The GTK+ website offers some tutorials and other documentation (most of it about GTK+ 2.x, but mostly still applicable). More documentation ranging from whitepapers to online books can be found at the GNOME developer's site. After studying these materials you should be well prepared to come back to this reference manual for details.

See the documentation on this topic.

See Migrating from GTK+ 2.x to GTK+ 3. You may also find useful information in the documentation for specific widgets and functions.

If you have a question not covered in the manual, feel free to ask on the mailing lists and please file a bug report against the documentation.

See the documentation for GObject and GInitiallyUnowned. For GObject note specifically g_object_ref() and g_object_unref(). GInitiallyUnowned is a subclass of GObject so the same points apply, except that it has a "floating" state (explained in its documentation).

For strings returned from functions, they will be declared "const" if they should not be freed. Non-const strings should be freed with g_free(). Arrays follow the same rule. If you find an undocumented exception to the rules, please report a bug on GitLab.

If GtkFoo isn't a toplevel window, then

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foo = gtk_foo_new ();
gtk_widget_destroy (foo);

is a memory leak, because no one assumed the initial floating reference. If you are using a widget and you aren't immediately packing it into a container, then you probably want standard reference counting, not floating reference counting.

To get this, you must acquire a reference to the widget and drop the floating reference (“ref and sink” in GTK+ parlance) after creating it:

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foo = gtk_foo_new ();
g_object_ref_sink (foo);

When you want to get rid of the widget, you must call gtk_widget_destroy() to break any external connections to the widget before dropping your reference:

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gtk_widget_destroy (foo);
g_object_unref (foo);

When you immediately add a widget to a container, it takes care of assuming the initial floating reference and you don't have to worry about reference counting at all ... just call gtk_widget_destroy() to get rid of the widget.

This is covered in the GDK threads documentation. See also the GThread documentation for portable threading primitives.

Most people use GNU gettext, already required in order to install GLib. On a UNIX or Linux system with gettext installed, type info gettext to read the documentation.

The short checklist on how to use gettext is: call bindtextdomain() so gettext can find the files containing your translations, call textdomain() to set the default translation domain, call bind_textdomain_codeset() to request that all translated strings are returned in UTF-8, then call gettext() to look up each string to be translated in the default domain.

gi18n.h provides the following shorthand macros for convenience. Conventionally, people define macros as follows for convenience:

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#define  _(x)     gettext (x)
#define N_(x)     x
#define C_(ctx,x) pgettext (ctx, x)

You use N_() (N stands for no-op) to mark a string for translation in a location where a function call to gettext() is not allowed, such as in an array initializer. You eventually have to call gettext() on the string to actually fetch the translation. _() both marks the string for translation and actually translates it. The C_() macro (C stands for context) adds an additional context to the string that is marked for translation, which can help to disambiguate short strings that might need different translations in different parts of your program.

Code using these macros ends up looking like this:

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#include <gi18n.h>

static const char *global_variable = N_("Translate this string");

static void
make_widgets (void)
{
   GtkWidget *label1;
   GtkWidget *label2;

   label1 = gtk_label_new (_("Another string to translate"));
   label2 = gtk_label_new (_(global_variable));
...

Libraries using gettext should use dgettext() instead of gettext(), which allows them to specify the translation domain each time they ask for a translation. Libraries should also avoid calling textdomain(), since they will be specifying the domain instead of using the default.

With the convention that the macro GETTEXT_PACKAGE is defined to hold your libraries translation domain, gi18n-lib.h can be included to provide the following convenience:

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#define _(x) dgettext (GETTEXT_PACKAGE, x)

GTK+ uses Unicode (more exactly UTF-8) for all text. UTF-8 encodes each Unicode codepoint as a sequence of one to six bytes and has a number of nice properties which make it a good choice for working with Unicode text in C programs:

More information about Unicode and UTF-8 can be found in the UTF-8 and Unicode FAQ for Unix/Linux. GLib provides functions for converting strings between UTF-8 and other encodings, see g_locale_to_utf8() and g_convert().

