Drawing ellipses and elliptical arcs with piecewise cubic B\'ezier curve approximations

TL;DR

This paper presents a method using piecewise cubic Bézier curves to accurately approximate ellipses and elliptical arcs, providing simple interfaces and small code implementations for graphics applications.

Contribution

It introduces a geometric approach for drawing ellipses and arcs with cubic Bézier curves, including C++ code snippets for practical implementation.

Findings

Simple interface for drawing ellipses and arcs

Small, efficient C++ code implementations

Applicable with existing graphics libraries

Abstract

This tutorial explains how to use piecewise cubic B\'ezier curves to draw arbitrarily oriented ellipses and elliptical arcs. The geometric principles discussed here result in strikingly simple interfaces for graphics functions that can draw (approximate) circles, ellipses, and arcs of circles and ellipses. C++ source code listings are included for these functions. Their code size can be relatively small because they are designed to be used with a graphics library or platform that draws B\'ezier curves, and the library or platform is tasked with the actual rendering of the curves.