> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/ocornut/imgui/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Dear ImGui

> A bloat-free graphical user interface library for C++

## What is Dear ImGui?

Dear ImGui is a **bloat-free graphical user interface library for C++**. It outputs optimized vertex buffers that you can render anytime in your 3D-pipeline-enabled application. It is fast, portable, renderer agnostic, and self-contained with no external dependencies.

Dear ImGui is designed to **enable fast iterations** and to **empower programmers** to create **content creation tools and visualization/debug tools** (as opposed to UI for the average end-user). It favors simplicity and productivity toward this goal and lacks certain features commonly found in more high-level libraries.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Get started" icon="rocket" href="/quickstart">
    Create your first Dear ImGui application in minutes
  </Card>

  <Card title="Integration guide" icon="puzzle-piece" href="/integration">
    Add Dear ImGui to your existing project
  </Card>

  <Card title="API reference" icon="book" href="/api/context">
    Explore the complete Dear ImGui API
  </Card>

  <Card title="Examples" icon="code" href="https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/tree/master/examples">
    Browse 20+ working example applications
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Key features

### Immediate mode paradigm

The IMGUI paradigm minimizes state synchronization, state duplication, and state retention from the user's point of view. It is less error-prone than traditional retained-mode interfaces and lends itself to creating dynamic user interfaces.

```cpp theme={null}
ImGui::Text("Hello, world %d", 123);
if (ImGui::Button("Save")) {
    MySaveFunction();
}
ImGui::InputText("string", buf, IM_COUNTOF(buf));
ImGui::SliderFloat("float", &f, 0.0f, 1.0f);
```

### Portable and self-contained

* **No external dependencies** - all files in the root folder compile together
* **Platform agnostic** - runs anywhere you can render textured triangles
* **Renderer agnostic** - works with DirectX, OpenGL, Vulkan, Metal, WebGPU, and more
* **Battle-tested** - used by major game studios and tools worldwide

### Simple integration

Dear ImGui outputs vertex buffers and command lists that you render in your application. The library doesn't touch graphics state directly - you maintain full control.

<CodeGroup>
  ```cpp Integration example theme={null}
  // Setup Dear ImGui context
  IMGUI_CHECKVERSION();
  ImGui::CreateContext();
  ImGuiIO& io = ImGui::GetIO();

  // Setup Platform/Renderer backends
  ImGui_ImplGlfw_InitForOpenGL(window, true);
  ImGui_ImplOpenGL3_Init(glsl_version);

  // Main loop
  while (!glfwWindowShouldClose(window)) {
      ImGui_ImplOpenGL3_NewFrame();
      ImGui_ImplGlfw_NewFrame();
      ImGui::NewFrame();

      // Your UI code here
      ImGui::ShowDemoWindow();

      ImGui::Render();
      ImGui_ImplOpenGL3_RenderDrawData(ImGui::GetDrawData());
      glfwSwapBuffers(window);
  }
  ```

  ```cpp Hello World theme={null}
  ImGui::Begin("Hello, world!");
  ImGui::Text("This is some useful text.");
  ImGui::Checkbox("Demo Window", &show_demo_window);
  ImGui::SliderFloat("float", &f, 0.0f, 1.0f);
  ImGui::ColorEdit3("clear color", (float*)&clear_color);

  if (ImGui::Button("Button")) {
      counter++;
  }
  ImGui::SameLine();
  ImGui::Text("counter = %d", counter);
  ImGui::End();
  ```
</CodeGroup>

## Use cases

Dear ImGui is particularly suited to:

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card icon="gamepad">
    **Game engine tools** - Level editors, asset browsers, debugging overlays
  </Card>

  <Card icon="chart-line">
    **Data visualization** - Real-time graphs, profilers, metrics dashboards
  </Card>

  <Card icon="wrench">
    **Development tools** - Debuggers, memory editors, console interfaces
  </Card>

  <Card icon="cube">
    **3D applications** - CAD tools, animation software, simulation controls
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Note>
  Dear ImGui is designed for **programmers** and **tools**, not for end-user applications. Full internationalization and advanced accessibility features are not supported.
</Note>

## Design philosophy

Dear ImGui follows several core principles:

* **Minimize state synchronization** - Reduce the need to keep UI state in sync with application state
* **Minimize setup and maintenance** - Get running quickly without complex initialization
* **Easy to use for dynamic UI** - Reflection of dynamic data sets and runtime conditions
* **Easy to hack and improve** - Simple, readable C++ code
* **Efficient** - Optimized runtime performance and memory consumption
* **Portable** - Runs on desktop, mobile, consoles, and embedded systems

## Community and support

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="GitHub Discussions" icon="github" href="https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/discussions">
    Get help from the community
  </Card>

  <Card title="Demo & Examples" icon="play" href="https://pthom.github.io/imgui_manual_online/manual/imgui_manual.html">
    Try the interactive demo online
  </Card>

  <Card title="Gallery" icon="images" href="https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/issues?q=label%3Agallery">
    See what others are building
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

## Production ready

Dear ImGui is used by hundreds of major projects including:

* **Tracy Profiler** - Real-time CPU/GPU profiler
* **ImHex** - Hex editor and data analysis tool
* **RemedyBG** - High-performance debugger
* **Game engines** - Unreal Engine, Unity (via plugins), custom engines
* **AAA game studios** - Used in shipped titles across all platforms

<Info>
  Dear ImGui is free and open source under the MIT license, but relies on community support for continued development. Consider [sponsoring the project](https://github.com/ocornut/imgui/wiki/Funding) if you use it commercially.
</Info>

## Next steps

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Quickstart guide" icon="bolt" href="/quickstart">
    Build your first Dear ImGui application
  </Card>

  <Card title="Integration guide" icon="layer-group" href="/integration">
    Add Dear ImGui to an existing project
  </Card>
</CardGroup>