dtk

dtk is an open source library for building lightweight desktop applications.

Features:

• Support for Linux, macOS, and Windows
• Collection of widgets including buttons, editors, sliders, and menus
• Collection of layouts including horizontal, vertical, grid, and tabs
• Keyboard navigation
• Command-line parsing
• Written in C++17 with a CMake build system
• Entire project and dependencies can be built in a few minutes
• Statically linked demo binaries are under 10MB
• BSD open source license

Work in progress:

• Multiple line text editor widget
• Python bindings

Projects using dtk:

• https://github.com/darbyjohnston/tlRender
• https://github.com/OpenTimelineIO/toucan

Demo example with dark color style:

Demo example with light color style:

Simple C++ example that shows a window with a text label:

#include <dtk/ui/App.h>
#include <dtk/ui/Label.h>
#include <dtk/ui/MainWindow.h>

using namespace dtk;

int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
    // Create the context and application.
    auto context = Context::create();
    auto app = App::create(context, argc, argv, "simple", "Simple example");
    if (app->getExit() != 0)
        return app->getExit();

    // Create a window.
    auto window = MainWindow::create(context, app, "simple", Size2I(1280, 960));

    // Create a label.
    auto label = Label::create(context, "Hello world");
    label->setFontRole(FontRole::Title);
    label->setAlign(HAlign::Center, VAlign::Center);
    label->setStretch(Stretch::Expanding);
    window->setWidget(label);

    // Show the window and run the application.
    window->show();
    app->run();
    return 0;
}

Simple Python exmple that shows a window with a text label:

import dtk
import sys

# Create the context and application.
context = dtk.Context()
app = dtk.App(context, sys.argv, "simple", "Simple example")
if app.getExit() != 0:
    sys.exit(app.getExit())

# Create a window.
window = dtk.MainWindow(context, app, "simple", dtk.Size2I(1280, 960))

# Create a label.
label = dtk.Label(context, "Hello world")
label.fontRole = dtk.FontRole.Title
label.setAlign(dtk.HAlign.Center, dtk.VAlign.Center);
label.setStretch(dtk.Stretch.Expanding);
window.setWidget(label)

# Show the window and run the application.
window.show()
app.run()

# \bug Need to manually reset the window.
window = None

Building

Building Dependencies

A CMake super build script is provided to build all of the dependencies from source.

Required dependencies:

• Freetype
• GLFW
• LunaSVG
• Native File Dialog Extended
• nlohmann JSON
• PNG
• ZLIB

Optional dependencies:

• pybind11

Building on Linux

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/dtk.git

Run CMake:

cmake -S dtk/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Start the build:

cmake --build Release -j 4 --config Release

Try running the simple example:

Release/dtk/src/dtk-build/examples/simple/simple

Building on macOS

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/dtk.git

Run CMake:

cmake -S dtk/etc/SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=$PWD/Release/install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Start the build:

cmake --build Release -j 4 --config Release

Try running the simple example:

Release/dtk/src/dtk-build/examples/simple/simple

Notes for building on macOS

The CMake variable "CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES" can be used to specify the build architecture:

-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64

-DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64

Building on Windows

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/darbyjohnston/dtk.git

Run CMake:

cmake -S dtk\etc\SuperBuild -B Release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=%CD%\Release\install -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=%CD%\Release\install -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release

Start the build:

cmake --build Release -j 4 --config Release

Try running the simple example:

Release\dtk\src\dtk-build\examples\simple\Release\simple