The cairo-surface-type-t enumeration is used to describe the type of a given surface. The surface types are also known as "backends" or "surface backends" within Cairo.

The type of a surface is determined by the function used to create it, which will generally be of the form cairo-type-surface-create, though see the function cairo-surface-create-similar as well.

The surface type can be queried with the function cairo-surface-type.

The various cairo-surface-t functions can be used with surfaces of any type, but some backends also provide type-specific functions that must only be called with a surface of the appropriate type. These functions have names that begin with cairo-type-surface such as the function cairo-image-surface-width.

The behavior of calling a type-specific function with a surface of the wrong type is undefined.

New entries may be added in future versions.

(defcenum cairo-surface-type-t
  :image
  :pdf
  :ps
  :xlib
  :xcb
  :glitz
  :quartz
  :win32
  :beos
  :directfb
  :svg
  :os2
  :win32-printing
  :quartz-image
  :script
  :qt
  :recording
  :vg
  :gl
  :drm
  :tee
  :xml
  :skia
  :subsurface
  :cogl)  

:image

The surface is of type image.

:pdf

The surface is of type pdf.

:ps

The surface is of type ps.

:xlib

The surface is of type xlib.

:xcb

The surface is of type xcb.

:glitz

The surface is of type glitz.

:quartz

The surface is of type quartz.

:win32

The surface is of type win32.

:beos

The surface is of type beos.

:directfb

The surface is of type directfb.

:svg

The surface is of type svg.

:os2

The surface is of type os2.

:win32-printing

The surface is a win32 printing surface.

:quartz-image

The surface is of type quartz_image.

:script

The surface is of type script.

:qt

The surface is of type Qt.

:recording

The surface is of type recording.

:vg

The surface is a OpenVG surface.

:gl

The surface is of type OpenGL.

:drm

The surface is of type Direct Render Manager.

:tee

The surface is of type 'tee' (a multiplexing surface).

:xml

The surface is of type XML (for debugging).

:skia

The surface is of type Skia.

:subsurface

The surface is a subsurface created with the function cairo-surface-create-for-rectangle.

:cogl

This surface is of type Cogl.