• Lines & Shapes: rectangles, circles, and paths with coordinate control
• Filling: solid colors, linear & radial gradients, and path clipping
• Stroking: stroke width, joins, caps, dash patterns, and trimming
• Scene Management: retainable scene graph and object transformations
• Composition: various blending and masking
• Text: unicode characters with horizontal text layout using scalable fonts (TTF)
• Images: SVG, JPG, PNG, WebP, and raw bitmaps
• Animations: Lottie

• CPU/SIMD (Software)
• OpenGL/ES
• WebGL
• WebGPU

• Linux
• MacOS
• Windows
• Tizen
• iOS
• Android
• Web
• Flutter

• ThorVG
  • Installation
    • Build and Install
    • Build with Visual Studio
    • Install with vcpkg
    • Install with Conan
    • Install with MSYS2
  • Quick Start
  • SVG
  • Lottie
  • In Practice
    • Canva iOS
    • dotLottie
    • Flux Audio
    • Godot
    • Tizen
  • Examples
  • Documentation
  • Tools
    • ThorVG Viewer
    • Lottie to GIF
    • SVG to PNG
  • API Bindings
  • Dependencies
  • Contributors
  • Sponsors
  • Communication

This section details the steps required to configure the environment for installing ThorVG.

ThorVG supports meson build system. Install meson and ninja if you don't have them already.

Run meson to configure ThorVG in the thorvg root folder.

meson setup builddir

Run ninja to build & install ThorVG:

ninja -C builddir install

Regardless of the installation, all build results (symbols, executable) are generated in the builddir folder in thorvg. Some results such as examples won't be installed, you can check More examples section to see how to change it.
​
Note that some systems might include ThorVG package as a default component. In that case, you can skip this manual installation.

If you want to create Visual Studio project files, use the command --backend=vs. The resulting solution file (thorvg.sln) will be located in the build folder.

meson setup builddir --backend=vs

You can download and install pre-packaged ThorVG using the vcpkg package manager.

Clone the vcpkg repo. Make sure you are in the directory you want the tool installed to before doing this.

git clone https://github.com/Microsoft/vcpkg.git

Run the bootstrap script to build the vcpkg.

./bootstrap-vcpkg.sh

Install the ThorVG package.

./vcpkg install thorvg

You can download and install pre-packaged ThorVG using the Conan package manager.

Follow the instructions on this page on how to set up Conan.

Install the ThorVG package:

conan install --requires="thorvg/[*]" --build=missing

You can download and install pre-packaged ThorVG using the MSYS2 package manager.

Download and execute the MSYS2 installer on the web page above and follow the steps. When done, just launch one of the terminals in the start menu, according to the architecture and compiler you want (either 32 or 64 bits, with MSVCRT or UCRT library). Then you can install the ThorVG package :

pacman -S thorvg

To update to a newer release (and update all the packages, which is preferable), run :

pacman -Syu

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ThorVG renders vector shapes to a given canvas buffer. The following is a quick start to show you how to use the essential APIs.

First, you should initialize the ThorVG engine:

tvg::Initializer::init(0);   //thread count

Then it would be best if you prepared an empty canvas for drawing on it:

static uint32_t buffer[WIDTH * HEIGHT];                                   //canvas target buffer

auto canvas = tvg::SwCanvas::gen();                                       //generate a canvas
canvas->target(buffer, WIDTH, WIDTH, HEIGHT, tvg::ColorSpace::ARGB8888);  //buffer, stride, w, h, Colorspace

