Introduction to Qt

Qt 6 lets you develop applications with intuitive user interfaces for multiple devices and platforms, faster than ever before.

Note: Qt 6 is highly compatible with Qt 5. Developers of Qt 5 applications can move seamlessly to Qt 6 while retaining the applications' functionality.

Designing User Interfaces

Qt offers two solutions for UI design: Qt Widgets and Qt Quick. Qt Widgets tightly integrates with desktop look-and-feel. Qt Quick UIs are dynamic with fluid animations and are optimal for touch interfaces. The User Interfaces page compares both Qt Quick and Qt Widgets technologies.

Cross-Platform

Qt is cross-platform. Qt modules are available on various devices and platforms. Developer tools like Qt Creator and Qt Design Studio are available for Windows, macOS, and Linux. Build tools like qmake and CMake seamlessly handle the platform-specific differences in the build process.

Features and APIs

Qt features a large set of modules in the area of UIs, networking, web technologies, communication protocols, file formats, and much more.

Essentials define the foundation of Qt on all platforms. They are available on all the supported development platforms and tested target platforms.

Add-ons bring additional value for specific purposes.

Tools

Qt Creator is a complete IDE for developing Qt applications. You can set up projects, code, debug, package, and deploy from within Qt Creator.

Qt Design Studio supports designing Qt Quick UIs. It enables you to define the look-and-feel of the UI from wireframe to final implementation, using preset UI components.

Many more tools are available.

Programming Languages

Qt applications are usually written in C++. Qt for Python allows you to write applications in Python.

Qt Quick UIs are written in QML.

Where To Go From Here

© 2023 The Qt Company Ltd. Documentation contributions included herein are the copyrights of their respective owners. The documentation provided herein is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software Foundation. Qt and respective logos are trademarks of The Qt Company Ltd. in Finland and/or other countries worldwide. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.