--- breadcrumbs: - - /developers - For Developers page_name: design-documents title: Design Documents --- ## Start Here: Background Reading * [Multi-process Architecture](/developers/design-documents/multi-process-architecture): Describes the high-level architecture of Chromium **Note:** Most of the rest of the design documents assume familiarity with the concepts explained in this document. * [How Blink works](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aitSOucL0VHZa9Z2vbRJSyAIsAz24kX8LFByQ5xQnUg) is a high-level overview of Blink architecture. * The "Life of a Pixel" talk ([slides](http://bit.ly/lifeofapixel) / [video](http://bit.ly/loap-2020-video)) is an introduction to Chromium's rendering pipeline, tracing the steps from web content to displayed pixels. * \[somewhat outdated\] [How Chromium Displays Web Pages](/developers/design-documents/displaying-a-web-page-in-chrome): Bottom-to-top overview of how WebKit is embedded in Chromium ## See Also: * [Design docs in source code](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/README.md) * [Design doc template](https://docs.google.com/document/d/14YBYKgk-uSfjfwpKFlp_omgUq5hwMVazy_M965s_1KA/edit) ## General Architecture * [Conventions and patterns for multi-platform development](/developers/design-documents/conventions-and-patterns-for-multi-platform-development) * [Extension Security Architecture](http://webblaze.cs.berkeley.edu/2010/secureextensions/): How the extension system helps reduce the severity of extension vulnerabilities * [HW Video Acceleration in Chrom{e,ium}{,OS}](https://docs.google.com/a/chromium.org/document/d/1LUXNNv1CXkuQRj_2Qg79WUsPDLKfOUboi1IWfX2dyQE/preview#heading=h.c4hwvr7uzkfl) * [Inter-process Communication](/developers/design-documents/inter-process-communication): How the browser, renderer, and plugin processes communicate * [Multi-process Resource Loading](/developers/design-documents/multi-process-resource-loading): How pages and images are loaded from the network into the renderer * [Plugin Architecture](/developers/design-documents/plugin-architecture) * [Process Models](/developers/design-documents/process-models): Our strategies for creating new renderer processes * [Profile Architecture](/developers/design-documents/profile-architecture) * [SafeBrowsing](/developers/design-documents/safebrowsing) * [Sandbox](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/design/sandbox.md) * [Security Architecture](http://crypto.stanford.edu/websec/chromium/): How Chromium's sandboxed rendering engine helps protect against malware * [Startup](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/design/startup.md) * [Threading](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/design/threading.md): How to use threads in Chromium Also see the documentation for [V8](http://code.google.com/apis/v8/), which is the JavaScript engine used within Chromium. ## UI Framework * [UI Development Practices](/developers/design-documents/ui-development-practices): Best practices for UI development inside and outside of Chrome's content areas. * [Views framework](/developers/design-documents/chromeviews): Our UI layout layer used on Windows/Chrome OS. * [views Windowing system](/developers/design-documents/views-windowing): How to build dialog boxes and other windowed UI using views. * [Aura](/developers/design-documents/aura): Chrome's next generation hardware accelerated UI framework, and the new ChromeOS window manager built using it. * [NativeControls](/developers/design-documents/native-controls): using platform-native widgets in views. * [Focus and Activation with Views and Aura](/developers/design-documents/aura/focus-and-activation). * [Input Event Routing in Desktop UI](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/ui/input_event/index.md). **Graphics** * [Overview](/developers/design-documents/chromium-graphics) * [GPU Accelerated Compositing in Chrome](/developers/design-documents/gpu-accelerated-compositing-in-chrome) * [GPU Feature Status Dashboard](/developers/design-documents/gpu-accelerated-compositing-in-chrome/gpu-architecture-roadmap) * [Rendering Architecture Diagrams](/developers/design-documents/rendering-architecture-diagrams) * [Graphics and Skia](/developers/design-documents/graphics-and-skia) * [RenderText and Chrome UI text