/* Composite.java -- graphics formed from composite layers
   Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This file is part of GNU Classpath.

GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
any later version.

GNU Classpath is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
02111-1307 USA.

Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
making a combined work based on this library.  Thus, the terms and
conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
combination.

As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under
terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked
independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that
module.  An independent module is a module which is not derived from
or based on this library.  If you modify this library, you may extend
this exception to your version of the library, but you are not
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exception statement from your version. */


package java.awt;

import java.awt.image.ColorModel;

/**
 * This interface is for graphics which are formed as composites of others.
 * It combines {@link Graphics2D} shapes according to defined rules to form
 * the new image. Implementations of this interface must be immutable, because
 * they are not cloned when a Graphics2D container is cloned.
 *
 * <p>Since this can expose pixels to untrusted code, there is a security
 * check on custom objects, <code>readDisplayPixels</code>, to prevent leaking
 * restricted information graphically.
 *
 * @author Eric Blake <ebb9@email.byu.edu>
 * @see AlphaComposite
 * @see CompositeContext
 * @see Graphics2D#setComposite(Composite)
 * @since 1.2
 * @status updated to 1.4
 */
public interface Composite
{
  /**
   * Create a context state for performing the compositing operation. Several
   * contexts may exist for this object, in a multi-threaded environment.
   *
   * @param srcColorModel the color model of the source
   * @param dstColorModel the color model of the destination
   * @param hints hints for choosing between rendering alternatives
   */
  CompositeContext createContext(ColorModel srcColorModel,
                                 ColorModel dstColorModel,
                                 RenderingHints hints);
} // interface Composite