SDL_gfx and SDL2_gfx are open source software projects designed as add-ons to the SDL (Simple DirectMedia Library) cross-platform API (Application Programming Interface) layer used for creating all sorts of video games. It is distributed as part of the SDL project, written entirely in the C programming language, and engineered to be used in C++ code.

The SDL_gfx/SDL2_gxf are derived from the SDL_gfxPrimitives code, which provided basic drawing routines, such as circles, polygons and lines. They are also based on the SDL_rotozoom project.

SDL_gfx/SDL2_gfx consists of graphic primitives (SDL_gfxPrimitves.h), rotozoomer (SDL_rotozoom.h), framerate control (SDL_framerate.h), MMX image filters (SDL_imageFilter.h), and custom Blit functions (SDL_gfxBlitFunc.h).

Simple DirectMedia Layer or SDL for short is a cross-platform and open source multimedia library written in the C programming language and designed from the offset to provide low level access to mouse, keyboard, audio, joystick, and 3D graphics hardware via Direct3D and OpenGL technologies.

To install either of the SDL_gfx or SDL2_gfx software projects on a GNU/Linux operating system, you will have to download the respective sources archive, saving it on your Home directory, and extracting its contents using an archive manager utility.

Then, you must open a terminal emulator software and go to the location where you’ve extracted the archive file (e.g. cd /home/softpedia/SDL2_gfx-1.0.1 or cd /home/softpedia/SDL_gfx-2.0.25 - you must replace ‘softpedia’ with your username, and the version number).

Arrived there, run the ‘./configure && make’ command to configure the program and build the libraries, which can be easily installed after a successful compilation operation by running the ‘sudo make install’ command. It supports 32 and 64-bit computer platforms.