Top Embedded GUI Frameworks for Microcontrollers: LVGL, TouchGFX, Qt for MCU and More

LVGL

LittlevGL (LVGL) is a free open‑source graphics library that provides everything needed to create embedded GUIs, offering easy‑to‑use widgets, attractive visual effects and low memory consumption.

Features:

Powerful building blocks: buttons, charts, lists, sliders, images, etc.

Advanced graphics: animations, anti‑aliasing, translucency, smooth scrolling.

Multiple input devices: touchpad, mouse, keyboard, encoder.

Multi‑display support for several TFT or monochrome screens.

UTF‑8 text encoding.

Fully customizable graphic elements.

Hardware‑agnostic, works on any microcontroller or display.

Trimmed for small memory footprints (≈80 KB Flash, 12 KB RAM).

Optional OS, external storage and GPU support.

Single‑frame buffer for advanced effects.

Written in C for maximum compatibility (C++ compatible).

Simulator allows GUI design on a PC without embedded hardware.

Tutorials, examples and themes for rapid GUI development.

Online and offline documentation.

MIT‑licensed free and open source.

TouchGFX

TouchGFX is known for its beautiful, fluid interfaces and the powerful TouchGFX Designer.

Official website:

https://www.touchgfx.com/

In 2018 TouchGFX was acquired by ST and is now primarily used on the STM32 platform. Below are several screenshots of TouchGFX running on STM32 evaluation boards:

TouchGFX demos on various STM32 boards can be found at the following links:

STM32F429 demo: http://www.armbbs.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=8064

STM32F469 demo: http://www.armbbs.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=15152

STM32F769 demo: http://www.armbbs.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=17901

STM32H750 demo: http://www.armbbs.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=94379

Embedded Wizard GUI

Embedded Wizard GUI is also renowned for its stunning, smooth interfaces and a powerful GUI Builder.

Official website:

http://www.embedded-wizard.de/

Sample screenshots of Embedded Wizard GUI:

Embedded Wizard introduces its own Chora UI programming language, offering many widgets, skins and themes, with debugging support.

Pricing information is available at: http://www.embedded-wizard.de/pricing.html

emWin (uCGUI)

emWin is a long‑standing embedded GUI library with over 20 years of history, offering a mature architecture and feature set.

Official website:

https://www.segger.com/products/user-interface/emwin/

Reference tutorials (in Chinese) are linked in the original source.

Qt for MCU

Qt showcased its embedded capabilities at Embedded World 2018 with F429 and F769 demos, which were initially sluggish. In August 2019, Qt presented smoother demos on ST F7, Renesas RH850 and NXP i.MX RT1050.

Qt for MCU V1.0 was officially released at the 2019 Qt Conference.

Video demo: http://www.armbbs.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=95912

Qt for MCU is a commercial product; pricing details are at https://www.qt.io/buy-product/.

Crank Storyboard

Storyboard is a powerful GUI designer that accelerates GUI creation and supports a wide range of domains such as instrumentation, industrial control, medical, and IoT.

Official website:

https://www.cranksoftware.com/

Supported hardware platforms are listed in the source image.

Storyboard Suite 5.0 video demo: http://www.armbbs.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=53640

Pricing information: https://www.cranksoftware.com/storyboard-pricing-licensing

Altia GUI

Altia has nearly 30 years of history and is AutomotiveSPICE‑certified up to level 5 for automotive HMI.

Official website:

https://www.altia.com/

Altia’s development suite consists of three tools:

Altia Design – the HMI IDE.

Altia DeepScreen – automatic code generation.

Altia PhotoProto – interactive UI resources within Adobe Photoshop.

Supported hardware platforms are shown in the following images.

Video demo: http://www.armbbs.cn/forum.php?mod=viewthread&tid=30737

Altia GUI is a commercial product; pricing requires contacting the vendor.

μGFX

μGFX is a newer embedded GUI library. Its visual effects are less flashy than TouchGFX, but it remains functional and includes a GUI Builder.

Official website:

http://www.ugfx.org/

Supported hardware platforms, RTOSes and display drivers are listed at http://www.ugfx.org/platforms.html.

Sample screenshots of μGFX applications:

Software UI screenshots:

μGFX is a commercial product; pricing details are at http://www.ugfx.org/pricing.html.

ThreadX GUIX

GUIX is Microsoft’s high‑end industrial GUI solution designed for deeply embedded, real‑time, and IoT applications. GUIX Studio allows desktop GUI design and code generation for target deployment.

GUIX has passed multiple safety certifications (IEC‑62304 Class C, IEC‑61508 ASIL D, IEC‑61508 SIL 4, EN50128).

Application examples include smart‑home, medical, home‑appliance, automotive, and industrial control interfaces, illustrated by the following images:

LLGUI

LLGUI (玲珑GUI) is a simple, low‑cost GUI solution for microcontrollers.

Documentation and tutorials are available at the linked Yuque page.

Key advantages include replacing serial‑screen solutions, providing a graphical editor that generates C code, and offering bootloader and upgrade tools for firmware and image updates.

Community members are invited to share other GUI solutions they use.

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