Text coming from external sources (e.g. files or user input), has to be converted to UTF-8 before being handed over to GTK+. The following example writes the content of a IS0-8859-1 encoded text file to stdout:

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gchar *text, *utf8_text;
gsize length;
GError *error = NULL;

if (g_file_get_contents (filename, &text, &length, NULL))
  {
     utf8_text = g_convert (text, length, "UTF-8", "ISO-8859-1",
                            NULL, NULL, &error);
     if (error != NULL)
       {
         fprintf ("Couldn't convert file %s to UTF-8\n", filename);
         g_error_free (error);
       }
     else
       g_print (utf8_text);
  }
else
  fprintf (stderr, "Unable to read file %s\n", filename);

For string literals in the source code, there are several alternatives for handling non-ASCII content:

Here is an example showing the three approaches using the copyright sign © which has Unicode and ISO-8859-1 codepoint 169 and is represented in UTF-8 by the two bytes 194, 169, or "\302\251" as a string literal:

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g_print ("direct UTF-8: ©");
g_print ("escaped UTF-8: \302\251");
text = g_convert ("runtime conversion: ©", -1, "ISO-8859-1", "UTF-8", NULL, NULL, NULL);
g_print(text);
g_free (text);

If you are using gettext() to localize your application, you need to call bind_textdomain_codeset() to ensure that translated strings are returned in UTF-8 encoding.

There are two ways to approach this. The GTK+ header files use the subset of C that's also valid C++, so you can simply use the normal GTK+ API in a C++ program. Alternatively, you can use a "C++ binding" such as gtkmm which provides a native C++ API.

When using GTK+ directly, keep in mind that only functions can be connected to signals, not methods. So you will need to use global functions or "static" class functions for signal connections.

Another common issue when using GTK+ directly is that C++ will not implicitly convert an integer to an enumeration. This comes up when using bitfields; in C you can write the following code:

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gdk_window_set_events (gdk_window,
                       GDK_BUTTON_PRESS_MASK | GDK_BUTTON_RELEASE_MASK);

while in C++ you must write:

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gdk_window_set_events (gdk_window,
                       (GdkEventMask) GDK_BUTTON_PRESS_MASK | GDK_BUTTON_RELEASE_MASK);

There are very few functions that require this cast, however.

See the list of language bindings on https://www.gtk.org.

To load an image file straight into a display widget, use gtk_image_new_from_file() ^[1]. To load an image for another purpose, use gdk_pixbuf_new_from_file(). To load an animation, use gdk_pixbuf_animation_new_from_file(). gdk_pixbuf_animation_new_from_file() can also load non-animated images, so use it in combination with gdk_pixbuf_animation_is_static_image() to load a file of unknown type.

To load an image or animation file asynchronously (without blocking), use GdkPixbufLoader.

To draw a piece of text, use a Pango layout and pango_cairo_show_layout().

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layout = gtk_widget_create_pango_layout (widget, text);
fontdesc = pango_font_description_from_string ("Luxi Mono 12");
pango_layout_set_font_description (layout, fontdesc);
pango_cairo_show_layout (cr, layout);
pango_font_description_free (fontdesc);
g_object_unref (layout);

See also the Cairo Rendering section of Pango manual.

To obtain the size of a piece of text, use a Pango layout and pango_layout_get_pixel_size(), using code like the following:

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layout = gtk_widget_create_pango_layout (widget, text);
fontdesc = pango_font_description_from_string ("Luxi Mono 12");
pango_layout_set_font_description (layout, fontdesc);
pango_layout_get_pixel_size (layout, &width, &height);
pango_font_description_free (fontdesc);
g_object_unref (layout);

See also the Layout Objects section of Pango manual.

The GTK_TYPE_BLAH macros are defined as calls to gtk_blah_get_type(), and the _get_type() functions are declared as G_GNUC_CONST which allows the compiler to optimize the call away if it appears that the value is not being used.

A common workaround for this problem is to store the result in a volatile variable, which keeps the compiler from optimizing the call away.