Next you can draw multiple shapes on the canvas:

auto rect = tvg::Shape::gen();               //generate a shape
rect->appendRect(50, 50, 200, 200, 20, 20);  //define it as a rounded rectangle (x, y, w, h, rx, ry)
rect->fill(100, 100, 100);                   //set its color (r, g, b)
canvas->push(rect);                         //push the rectangle into the canvas

auto circle = tvg::Shape::gen();             //generate a shape
circle->appendCircle(400, 400, 100, 100);    //define it as a circle (cx, cy, rx, ry)

auto fill = tvg::RadialGradient::gen();      //generate a radial gradient
fill->radial(400, 400, 150);                 //set the radial gradient geometry info (cx, cy, radius)

tvg::Fill::ColorStop colorStops[2];          //gradient colors
colorStops[0] = {0.0, 255, 255, 255, 255};   //1st color values (offset, r, g, b, a)
colorStops[1] = {1.0, 0, 0, 0, 255};         //2nd color values (offset, r, g, b, a)
fill->colorStops(colorStops, 2);             //set the gradient colors info

circle->fill(fill);                          //set the circle fill
canvas->push(circle);                        //push the circle into the canvas

This code generates the following result:

You can also draw you own shapes and use dashed stroking:

auto path = tvg::Shape::gen();               //generate a path
path->moveTo(199, 34);                       //set sequential path coordinates
path->lineTo(253, 143);
path->lineTo(374, 160);
path->lineTo(287, 244);
path->lineTo(307, 365);
path->lineTo(199, 309);
path->lineTo(97, 365);
path->lineTo(112, 245);
path->lineTo(26, 161);
path->lineTo(146, 143);
path->close();

path->fill(150, 150, 255);                   //path color

path->strokeWidth(3);                        //stroke width
path->strokeFill(0, 0, 255);                 //stroke color
path->strokeJoin(tvg::StrokeJoin::Round);    //stroke join style
path->strokeCap(tvg::StrokeCap::Round);      //stroke cap style

float pattern[2] = {10, 10};                 //stroke dash pattern (line, gap)
path->strokeDash(pattern, 2);                //set the stroke pattern

canvas->push(path);                          //push the path into the canvas

The code generates the following result:

Now begin rendering & finish it at a particular time:

canvas->draw();
canvas->sync();

Then you can acquire the rendered image from the buffer memory.

Lastly, terminate the engine after its usage:

tvg::Initializer::term();

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ThorVG facilitates SVG Tiny Specification rendering via its dedicated SVG interpreter. Adhering to the SVG Tiny Specification, the implementation maintains a lightweight profile, rendering it particularly advantageous for embedded systems. While ThorVG comprehensively adheres to most of the SVG Tiny specs, certain features remain unsupported within the current framework. These include:

• Animation
• Interactivity
• Multimedia

The figure below highlights ThorVG's SVG rendering capabilities:

The following code snippet shows how to draw SVG image using ThorVG:

auto picture = tvg::Picture::gen();         //generate a picture
picture->load("tiger.svg");                 //load a SVG file
canvas->push(picture);                      //push the picture into the canvas

The result is:

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ThorVG supports the most powerful Lottie Animation features. Lottie is an industry standard, JSON-based vector animation file format that enables seamless distribution of animations on any platform, akin to shipping static assets. These files are compact and compatible with various devices, scaling up or down without pixelation. With Lottie, you can easily create, edit, test, collaborate, and distribute animations in a user-friendly manner. For more information, please visit Lottie Animation Community' website.

ThorVG offers great flexibility in building its binary. Besides serving as a general graphics engine, it can be configured as a compact Lottie animation playback library with specific build options:

$meson setup builddir -Dloaders="lottie"

Alternatively, to support additional bitmap image formats:

$meson setup builddir -Dloaders="lottie, png, jpg, webp"

Please note that ThorVG supports Lottie Expressions by default. Lottie Expressions are small JavaScript code snippets that can be applied to animated properties in your Lottie animations, evaluating to a single value. This is an advanced feature in the Lottie specification and may impact binary size and performance, especially when targeting small devices such as MCUs. If this feature is not essential for your requirements, you can disable it using the extra build option in ThorVG:

$meson setup builddir -Dloaders="lottie" -Dextra=""

The following code snippet demonstrates how to use ThorVG to play a Lottie animation.

