Description GtkLayout is similar to GtkDrawingArea in that it's a "blank slate" and doesn't do anything but paint a blank background by default. It's different in that it supports scrolling natively (you can add it to a GtkScrolledWindow), and it can contain child widgets, since it's a GtkContainer. However if you're just going to draw, a GtkDrawingArea is a better choice since it has lower overhead. When handling expose events on a GtkLayout, you must draw to GTK_LAYOUT (layout)->bin_window, rather than to GTK_WIDGET (layout)->window, as you would for a drawing area.