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volatile GType dummy = GTK_TYPE_BLAH;

To make a window transparent, it needs to use a visual which supports that. This is done by getting the RGBA visual of the screen with gdk_screen_get_rgba_visual() and setting it on the window. Note that gdk_screen_get_rgba_visual() will return NULL if transparent windows are not supported on the screen, you should fall back to gdk_screen_get_system_visual() in that case. Additionally, note that this will change from screen to screen, so it needs to be repeated whenever the window is moved to a different screen.

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GdkVisual *visual;

visual = gdk_screen_get_rgba_visual (screen);
if (visual == NULL)
  visual = gdk_screen_get_system_visual (screen);

gtk_widget_set_visual (GTK_WIDGET (window), visual);

To fill the alpha channel on the window simply use cairos RGBA drawing capabilities.

Note that the presence of an RGBA visual is no guarantee that the window will actually appear transparent on screen. On X11, this requires a compositing manager to be running. See gtk_widget_is_composited() for a way to find out if the alpha channel will be respected.

See tree widget overview — you should use the GtkTreeView widget. (A list is just a tree with no branches, so the tree widget is used for lists as well).

See text widget overview — you should use the GtkTextView widget.

If you only have a small amount of text, GtkLabel may also be appropriate of course. It can be made selectable with gtk_label_set_selectable(). For a single-line text entry, see GtkEntry.

GtkImage can display images in just about any format GTK+ understands. You can also use GtkDrawingArea if you need to do something more complex, such as draw text or graphics over the top of the image.

With GTK+, a GtkComboBox is the recommended widget to use for this use case. This widget looks like either a combo box or the current option menu, depending on the current theme. If you need an editable text entry, use the “has-entry” property.

See gtk_widget_override_color() and gtk_widget_override_background_color(). You can also change the appearance of a widget by installing a custom style provider, see gtk_style_context_add_provider().

To change the background color for widgets such as GtkLabel that have no background, place them in a GtkEventBox and set the background of the event box.

This has several possible answers, depending on what exactly you want to achieve. One option is gtk_widget_override_font().

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PangoFontDesc *font_desc = pango_font_description_new ();
pango_font_description_set_size (font_desc, 40);
gtk_widget_override_font (widget, font);
pango_font_description_free (font_desc);

If you want to make the text of a label larger, you can use gtk_label_set_markup():

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gtk_label_set_markup (label, "<big>big text</big>");

This is preferred for many apps because it's a relative size to the user's chosen font size. See g_markup_escape_text() if you are constructing such strings on the fly.

You can also change the font of a widget by putting

 .my-widget-class {
   font: Sans 30;
 }

in a CSS file, loading it with gtk_css_provider_load_from_file(), and adding the provider with gtk_style_context_add_provider_for_screen(). To associate this style information with your widget, set a style class on its GtkStyleContext using gtk_style_context_add_class(). The advantage of this approach is that users can then override the font you have chosen. See the GtkStyleContext documentation for more discussion.

In GTK+ a disabled widget is termed "insensitive." See gtk_widget_set_sensitive().

See gtk_text_buffer_get_bounds() and gtk_text_buffer_get_text() or gtk_text_iter_get_text().

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GtkTextIter start, end;
GtkTextBuffer *buffer;
char *text;

buffer = gtk_text_view_get_buffer (GTK_TEXT_VIEW (text_view));
gtk_text_buffer_get_bounds (buffer, &start, &end);
text = gtk_text_iter_get_text (&start, &end);
/* use text */
g_free (text);

If you use gtk_text_buffer_insert_with_tags() with appropriate tags to select the font, the inserted text will have the desired appearance, but text typed in by the user before or after the tagged block will appear in the default style.

To ensure that all text has the desired appearance, use gtk_widget_override_font() to change the default font for the widget.

A good way to keep a text buffer scrolled to the end is to place a mark at the end of the buffer, and give it right gravity. The gravity has the effect that text inserted at the mark gets inserted before, keeping the mark at the end.

To ensure that the end of the buffer remains visible, use gtk_text_view_scroll_to_mark() to scroll to the mark after inserting new text.

