Qt GUI

The Qt GUI module provides classes for windowing system integration, event handling, OpenGL and OpenGL ES integration, 2D graphics, basic imaging, fonts, and text. These classes are used internally by Qt's user interface technologies but can also be used directly, for example to write applications using low-level OpenGL ES graphics APIs.

For application developers writing user interfaces, Qt provides higher level APIs, like Qt Quick, that are much more suitable than the enablers found in the Qt GUI module.

Using the Module

Using a Qt module's C++ API requires linking against the module library, either directly or through other dependencies. Several build tools have dedicated support for this, including CMake and qmake.

Building with CMake

Use the find_package() command to locate the needed module component in the Qt6 package:

find_package(Qt6 REQUIRED COMPONENTS Gui)
target_link_libraries(mytarget PRIVATE Qt6::Gui)

For more details, see the Build with CMake overview.

Building with qmake

If you use qmake to build your projects, Qt GUI is included by default. To disable Qt GUI, add the following line to your .pro file:

QT -= gui

Articles and Guides

• Qt GUI Overview
  • Qt GUI Application Windows
  • Qt GUI 2D Graphics
  • Qt GUI Accelerated 2D and 3D Graphics using the Qt RHI
  • Qt GUI Matrix and Vector Math
  • Qt GUI OpenGL and OpenGL ES Integration
  • Qt GUI Vulkan Integration

Reference

• Qt GUI C++ Classes
  • Event Classes
  • Painting Classes
  • Rendering in 3D

Module Evolution

Changes to Qt GUI lists important changes in the module API and functionality that were done for the Qt 6 series of Qt.

Licenses and Attributions

Qt GUI is available under commercial licenses from The Qt Company. In addition, it is available under free software licenses: The GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3, or the GNU General Public License, version 2. See Qt Licensing for further details.

Furthermore, Qt GUI in Qt 6.8.1 may contain third-party modules under following permissive licenses: