METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMPOSITING DISPLAY ITEMS WHICH MINIMIZES LOCKED DRAWING AREAS

A compositing architecture provides for correct rendering of overlapping opaque and translucent regions of respective graphic images with rapid pixel restoration when an image floating above another image is moved or manipulated to reveal pixels of a graphic image at a greater depth by provision for buffering data corresponding to a portion of a graphic image which is beneath another graphic image. Data representing graphic images is selectively routed to a painter in response to a determination of opacity and depth order of the graphic images. A plurality of painters are preferably provided with image rendering pipeline of differing lengths. A painter is chosen in accordance with the number of images to be composited. Data buffering is minimized by dynamic creation and removal of buffers in accordance with the intersecting regions of the graphic images.