I need to read, write (mid file stream), display, and resize (on screen only) an image or images.

In giving a cursory examination of GIL it seems like total overkill and inappropriate for these simple needs but targeting something that is going to manipulate the images further.

Is this an accurate assessment or are the tutorial examples simply focused for goals other than mine?

Thanks.

I've been happily using gil for a while, and it suits my needs well, but I think your assessment is correct in your case. It does not have not the best image io library (they consider io an optional extension actually), and it does not help with image display at all. It would be nice if there was a boost graphics library..., but I guess that is to tricky to get right. You could check out Christian Hennings extensions (http://code.google.com/p/gil-contributions/) I think he might have a SDL extension...or you could just use SDL directly I guess. -- John