auto animation = tvg::Animation::gen();     //generate an animation
auto picture = animation->picture()         //acquire a picture which associated with the animation.
picture->load("lottie.json");               //load a Lottie file
auto duration = animation->duration();      //figure out the animation duration time in seconds.
canvas->push(tvg::cast(picture));           //push the picture into the canvas

First, an animation and a picture are generated. The Lottie file (lottie.json) is loaded into the picture, and then the picture is added to the canvas. The animation frames are controlled using the animation object to play the Lottie animation. Also you might want to know the animation duration time to run your animation loop.

animation->frame(animation->totalFrame() * progress);  //Set a current animation frame to display
canvas->update(animation->picture());                  //Update the picture to be redrawn.

Let's suppose the progress variable determines the position of the animation, ranging from 0 to 1 based on the total duration time of the animation. Adjusting the progress value allows you to control the animation at the desired position. Afterwards, the canvas is updated to redraw the picture with the updated animation frame.

Please check out the ThorVG Test App to see the performance of various Lottie animations powered by ThorVG.

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Canva, a leading visual communication platform, is a household name among creators, marketers, designers, students, and more, with millions of users worldwide. It empowers users to create stunning visual content with a user-friendly interface and a vast library of templates and design elements. The Canva iOS app transitioned from the existing Lottie animation engine to ThorVG for Lottie animations, resulting in approximately an 80% improvement in rendering speed and a 70% reduction in peak memory usage.

dotLottie is an open-source file format that aggregates one or more Lottie files and their associated resources, such as images and fonts, into a single file. This enables an efficient and easy distribution of animations. dotLottie files are ZIP archives compressed with the Deflate compression method and carry the file extension of “.lottie”. Think of it as a superset of Lottie. LottieFiles aims to achieve just that. dotLottie player by LottieFiles is now powered by ThorVG.

Flux Audio is a cutting-edge audio technology company specializing in high-fidelity sound systems and immersive audio experiences. With a focus on delivering precision and quality, Flux Audio leverages advanced software solutions to enhance audio processing across a wide range of devices. ThorVG is integrated into the user interface of Flux products, providing efficient and scalable vector rendering for their visual elements, ensuring a sleek and responsive user experience. This collaboration highlights ThorVG’s versatility in high-performance audio platforms.

ThorVG has been integrated into the Godot project to enable the creation of sleek and visually appealing user interfaces (UIs) and vector resources in the Godot game engine. Godot is a modern game engine that is both free and open-source, offering a comprehensive range of tools. With Godot, you can concentrate on developing your game without the need to recreate existing functionalities.

LVGL is an open-source graphics library specifically designed for embedded systems with limited resources. It is lightweight and highly customizable, providing support for graphical user interfaces (GUIs) on microcontrollers, IoT devices, and other embedded platforms. ThorVG serves as the vector drawing primitives library in the LVGL framework.

ThorVG has been integrated into the Tizen platform as the vector graphics engine. NUI is the name of Tizen UI framework which is written in C#. ThorVG is the backend engine of the NUI Vector Graphics which is used for vector primitive drawings and scalable image contents such as SVG and Lottie Animation among the Tizen applications.

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There are plenty of sample code in thorvg/examples to help you in understanding the ThorVG APIs.

To execute these examples, you can build them with the following meson build option:

meson setup builddir -Dexamples=true

Note that these examples require the SDL dev package for launching. If you're using Linux-based OS, you can easily install this package from your OS distribution server. For Ubuntu, you can install it with this command.

apt-get install libsdl2-dev

Alternatively, you can read the official guidance here for other platforms. Fore more information, please visit the official SDL site.

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The ThorVG API documentation can be accessed at thorvg.org/apis, and is also available in the C++ API, C API within this repository.

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ThorVG provides the resource verification tool for the ThorVG Engine. ThorVG viewer does immediate rendering via web browser running on the ThorVG web-assembly binary, allowing real-time editing of the vector elements on it. It doesn't upload your resources to any external server while allowing to export to supported formats such as GIF, so the designer resource copyright is protected.