drawing](/developers/design-documents/rendertext) * [GPU Command Buffer](/developers/design-documents/gpu-command-buffer) * [GPU Program Caching](https://docs.google.com/a/chromium.org/document/d/1Vceem-nF4TCICoeGSh7OMXxfGuJEJYblGXRgN9V9hcE/edit) * [Compositing in Blink/WebCore: from WebCore::RenderLayer to cc::Layer](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1dDE5u76ZBIKmsqkWi2apx3BqV8HOcNf4xxBdyNywZR8/edit?usp=sharing) * [Compositor Thread Architecture](/developers/design-documents/compositor-thread-architecture) * [Rendering Benchmarks](/developers/design-documents/rendering-benchmarks) * [Impl-side Painting](/developers/design-documents/impl-side-painting) * [Video Playback and Compositor](/developers/design-documents/video-playback-and-compositor) * [ANGLE architecture presentation](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CucIsdGVDmdTWRUbg68IxLE5jXwCb2y1E9YVhQo0thg/pub?start=false&loop=false) **Network stack** * [Overview](/developers/design-documents/network-stack) * [Network Stack Objectives](/developers/design-documents/network-stack/network-stack-objectives) * [Crypto](/developers/design-documents/crypto) * [Disk Cache](/developers/design-documents/network-stack/disk-cache) * [HTTP Cache](/developers/design-documents/network-stack/http-cache) * [Out of Process Proxy Resolving Draft \[unimplemented\]](/system/errors/NodeNotFound) * [Proxy Settings and Fallback](/developers/design-documents/network-stack/proxy-settings-fallback) * [Debugging network proxy problems](/developers/design-documents/network-stack/debugging-net-proxy) * [HTTP Authentication](/developers/design-documents/http-authentication) * [View network internals tool](/system/errors/NodeNotFound) * [Make the web faster with SPDY](/spdy/) pages * [Make the web even faster with QUIC](/quic) pages * [Cookie storage and retrieval](/developers/design-documents/network-stack/cookiemonster) **Security** * [Security Overview](/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/security-overview) * [Protecting Cached User Data](/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/protecting-cached-user-data) * [System Hardening](/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs/system-hardening) * [Chaps Technical Design](/developers/design-documents/chaps-technical-design) * [TPM Usage](/developers/design-documents/tpm-usage) * [Per-page Suborigins](/developers/design-documents/per-page-suborigins) * [Encrypted Partition Recovery](/developers/design-documents/encrypted-partition-recovery) * [XSS Auditor](/developers/design-documents/xss-auditor) ## Input * See [chromium input](/teams/input-dev) for design docs and other resources. ## Rendering * [Multi-column layout](/developers/design-documents/multi-column-layout) * [Style Invalidation in Blink](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vEW86DaeVs4uQzNFI5R-_xS9TcS1Cs_EUsHRSgCHGu8/) * [Blink Coordinate Spaces](/developers/design-documents/blink-coordinate-spaces) ## Building * [IDL build](/developers/design-documents/idl-build) * [IDL compiler](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/third_party/blink/renderer/bindings/IDLCompiler.md) See also the documentation for [GYP](https://code.google.com/p/gyp/w/list), which is the build script generation tool. ## Testing * [Layout test results dashboard](/developers/design-documents/layout-tests-results-dashboard) * [Generic theme for Test Shell](/developers/design-documents/generic-theme-for-test-shell) * [Moving LayoutTests fully upstream](/system/errors/NodeNotFound) ## Feature-Specific * [about:conflicts](/developers/design-documents/about-conflicts) * [Accessibility](/developers/design-documents/accessibility): An outline of current (and coming) accessibility support. * [Auto-Throttled Screen Capture and Mirroring](/developers/design-documents/auto-throttled-screen-capture-and-mirroring) * [Browser Window](/developers/design-documents/browser-window) * [Chromium Print Proxy](/developers/design-documents/google-cloud-print-proxy-design): Enables a cloud print service for legacy printers and future cloud-aware printers. * [Constrained Popup Windows](/developers/design-documents/constrained-popup-windows) * [Desktop Notifications](/developers/design-documents/desktop-notifications) * [DirectWrite Font Cache for Chrome on Windows](/developers/design-documents/directwrite-font-cache) * [DNS