TrueGraphics

TrueGraphics is a small Windows-only GUI experiment: a C++ core (Win32 + GDI) with Python bindings built using pybind11.

Overview

• Windows-only Win32 window + message loop
• Lightweight GDI renderer (double-buffered)
• Python-first authoring model (@app.window builder function)
• Nested UI via container context managers (with tg.Row(): ...)
• Basic layouts: Row, Column, Grid, Absolute
• Basic styling setters on widgets (colors, radius, borders, padding/margin)
• Canvas drawing API (draw_line/rect/circle/text)
• Image widget (tg.Image("path")) via GDI+
• Animations (widget.animate(...)), timers (app.set_timeout/set_interval), and background tasks (app.run_async)
• Scrolling: tg.ScrollView() + mouse wheel
• Multi-window apps via app.add_window(...)
• System tray icon via app.enable_tray(...)
• Resources: tg.add_resource_path(...), tg.resolve_resource(...), tg.load_font(...)
• Widgets: Button, Label, TextBox, PasswordBox, TextArea, Checkbox, RadioButton, Slider, ProgressBar, Dropdown, Tabs, ListView, Table, TreeView, Container, ScrollView, Canvas, Image
• State: StateInt, StateFloat, StateBool, StateString (all with subscribe(...))
• Buildable with pip install . (requires a C++ toolchain)

Installation

pip install .

Requirements (Windows):

• Python 3.9+
• CMake 3.20+
• A C++ toolchain: MSVC (Visual Studio Build Tools) or MinGW-w64 (MSYS2)

MinGW note:

• MinGW builds work, but image support requires gdiplus (linked automatically via CMake when using a toolchain that provides it).

Example Usage

Minimal app:

import truegraphics as tg

app = tg.App()

@app.window
def main():
    btn = tg.Button("Hello World")
    btn.set_background("#3A7AFE")
    btn.set_text_color("#FFFFFF")

app.run()

Layout example:

import truegraphics as tg

app = tg.App()
app.set_title("Row / Grid Demo")

@app.window
def main():
    with tg.Row() as row:
        row.set_gap(12)
        row.set_align(tg.Align.Center)
        tg.Button("OK")
        tg.Button("Cancel")

    with tg.Grid(2) as grid:
        grid.set_gap(10)
        tg.TextBox("Type here...")
        tg.Checkbox("Enable feature", checked=True)

app.run()

Counter app (manual UI update via StateInt.subscribe):

import truegraphics as tg

app = tg.App()
counter = tg.StateInt(0)
label = None

@app.window
def main():
    global label

    def update_label(value: int):
        if label is not None:
            label.set_text(f"Count: {value}")

    counter.subscribe(update_label)

    tg.Button("Increment", on_click=lambda: counter.set(counter.get() + 1))
    label = tg.Label(f"Count: {counter.get()}")

app.run()

Canvas example:

import truegraphics as tg

app = tg.App()

@app.window
def main():
    canvas = tg.Canvas()
    canvas.set_size(520, 300)
    canvas.draw_line(20, 20, 240, 40, "#3A7AFE", 3)
    canvas.draw_rect(20, 60, 160, 80, "#22C55E", radius=12, filled=True)
    canvas.draw_circle(120, 200, 40, "#F97316", filled=True)
    canvas.draw_text(20, 260, "Hello Canvas", "#E5E7EB")

app.run()

Image example:

import truegraphics as tg

app = tg.App()
app.set_title("Image Demo")

@app.window
def main():
    img = tg.Image("assets/logo.png")
    img.set_size(320, 180)

app.run()

Multi-window example:

import truegraphics as tg

app = tg.App()
app.set_title("Main window")

@app.window
def main():
    tg.Label("Main")

def second():
    tg.Label("Second window")

app.add_window(second, title="Second", width=420, height=220)
app.run()

System tray example:

import truegraphics as tg

app = tg.App()
app.enable_tray("assets/app.ico", "TrueGraphics", on_click=lambda: tg.message_box("Tray clicked", "Tray"))

@app.window
def main():
    tg.Label("Running (see tray icon)")

app.run()

Showcase Example

Run the full showcase (widgets, layouts, canvas, events, async, drag-drop, multi-window, tray):

python examples/showcase.py

Current Limitations (important)

• Windows only (Win32 + GDI).
• Rendering is GDI-based (no GPU backend yet).
• Text rendering/editing is basic (no IME, no word-wrapping; caret/selection are approximate).
• Clipboard is text-only for now (CF_TEXT).
• Drag-and-drop supports file drops (WM_DROPFILES) only.
• Resource management is intentionally small: search paths + font file loading.
• System tray support is minimal (one tray icon per window; basic right-click menu).
• Not all “standard toolkit widgets” exist yet (this is still early-stage).

Known Gaps

• No IME / complex text shaping.
• No layout-driven text measurement or wrapping.
• No accessibility and no cross-platform backend.

Architecture Overview

• engine/include/truegraphics: public engine headers
• engine/src: engine implementation
• bindings/module.cpp: pybind11 module
• python/truegraphics: Python package surface
• examples: runnable examples

Notes

This version targets Windows and uses an internal Win32-backed event loop with an engine-side scene/widget model. Rendering is implemented as a lightweight internal renderer abstraction that currently uses GDI-based drawing while preserving the C++ engine architecture for future GPU backend expansion.

Releases (Wheels + PyPI Trusted Publishing)

This repo includes GitHub Actions workflows to build Windows wheels and publish them to PyPI using PyPI “Trusted Publishing” (OIDC):

• CI wheel builds: .github/workflows/ci.yml
• Publish on tags v*: .github/workflows/publish.yml