To display an image, you need to render it onto a GdkDrawable, such as GdkWindow of a drawing area or to a GdkPixmap which is then displayed in the usual ways. ]]> the drawable to render the image to GC specifying rendering parameters start coordinates within the source image destination coordinates within the drawable the dimensions of the rectangle to render dithering type - only makes sense on 8-bit or 16-bit displays. Use GDK_RGB_DITHER_NORMAL for most of cases. dithering offset - useful only on 8/16-bit displays when scrolling or re-rendering sub-regions of the image