GuiLite

C++

✔️The smallest header-only GUI library(4 KLOC) for all platforms

Last updated Jul 9, 2026

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Topics

#c #cpp #cross-platform #display #docker #embedded #graphics-library #gui #header-only #iot #iot-platform #mcu #microcontroller

Language breakdown

C++ 99.0%

Shell 0.5%

CMake 0.2%

C 0.2%

▸ Files click to expand

README

Welcome to GUI-lite

The smallest header-only GUI library (4 KLOC) for all platforms.

Why GuiLite

中文

Lightweight

✂️Small: 4,000+ lines of C++ code, zero dependency, header-only(GuiLite.h)
⚡Fast: High Rendering performance, even work on MCU
👫🏻Compatible: Work smoothly with 3rd party frameworks(Qt/MFC/Winform/Cocoa/Web)
⚙️️Hardware Minimum Requirements:

| Processor | Disk/ROM space | Memory | | --- | --- | --- | | 24 MHZ | 29 KB | 9 KB |

Cross platform

Supported OSes: iOS/macOS/WatchOS, Android, Linux, Windows, RTOS... or MCU without OS
Supported languages: C/C++, Swift, Java, Javascript, C#, Golang...
Supported 3rd party libraries: Qt, MFC, Winforms, CoCoa...

Hero features

☁️Cloud + IoT Solution: master your IoT business all over the world
🔣Multi-language, supports UTF-8;📀Playback Video
🔨Toolkit for building font/image resources
📐Layout GUI WYSIWYG
📊Code Telemetry and Analysis in real time
📦Supports 3D and Web
🐋Run in docker with a single command: sudo docker run -it --privileged -v /dev:/dev-share idea4good/gui-lite:latest bash /run.sh

Easy to learn and support

Even a C beginner could master GUI-lite quickly. The source code only uses basic C++ features (class, virtual function). We chose C++ as it could make the code size significantly smaller and easier to read.

📚Documentation

- How to use GUI-lite? - Design specification - How to Layout widgets? - How to build unicode font/bitmap resource? - How to switch theme? - How to dispatch messages? - UML chart of GUI-lite core

📈Learning steps

1. Build GUI-lite library 2. Build/Debug HelloXXX demos 3. Read/Modify HelloXXX/UIcode/UIcode.cpp code 4. Read/Modify widgets code 5. Read/Modify core code 6. Build your GUI framework

📞Reach out us if you have any questions you are welcomed to our developer family.
🀄️Mirror repository in China

Demo wall

Zero dependency, 100% build pass & runnable
Click the demo you like, and run it on your hardware
Most of the demos have about 100 lines of UI code, the code repository is GuiLiteSamples

MCU platform

_{3D on STM32}	_{Wave on STM32}	_{Particle on STM32}	_{Star on STM32}
_{3D wave on STM32}	_{Keyboard on STM32}	_{Mario on STM32}	_{3D circle on STM32}
_{3D donut on STM32}	_Timer	_{Molecule move}	_{Pendulum effect}

IoT feature

_{Monitor IoT device on cloud}	_{Code Telemetry & Analysis in real time}
_{Track IoT device over the world}

Multi-language, Design tool and video

_{Lattice Font}	_{Freetype Font}
_{Layout GUI}	_{Render JPG file quickly}
_{Play video with FFmpeg}

Widgets & Controller

_{Emulate Windows UI}	_{Scroll widget}
_{How to use widgets}	_{3D Nets on Windows/Linux}
_{Transparent dialog}	_{Swipe view}

Cross platform

_{HostMonitor on Windows}	_{HostMonitor on Mac}	_{HostMonitor on Android}
_{HostMonitor on Windows Mixed Reality}	_{HostMonitor on Linux}	_{3D on Web}
_{3D on Web}	_{HostMonitor on iPhone}	_{How display work}