System.Drawing.Managed is a fully managed, cross-platform implementation of the classic System.Drawing API. Developed by Ice Tea Group and Six Labors, it serves as a drop-in replacement for Microsoft’s deprecated System.Drawing.Common, bringing modern imaging capabilities to all .NET platforms — without native dependencies.

Why System.Drawing Needed a Successor

For years, System.Drawing.Common has been a mainstay for .NET Framework developers, which was deprecated in .NET (Core), leaving a critical gap. The reliance on libgdiplus as a fallback on Linux and macOS proved problematic in several aspects.

With today’s workloads increasingly cloud-native, containerized, and cross-platform, developers need a reliable, supported, and fully managed graphics stack that works consistently across environments.

Built for the Modern .NET Ecosystem

System.Drawing.Managed reimagines System.Drawing in pure C#, powered by Six Labors’ ImageSharp — a proven, high-performance imaging engine.

Key Highlights:

• Fully Managed: No native libgdiplus dependency
• Cross-Platform: Works consistently on Windows, Linux, and macOS
• .NET-First: Supported on .NET 6+ and beyond
• Production-Ready: Built on ImageSharp’s modern, SIMD-optimized imaging core
• Compatible by Design: Targets existing System.Drawing APIs for easy migration

This combination ensures performance, reliability, and portability, while preserving the familiar API surface that developers already know.

Designed for Real-World Workloads

System.Drawing.Managed isn’t just an experiment — it’s engineered for production use, especially for frameworks like Wisej.NET 4, which require dependable and cross-platform imaging support:

• API Compatibility: Prioritizing the most-used System.Drawing namespaces and types for smooth drop-in replacement.
• Performance: Leveraging ImageSharp’s SIMD-enabled processing and efficient memory management.
• Ecosystem Integration: Compatible with popular .NET frameworks, libraries, and hosting environments.

The NuGet package is available here: Managed.System.Drawing

More details and a comprehensive documentation can be found here: https://docs.wisej.com/system.drawing.managed

Conclusion

System.Drawing.Managed represents more than a compatibility layer — it’s a forward-looking modernization of a beloved API. By combining familiar APIs with modern .NET-native imaging technology, it brings a safe, predictable, and fully managed graphics solution to developers everywhere.

Whether you’re maintaining legacy code, building cross-platform apps, or deploying to the cloud, System.Drawing.Managed offers the stability and performance you need for the next generation of .NET applications.