect the data stored in a metafile header.


Imaging
Certain kinds of pictures are difficult or
impossible to display with the techniques of
vector graphics. For example, the pictures on
toolbar buttons and the pictures that appear as
icons are difficult to specify as collections of lines
and curves. A high-resolution digital photograph
of a crowded baseball stadium is even more
difficult to create with vector techniques. Images
of this type are stored as bitmaps, which are
arrays of numbers that represent the colors of
individual dots on the screen. GDI+ provides the
Bitmap class for displaying, manipulating, and
saving bitmaps.


Typography
Typography is the display of text in a variety of
fonts, sizes, and styles. GDI+ provides extensive
support for this complex task. One of the new
features in GDI+ is subpixel antialiasing, which
gives text rendered on an LCD screen a smoother
appearance.
In addition, Windows Forms offers the option to
draw text with GDI capabilities in its TextRenderer
class.