ThorVG provides an executable lottie2gif converter that generates a GIF file from a Lottie file.

To use the lottie2gif, you must turn on this feature in the build option:

meson setup builddir -Dtools=lottie2gif -Dsavers=gif

To use the 'lottie2gif' converter, you need to provide the 'Lottie files' parameter. This parameter can be a file name with the '.json' extension or a directory name. It also accepts multiple files or directories separated by spaces. If a directory is specified, the converter will search for files with the '.json' extension within that directory and all its subdirectories.

Optionally, you can specify the image resolution in the 'WxH' format, with two numbers separated by an 'x' sign, following the '-r' flag.

Both flags, if provided, are applied to all of the .json files.

The usage examples of the lottie2gif:

Usage:
    lottie2gif [Lottie file] or [Lottie folder] [-r resolution] [-f fps] [-b background color]

Flags:
    -r set the output image resolution.
    -f specifies the frames per second (fps) for the generated animation.
    -b specifies the base background color (RGB in hex). If not specified, the background color will follow the original content.

Examples:
    $ lottie2gif input.json
    $ lottie2gif input.json -f 30
    $ lottie2gif input.json -r 600x600 -f 30
    $ lottie2gif lottiefolder
    $ lottie2gif lottiefolder -r 600x600
    $ lottie2gif lottiefolder -r 600x600 -f 30 -b fa7410

ThorVG provides an executable svg2png converter that generates a PNG file from an SVG file.

To use the svg2png, you must turn on this feature in the build option:

meson setup builddir -Dtools=svg2png

To use the 'svg2png' converter, you need to provide the 'SVG files' parameter. This parameter can be a file name with the '.svg' extension or a directory name. It also accepts multiple files or directories separated by spaces. If a directory is specified, the converter will search for files with the '.svg' extension within that directory and all its subdirectories.

Optionally, you can specify the image resolution in the 'WxH' format, with two numbers separated by an 'x' sign, following the '-r' flag.

The background color can be set with the -b flag. The bgColor parameter should be passed as a three-bytes hexadecimal value in the ffffff format. The default background is transparent.

Both flags, if provided, are applied to all of the .svg files.

The usage examples of the svg2png:

Usage:
    svg2png [SVG files] [-r resolution] [-b bgColor]

Flags:
    -r set the output image resolution.
    -b set the output image background color.

Examples:
    $ svg2png input.svg
    $ svg2png input.svg -r 200x200
    $ svg2png input.svg -r 200x200 -b ff00ff
    $ svg2png input1.svg input2.svg -r 200x200 -b ff00ff
    $ svg2png . -r 200x200

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Our main development APIs are written in C++, but ThorVG also provides API bindings for C.

To enable CAPI binding, you need to activate this feature in the build options:

meson setup builddir -Dbindings="capi"

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ThorVG offers versatile support for image loading, accommodating both static and external loaders. This flexibility ensures that, even in environments without external libraries, users can still leverage static loaders as a reliable alternative. At its foundation, the ThorVG core library is engineered to function autonomously, free from external dependencies. However, it is important to note that ThorVG also encompasses a range of optional feature extensions, each with its specific set of dependencies. The dependencies associated with these selective features are outlined as follows:

• GL engine: OpenGL v3.3 or GLES v3.0
• WG engine: webgpu-native
• External PNG support: libpng
• External JPG support: turbojpeg
• External WebP support: libwebp
• Examples: SDL2

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ThorVG stands as a purely open-source initiative. We are grateful to the individuals, organizations, and companies that have contributed to the development of the ThorVG project. The dedicated efforts of the individuals and entities listed below have enabled ThorVG to reach its current state.

• Individuals
• Canva Pty Ltd
• LottieFiles by Design Barn Inc.
• Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd

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We extend our gratitude to our financial sponsors, whose generous support empowers the ThorVG project. Their funding enables us to continually enhance and expand this open-source project, making it more powerful, efficient, and accessible for the entire community.

• Open Collective

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For real-time conversations and discussions, please join us on Discord

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