GdkPixbuf is a library for image loading and pixel buffer manipulation.
And it's provides a number of features:

	- Image loading saving facilities.
	- Rendering of a GdkPixBuf into various formats:
	  drawables (windows, pixmaps), GdkRGB buffers.
                - Fast scaling and compositing of pixbufs.
                - Simple animation loading (ie. animated GIFs)

See Also [ http://developer.gnome.org/gdk-pixbuf/stable/ ]