- cairo_device_t — interface to underlying rendering system
- cairo_surface_t — Base class for surfaces
- Image Surfaces — Rendering to memory buffers
- PDF Surfaces — Rendering PDF documents
- PNG Support — Reading and writing PNG images
- PostScript Surfaces — Rendering PostScript documents
- Recording Surfaces — Records all drawing operations
- Win32 Surfaces — Microsoft Windows surface support
- SVG Surfaces — Rendering SVG documents
- Quartz Surfaces — Rendering to Quartz surfaces
- XCB Surfaces — X Window System rendering using the XCB library
- XLib Surfaces — X Window System rendering using XLib
- XLib-XRender Backend — X Window System rendering using XLib and the X Render extension
- Script Surfaces — Rendering to replayable scripts