Optional model/view split.

Uses interfaces for items and views.

Basic items - rect/ellipse/polyline/text/image/grid/group.

Path item, using SVG path specification strings.

Table item for layout of other items (similar to the GtkTable widget). (This also supports items whose requested height changes according to their allocated width, such as text items.)

Embedded GTK+ widgets.

Layers/stacking order with raise/lower functions.

Cascading styles - line width/style/dashes, colors, fill patterns.

Affine transformations for all items - rotations/scales/skews.

Event handling - button/motion events, "pointer-events" property like SVG.

Grabs - support for pointer and keyboard grabs.

Keyboard focus traversal.

Accessibility (item title and description properties and hierarchy stuff).

Printing (output to a given cairo_t).

Scrolling.

Zooming.

Static items that don't move as the canvas is scrolled or zoomed.

Item visibility setting - on/off/above zoom threshold.

Simple animation.

Scalable - support for thousands of items over a large canvas area.

Support for different units - pixels/points/inches/millimeters.