Eurographics, the European Association for Computer Graphics, has always been an important forum for discussions and presentation of results concerning the first ISO Graphical Standard, GKS (the Graphical Kernel System) and later of its three-dimensional extension, GKS-3D. This book is a collection of those articles which have appeared within the framework of Eurographics in the past 5 years, and which still contain, even after several years, valid and interesting results concerning the problems arising in connection with GKS. Some of these papers help the reader to gain a deeper understanding of the standard; others deal with general implementation problems, and finally there are some presentations of specific algorithms usable also for a GKS or GKS-3D implementation. The book may be of a particular interest to those specialists who intend to implement a GKS package or some similar graphics subsystem and who can therefore make direct use of the experiences reflected in this collection. The book should also be a valuable supplement in university courses concerned with teaching the principles of implementing device-independent computer graphics.

We have written this book principally for users and practitioners of computer graphics. In particular, system designers, independent software vendors, graphics system implementers, and application program developers need to understand the basic standards being put in place at the so-called Virtual Device Interface and how they relate to other industry standards, both formal and de facto. Secondarily, the book has been targetted at technical managers and advanced students who need some understanding of the graphics standards and how they fit together, along with a good overview of the Computer Graphics Interface (CGI) proposal and Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) standard in particular. Part I, Chapters 1,2, and 3; Part II, Chapters 10 and 11; Part III, Chapters 15, 16, and 17; and some of the Appendices will be of special interest. Finally, these same sections will interest users in government and industry who are responsible for selecting, buying and installing commercial implementations of the standards. The CGM is already a US Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS 126), and we expect the same status for the CGI when its development is completed and it receives formal approval by the standards-making bodies.