The gtk-demo application contains an example of this technique.

Remember that the GtkTreeModel columns don't necessarily have to be displayed. So you can put non-user-visible data in your model just like any other data, and retrieve it with gtk_tree_model_get(). See the tree widget overview.

You can pack more than one GtkCellRenderer into a single GtkTreeViewColumn using gtk_tree_view_column_pack_start() or gtk_tree_view_column_pack_end(). So pack both a GtkCellRendererPixbuf and a GtkCellRendererText into the column.

Both the GtkTreeStore and the GtkListStore implement the GtkTreeModel interface. Consequentially, you can use any function this interface implements. The easiest way to read a set of data back is to use gtk_tree_model_get().

Use gtk_tree_view_insert_column_with_data_func() or gtk_tree_view_column_set_cell_data_func() and do the conversion from number to string yourself (with, say, g_strdup_printf()).

The following example demonstrates this:

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enum
{
  DOUBLE_COLUMN,
  N_COLUMNS
};

GtkListStore *mycolumns;
GtkTreeView *treeview;

void
my_cell_double_to_text (GtkTreeViewColumn *tree_column,
	                GtkCellRenderer   *cell,
                        GtkTreeModel      *tree_model,
	                GtkTreeIter       *iter,
                        gpointer           data)
{
  GtkCellRendererText *cell_text = (GtkCellRendererText *)cell;
  gdouble d;
  gchar *text;

  /* Get the double value from the model. */
  gtk_tree_model_get (tree_model, iter, (gint)data, &d, -1);
  /* Now we can format the value ourselves. */
  text = g_strdup_printf ("%.2f", d);
  g_object_set (cell, "text", text, NULL);
  g_free (text);
}

void
set_up_new_columns (GtkTreeView *myview)
{
  GtkCellRendererText *renderer;
  GtkTreeViewColumn *column;
  GtkListStore *mycolumns;

  /* Create the data model and associate it with the given TreeView */
  mycolumns = gtk_list_store_new (N_COLUMNS, G_TYPE_DOUBLE);
  gtk_tree_view_set_model (myview, GTK_TREE_MODEL (mycolumns));

  /* Create a GtkCellRendererText */
  renderer = gtk_cell_renderer_text_new ();

  /* Create a new column that has a title ("Example column"),
   * uses the above created renderer that will render the double
   * value into text from the associated model's rows.
   */
  column = gtk_tree_view_column_new ();
  gtk_tree_view_column_set_title  (column, "Example column");
  renderer = gtk_cell_renderer_text_new ();
  gtk_tree_view_column_pack_start (column, renderer, TRUE);

  /* Append the new column after the GtkTreeView's previous columns. */
  gtk_tree_view_append_column (GTK_TREE_VIEW (myview), column);
  /* Since we created the column by hand, we can set it up for our
   * needs, e.g. set its minimum and maximum width, etc.
   */
  /* Set up a custom function that will be called when the column content
   * is rendered. We use the func_data pointer as an index into our
   * model. This is convenient when using multi column lists.
   */
  gtk_tree_view_column_set_cell_data_func (column, renderer,
	                                   my_cell_double_to_text,
                                           (gpointer)DOUBLE_COLUMN, NULL);
}

Set the expander-column property of the tree view to a hidden column. See gtk_tree_view_set_expander_column() and gtk_tree_view_column_set_visible().

The “draw” signal gets a ready-to-use cairo context as parameter that you should use.

All drawing in GTK+ is normally done in a draw handler, and GTK+ creates a temporary pixmap for double-buffering the drawing. It is possible to turn off double-buffering, with gtk_widget_set_double_buffered(), but this is not ideal, since it can cause some flickering.

No. The GDK X11 backend uses the cairo X backend (and the other GDK backends use their respective native cairo backends). The GTK+ developers believe that the best way to improving the GDK drawing performance is to optimize the cairo X backend and the relevant code paths in the X server that is uses (mostly the Render extension).

No, at least not yet. The cairo image surface does not support the pixel format used by GdkPixbuf.