Prefetching](/developers/design-documents/dns-prefetching): Reducing perceived latency by resolving domain names before a user tries to follow a link * [Download Page (Material Design Refresh)](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XkUDOc6085tir4D5yYEyjL2GsIGBslJBHXiNQDzJawI/edit) * [Embedding Flash Fullscreen in the Browser Window](/developers/design-documents/embedding-flash-fullscreen-in-the-browser-window) * [Extensions](/developers/design-documents/extensions): Design documents and proposed APIs. * [Find Bar](/developers/design-documents/find-bar) * [Form Autofill](/developers/design-documents/form-autofill): A feature to automatically fill out an html form with appropriate data. * [Geolocation](https://docs.google.com/a/chromium.org/document/pub?id=13rAaY1dG0nrlKpfy7Txlec4U6dsX3PE9aXHkvE37JZo): Adding support for [W3C Geolocation API](https://www.w3.org/TR/geolocation-API/) using native WebKit bindings. * [Generic-Sensor](/developers/design-documents/generic-sensor) : Access sensor data * [IDN in Google Chrome](/developers/design-documents/idn-in-google-chrome) * [IndexedDB](/developers/design-documents/indexeddb) (early draft) * [Info Bars](/developers/design-documents/info-bars) * [Installer](/developers/installer): Registry entries and shortcuts * [Instant](/developers/design-documents/instant) * [Isolated Sites](/developers/design-documents/isolated-sites) * [Linux Resources and Localized Strings](/developers/design-documents/linuxresourcesandlocalizedstrings): Loading data resources and localized strings on Linux. * [Media Router & Web Presentation API](/developers/design-documents/media-router) * [Memory Usage Backgrounder: ](/developers/memory-usage-backgrounder)Some information on how we measure memory in Chromium. * [Mouse Lock](/developers/design-documents/mouse-lock) * Omnibox Autocomplete: While typing into the omnibox, Chromium searches for and suggests possible completions. * [HistoryQuickProvider](/omnibox-history-provider): Suggests completions from the user's historical site visits. * [Omnibox/IME Coordination](/developers/design-documents/omnibox-ime-coordination) * [Omnibox Prefetch for Default Search Engines](/developers/design-documents/omnibox-prefetch-for-default-search-engines) * [Ozone Porting Abstraction](https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src/+/HEAD/docs/ozone_overview.md) * [Password Form Styles that Chromium Understands](/developers/design-documents/form-styles-that-chromium-understands) * [Password Generation](/developers/design-documents/password-generation) * [Plugin Power Saver](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r4xFSsR4gtjBf1gOP4zHGWIFBV7WWZMgCiAHeepoHVw/edit?usp=sharing) * [Preferences](/developers/design-documents/preferences) * [Prerender](/developers/design-documents/prerender) * [Print Preview](/developers/design-documents/print-preview) * [Printing](/developers/design-documents/printing) * [Rect-based event targeting in views](/developers/design-documents/views-rect-based-targeting): Making it easier to target views elements with touch. * [Replace the modal cookie prompt](/developers/design-documents/cookie-prompt-replacement) * [SafeSearch](/developers/design-documents/safesearch) * [Sane Time](/developers/design-documents/sane-time): Determining an accurate time in Chrome * [Secure Web Proxy](/developers/design-documents/secure-web-proxy) * [Service Processes](/developers/design-documents/service-processes) * [Site Engagement](/developers/design-documents/site-engagement): Tracking user engagement with sites they use. * [Site Isolation](/developers/design-documents/site-isolation): In-progress effort to improve Chromium's process model for security between web sites. * [Software Updates: Courgette](/developers/design-documents/software-updates-courgette) * [Sync](/developers/design-documents/sync) * [Tab Helpers](/system/errors/NodeNotFound) * [Tab to search](/tab-to-search): How to have the Omnibox automatically provide tab to search for your site. * [Tabtastic2 Requirements](/developers/design-documents/tabtastic-2-requirements) * [Temporary downloads](/system/errors/NodeNotFound) * [TimeTicks](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ypBZPZnshJ612FWAjkkpSBQiII7vYEEDsRkDOkVjQFw/edit?usp=sharing): How our monotonic timer, TimeTicks, works on different OSes * [UI Mirroring Infrastructure](/developers/design-documents/ui-mirroring-infrastructure): Describes the UI framework in ChromeViews that allows mirroring the browser UI in RTL locales such as Hebrew and Arabic. * [UI Localization](/developers/design-documents/ui-localization): Describes how localized strings get added to Chromium. * [User scripts](/developers/design-documents/user-scripts): Information on Chromium's support for user scripts. * [Video](/developers/design-documents/video) * WebSocket: A message-oriented protocol which provides bidirectional TCP/IP-like communication between browsers and servers. * [Design doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/11n3hpwb9lD9YVqnjX3OwzE_jHgTmKIqd6GvXE9bDGUg/edit): mostly still relevant but some parts have been revised. In particular, mojo is used for the communication between Blink and //content now. * [WebSocket handshake](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1r7dQDA9AQBD_kOk-z-yMi0WgLQZ-5m7psMO5pYLFUL8/edit): The HTTP-like exchange before switching to WebSocket-style framing in more detail. * [Obsolete design doc](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_R6YjCIrm4kikJ3YeapcOU2Keqr3lVUPd-OeaIJ93qQ/pub): WebSocket code has been drastically refactored. Most of the code described in this doc is gone. It is mostly only of historical interest. * [Web MIDI](/developers/design-documents/web-midi) * [WebNavigation API internals](/developers/design-documents/webnavigation-api-internals) * [Web NFC](/developers/design-documents/web-nfc) ## OS-Specific * **Android** * [Java Resources on Android](/developers/design-documents/java-resources-on-android) * [JNI Bindings](/developers/design-documents/android-jni) * [Android WebView docs](/developers/androidwebview) * [Child process importance](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PTI3udZ6TI-R0MlSsl2aflxRcnZ5blnkGGHE5JRI_Z8/edit?usp=sharing) * **Chrome OS** * See the [Chrome OS design documents](/chromium-os/chromiumos-design-docs) section. * **Mac OS X** * [AppleScript Support](/developers/design-documents/applescript) * [BrowserWindowController Object Ownership](/system/errors/NodeNotFound) * [Confirm to Quit](/developers/design-documents/confirm-to-quit-experiment) * [Mac App Mode](/developers/design-documents/appmode-mac) (Draft) * [Mac Fullscreen Mode](/developers/design-documents/fullscreen-mac) (Draft) * [Mac NPAPI Plugin Hosting](/developers/design-documents/mac-plugins) * [Mac specific notes on UI Localization](/developers/design-documents/ui-localization/mac-notes) * [Menus, Hotkeys, & Command Dispatch](/developers/design-documents/command-dispatch-mac) * [Notes from meeting on IOSurface usage and semantics](/developers/design-documents/iosurface-meeting-notes) * [OS X Interprocess Communication (Obsolete)](/developers/design-documents/os-x-interprocess-communication) * [Password Manager/Keychain Integration](/developers/design-documents/os-x-password-manager-keychain-integration) * [Sandboxing Design](/developers/design-documents/sandbox/osx-sandboxing-design) * [Tab Strip Design (Includes tab layout and tab dragging)](/developers/design-documents/tab-strip-mac) * [Wrench Menu Buttons](/developers/design-documents/wrench-menu-mac) * **iOS** * [WKWebView Problems Solved by web// layer](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qgFVIhUdQf_RxhzF-sAsETvo7CNqSLmzlz5YY7rfRe0/edit) ## Other * [64-bit Support](/developers/design-documents/64-bit-support) * [Layered Components](/developers/design-documents/layered-components-design) * [Closure Compiling Chrome Code](https://docs.google.com/a/chromium.org/document/d/1Ee9ggmp6U-lM-w9WmxN5cSLkK9B5YAq14939Woo-JY0/edit#heading=h.34wlp9l5bd5f) * [content module](/developers/content-module) / [content API](/developers/content-module/content-api) * [Design docs that still need to be written](http://code.google.com/p/chromium/wiki/DesignDocsToWrite) (wiki) * [In progress refactoring of key browser-process architecture for porting](/developers/Web-page-views) * [Network Experiments](/network-speed-experiments) * [Transitioning InlineBoxes from floats to LayoutUnits](https://docs.google.com/a/chromium.org/document/d/1fro9Drq78rYBwr6K9CPK-y0TDSVxlBuXl6A54XnKAyE/edit) ## Full listing of all sub-pages: {% subpages collections.all %}