--- /tmp/pycairo-surface.c	2006-07-02 23:58:14.000000000 -0300
+++ pycairo-surface.c	2007-02-22 03:52:29.000000000 -0300
@@ -624,6 +624,34 @@
     return buf;
 }
 
+/* return a Python buffer object containing the ImageSurface data.
+ */
+static PyObject *
+image_surface_get_data (PycairoImageSurface *o)
+{
+    PyObject *buf;
+    unsigned char *data;
+    uint8_t *buffer;
+    int height, stride, length;
+    cairo_surface_t *surface = o->surface;
+    cairo_format_t format = cairo_image_surface_get_format (surface);
+
+    data   = cairo_image_surface_get_data (surface);
+    height = cairo_image_surface_get_height (surface);
+    stride = cairo_image_surface_get_stride (surface);
+
+    buf = PyBuffer_New(height * stride);
+    if (buf != NULL) {
+	if (PyObject_AsWriteBuffer(buf, (void **)&buffer, &length)) {
+	    Py_DECREF(buf);
+	    return NULL;
+	}
+	memcpy (buffer, data, length);
+    }
+    return buf;
+}
+
+
 static PyMethodDef image_surface_methods[] = {
 #ifdef HAVE_NUMPY
     {"create_for_array",(PyCFunction)image_surface_create_for_array,
@@ -639,6 +667,7 @@
     {"get_height",    (PyCFunction)image_surface_get_height,     METH_NOARGS},
     {"get_width",     (PyCFunction)image_surface_get_width,      METH_NOARGS},
     {"get_stride",    (PyCFunction)image_surface_get_stride,     METH_NOARGS},
+    {"get_data",      (PyCFunction)image_surface_get_data,       METH_NOARGS},
     {"get_data_as_rgba",(PyCFunction)image_surface_get_data_as_rgba,
                                                                  METH_NOARGS},
     {NULL, NULL, 0, NULL},