#!/usr/bin/env python """demonstrate pycairo and pygame method1: use pycairo and pygame directly """ import array import math import sys import cairo import pygame def draw(surface): x,y, radius = (250,250, 200) ctx = cairo.Context(surface) ctx.set_line_width(15) ctx.arc(x, y, radius, 0, 2.0 * math.pi) ctx.set_source_rgb(0.8, 0.8, 0.8) ctx.fill_preserve() ctx.set_source_rgb(1, 1, 1) ctx.stroke() def input(events): for event in events: if event.type == pygame.QUIT: sys.exit(0) else: print event Width, Height = 512, 512 surface = cairo.ImageSurface(cairo.FORMAT_ARGB32, Width, Height) pygame.init() window = pygame.display.set_mode( (Width,Height) ) screen = pygame.display.get_surface() draw(surface) #Create PyGame surface from Cairo Surface buf = surface.get_data() image = pygame.image.frombuffer(buf,(Width,Height),"ARGB",) #Tranfer to Screen screen.blit(image, (0,0)) pygame.display.flip() while True: input(pygame.event.get()) """ with pycairo 1.4.12 and pygame 1.7.1 you get the error message: Traceback (most recent call last): File "./pygame-test1.py", line 42, in image = pygame.image.frombuffer(buf,(Width,Height),"ARGB",) TypeError: char buffer type not available This is because with buf = surface.get_data() pycairo provides a binary image buffer, whereas with image = pygame.image.frombuffer(buf,(Width,Height),"ARGB",) pygame is expecting a text-based character buffer! """