Set-up a project

Get the library

LVGL is available on GitHub: https://github.com/lvgl/lvgl.

You can clone it or download the latest version of the library from GitHub.

The graphics library itself is the lvgl directory which should be copied into your project.

Configuration file

There is a configuration header file for LVGL called lv_conf.h. In this you can set the library's basic behavior, disable unused modules and features, adjust the size of memory buffers in compile-time, etc.

Copy lvgl/lv_conf_template.h next to the lvgl directory and rename it to lv_conf.h. Open the file and change the #if 0 at the beginning to #if 1 to enable its content.

lv_conf.h can be copied to another place as well but then you should add LV_CONF_INCLUDE_SIMPLE define to your compiler options (e.g. -DLV_CONF_INCLUDE_SIMPLE for gcc compiler) and set the include path manually. In this case LVGL will attempt to include lv_conf.h simply with #include "lv_conf.h".

In the config file comments explain the meaning of the options. Be sure to set at least LV_COLOR_DEPTH according to your display's color depth.

Initialization

To use the graphics library you have to initialize it and the other components too. The order of the initialization is:

  1. Call lv_init().

  2. Initialize your drivers.

  3. Register the display and input devices drivers in LVGL. Lear more about Display and Input device registration.

  4. Call lv_tick_inc(x) every x milliseconds in an interrupt to tell the elapsed time. Learn more.

  5. Call lv_timer_handler() every few milliseconds to handle LVGL related tasks. Learn more.