Overview of Object Graphic Destinations

Once a graphic object tree has been created, it can be displayed, or drawn, to a physical destination device (such as a computer screen or printer), to a memory location (such as a buffer or the operating system clipboard), or to a particular file format (such as a VRML file). Destination objects represent the final locations to which object graphics are drawn, and provide methods that allow you to control the properties of the physical device, memory buffer, or file format.

Each destination object includes a GetFontnames method, which returns the list of available fonts that can be used in IDLgrFont objects. This method will only return the names of the available TrueType fonts. Hershey fonts will not be returned as they are fixed—see Fonts (IDL Reference Guide) for more information.

There are five destination objects:

Of the five destination objects, Window objects are the most common and most often used, and will be addressed first.

Note
Output to IDLgrClipboard and IDLgrPrinter objects can be in bitmap or vector format. See Bitmap and Vector Graphic Output for information on choosing a suitable graphics output type based on scene content.