trenderer

A minimal, portable single-header C library for terminals.

Features

• Beginner-friendly.
• Cross-platform.
• Single-header.
• Free and open-source.
• Minimal, portable, explicit.
• Plain C99, no external dependencies.
• All color formats (ANSI 16, ANSI 256, True color) support.
• Various ANSI effects (e.g. BOLD, ITALIC, UNDERLINE, ...) support.
• Highly customizable.
• No global or hidden state.

Limitations

• No widgets.
• Not thread-safe.
• No input system.
• Partial unicode support. Wide characters and emojis are not supported.
• No z-buffer support.
• No transformations.
• No 3D support.

Installation & Usage

Just add trenderer.h to your project and it's good to go.

Do this:

#define TR_IMPLEMENTATION

before you include trenderer.h one C or C++ file to create the implementation.

Check the comments in the header for detailed info.

Basic examples

Easy and simple ANSI usage

#define TR_NO_RENDERER
#define TR_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "trenderer.h"

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
    tr_init(false); // Flush old buffers to prevent unwanted output.

    tr_add_effects(TR_UNDERLINE | TR_BOLD); // Add effects.
    tr_set_fg(tr_rgb(255, 0, 0));           // Set foreground color to red using rgb(True colors).
    tr_set_bg(TR_BLUE_256);                 // Set background color to blue using ANSI 256.
    printf("Hello, ");

    tr_remove_effects(TR_UNDERLINE); // Remove effects.
    tr_add_effects(TR_BLINK);
    tr_set_bg(TR_BRIGHT_GREEN_16);   // Set background color to bright green using ANSI 16.
    printf("World!");

    tr_reset_all(); // Reset effects, fg, bg to default.

    return 0;
}

Optimized rendering for games and apps.

#define TR_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "trenderer.h"

#include <conio.h>
#define ESC 27

int main(void) {
    TrRenderContext ctx;
    tr_ctx_init(&ctx, 0, 0, 50, 10);

    tr_init(false); // tr_init(true); if you want to use unicode.

    tr_open_alt(); // Open the alternative buffer.
    tr_hide_cursor();
    while (1) {
        if (_kbhit() && _getch() == ESC)
            break;
        
        tr_ctx_clear(&ctx, TR_WHITE_16);
        tr_ctx_draw_rect(&ctx, 10, 3, 30, 4, TR_ORANGE); // Draws an orange rect in the middle.
        tr_ctx_render(&ctx);
    }
    tr_close_alt(); // Closes the alternative buffer.

    return 0;
}

More examples in ./examples

Note

Effects and colors may look different depending on your terminal. Check if yours support them.

License

trenderer is licensed under MIT License. See LICENSE for more info.

Inspiration

Library design and code structure inspired by nuklear, stb and OpenGL.