/Arduino_GFX

Arduino GFX developing for various color displays and various data bus interfaces

Primary LanguageC++

Arduino_GFX

Arduino_GFX is a Arduino graphics library supporting various displays with various data bus interfaces.

This library start rewrite from Adafruit_GFX, LovyanGFX, TFT_eSPI, Ucglib, and more...

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Various data bus interfaces

Arduino_GFX utilizes Arduino Built-in SPI class to support 8-bit SPI for most platforms.

Most tiny displays in hobbyist electronics world support 8-bit SPI, but some require 9-bit SPI. Arduino_GFX should be the first Arduino display library that can use ESP32 SPI to support 9-bit hardware SPI. It is important to support the displays that require 9-bit SPI interface. (e.g. HX8357B, ...)

Larger displays most likely do not support standalone SPI since it is not fast enough to refresh the full screen details. Most of them support 8-bit/16-bit Parallel interface.

Some larger display require 3-bit SPI + RGB combo interface, i.e. require more than 3 + 24 pins. Most dev board do not have enough GPIO to support this. Arduino_GFX will eventually support this combo interface but will be in very low priority. A huge monthly sponsor may make it happen :P

Ease of use

Simple Declaration

(not require touch the header files in libraries folder)

#include <Arduino_GFX_Library.h>
Arduino_DataBus *bus = new Arduino_HWSPI(16 /* DC */, 5 /* CS */);
Arduino_GFX *gfx = new Arduino_ILI9341(bus, 17 /* RST */);

And Simple Usage

gfx->begin();
gfx->fillScreen(BLACK);
gfx->setCursor(10, 10);
gfx->setTextColor(RED);
gfx->println("Hello World!");

Performance

This library is not putting speed at the first priority, but still paid much effort to make the display look smooth.

Figures

Below are some figures compare with other 3 Arduino common display libraries.

  • Arduino IDE: 1.8.15
  • arduino-esp32: 1.0.6
  • Dev Board: TTGO T8 v1.8
  • PSRAM: disable
  • Display: ILI9341
  • Interface: SPI
  • SPI Frequency: 40MHz
  • Test time: 2021 Jun 16
Benchmark Adafruit_GFX Arduino_GFX Lovyan_GFX TFT_eSPI
Screen fill 195,782 160,094 154,341 155,938
Text 97,662 18,960 22,473 21,752
Pixels 1,365,211 903,549 867,702 775,781
Lines 1,062,311 412,026 269,060 264,950
Horiz/Vert Lines 17,637 14,197 13,692 13,833
Rectangles-filled 406,817 332,696 320,761 323,908
Rectangles 11,641 9,254 8,545 8,714
Triangles-filled 150,941 118,010 105,661 109,675
Triangles 58,843 23,570 15,884 16,277
Circles-filled 76,739 52,170 42,787 45,827
Circles 118,125 40,955 25,959 25,269
Arcs-filled N/A 33,381 21,546 N/A
Arcs N/A 66,054 47,901 N/A
Rounded rects-fill 408,534 338,136 318,882 323,189
Rounded rects 43,185 21,562 13,089 15,371

Why Run Fast?

  • No read operation. Since not all display provide read back graphic memories API, Arduino_GFX skip all read operations. It can reduce the library size footprint and sometimes reduce the operation time.
  • Tailor-made data bus classes. Arduino_GFX decouple data bus operation from display driver, it is more easy to write individual data bus class for each platform.

Currently Supported data bus [Wiki]

  • 8-bit and 9-bit hardware SPI (ESP32SPI)
  • 8-bit hardware SPI (HWSPI, ESP8266SPI, mbedSPI, NRFXSPI, RPiPicoSPI)
  • 8-bit and 9-bit software SPI (SWSPI)
  • 8-bit parallel interface (AVRPAR8, ESP32PAR8, ESP32S2PAR8, RPiPicoPAR8, RTLPAR8)
  • 16-bit parallel interface (ESP32PAR16, ESP32S2PAR8, RPiPicoPAR16)

Tobe Support data bus (Sponsors can make it happen)

  • ESP32 I2S 8-bit/16-bit parallel interface
  • Arduino ATMega2560 dual 8-bit Port form 16-bit parallel interface
  • FastLED

Currently Supported Dev Board

  • Ameba RTL8722DM Board (AMB 21)
  • Ameba RTL8722DM MINI Board (AMB 23)
  • Arduino Nano
  • Arduino Nano BLE 33
  • Arduino Pro Micro
  • ESP8266 Series
  • ESP32 Series
  • ESP32-C3 Series
  • ESP32-S2 Series
  • ESP32-S3 Series
  • Raspberry Pi Pico
  • rtlduino BW16 (by Ai-Thinker)
  • Sony Spresense
  • WeAct BlackPill V2.0 (BlackPill F411CE)

Tobe Support Dev Board (Sponsors can make it happen)

  • Arduino ATMega2560
  • ESP32-S3 Series

Currently Supported Dev Device [Wiki]

  • ESP32 LCDKIT
  • ESP32-S3-EYE
  • ESPboy [demo video]
  • Makerfabs ESP32 3.5" TFT Touch with Camera
  • TTGO T-DISPLAY
  • wireless-tag WT-32-SC01
  • Wio Terminal
  • M5Stack Core Family
  • Odroid Go
  • TTGO T-Watch

Currently Supported Display [Wiki]

Tobe Support Display (Sponsors can make it happen)

  • FastLED Martix supported by co-operate with Canvas
  • Mono display supported by co-operate with Canvas
  • Multi-color e-ink display supported by co-operate with Canvas

Canvas (framebuffer) [Wiki]

  • Canvas (16-bit pixel)
  • Canvas_Indexed (half memory space)
  • Canvas_3bit (1/4 memory space framebuffer)
  • Canvas_Mono (1/16 memory space framebuffer)

Feature wishlist (Sponsors can make it happen)

  • Print UTF8 Characters
  • Print color Emoji Characters
  • Load bitmap font files from flash / SD
  • Fill Gradient

Using source code come from: