Skip to content
 | Home

Elements C++ GUI library

Photon Sampler Image

Introduction

Elements is a lightweight, fine-grained, resolution independent, modular GUI library. Elements is designed with these requirements in mind:

  1. It should be open source with a liberal, non-viral license.
  2. It should be usable in any application and should play well with other GUI libraries and frameworks.
  3. Corollary to the second requirement is that it can also be used to develop plugins. It should not own the event loop and should be able to co-exist with components within a plugin host such as VST and AU.
  4. It should be resolution independent and allow for HDPI displays.
  5. Should not rely on a “visual” GUI editor or code generator.
  6. It should have a declarative API using modern C++. Declarative C++ code tells you what rather than how (imperative). The GUI should be declared in C++ code.

Elements, is extremely lightweight… and modular. You compose very fine-grained, flyweight “elements” to form deep element hierarchies using a declarative interface with heavy emphasis on reuse.

Documentation

  1. Gallery
  2. Setup and Installation
  3. Design Aspects
  4. Layout

The Elements C++ GUI library is cross-platform. Elements currently supports the MacOS, Windows and Linux. Follow the Setup and Installation guide to get started using the library.