To help you select the proper subroutines for your application, the following list comprises the functional categories for GL.
| Select an entry from the left column for the list of subroutines in that category. | |
| Select an entry from the right column for conceptual information on that topic. | |
| Antialiasing | |
| Draw smooth lines or points. | |
| Attributes | |
| Set or return attributes. | |
| Begin-End Style Drawing | |
| Provide fast vertex-based drawing primitives. | |
| Rectangles, Circles, Arcs, and Polygons | |
| Draw primitive geometric figures. | |
| Initialization | |
| Initialize or terminate GL functions. | |
| Move-Draw Style Drawing | |
| Draw primitives by moving and connecting points. | |
| NURBS Curves and Surfaces | |
| Draw nonuniform rational B-spline curves and surfaces. | |
| Pipeline Option-Setting | |
| Control flow of primitives through the graphics pipeline. | |
| Pixels | |
| Bit-block transfer (blit) rectangular images. | |
| Text Characters and Strings | |
| Create text characters and draw text strings. | |
| Wire Frame Curves/Surfaces | |
| Draw wire frame curves and surface patches. | |
| Coordinate Transformation | |
| Move, rotate, or scale drawing primitives. | |
| Viewport and Screenmask | |
| Create and control viewports and screenmasks. | |
| Hidden Surface Removal | |
| Control z-buffering and backfacing polygon removal. | |
| Lighting | |
| Define multiple materials, lights, and lighting models. | |
| Depth-Cueing | |
| Make color depend on distance to viewer. | |
| Animation | |
| Employ double buffering to create animated graphics. | |
| Attributes | |
| Set or return attributes. | |
| Clearing, Resetting, Starting | |
| Initialize, terminate or configure GL functions. | |
| Color Map and RGB Modes | |
| Manipulate color maps or work in RGB mode. | |
| Frame Buffer Configuration | |
| Configure frame buffer and return information. | |
| Writemasks and Logical Ops | |
| Control writemasks for frame buffer. | |
| Query | |
| Request information about system resources. | |
| Object (Display List) | |
| Create and manage graphical objects (display lists). | |
| Picking and Selecting | |
| Control picking and selecting operations. | |
| Cursors | |
| Define and control cursor. | |
| Keyboard | |
| Manage keyboard functions. | |
| Pop-up Menus | |
| Create and manipulate pop-up menus. | |
| Query | |
| Request information about system resources. | |
| Queue and Device | |
| Control input queues and devices. | |
| Textport | |
| Create and manage a screen area for textual output. | |
| Windows | |
| Create and manage windows. | |
| Enhanced X-Windows | |
| Control window mapping, set window properties, create widgets. | |