egui_ratatui : egui widget + ratatui backend

RataguiBackend is a combined ratatui Backend and egui Widget that lets you render a full Ratatui terminal inside an egui UI. Because egui is WASM-friendly, this makes it easy to run terminal-style TUI apps in desktop GUIs or in the browser.

Highlights

egui_ratatui builds on top of the [soft_ratatui] library and inherits its features:

• Multiple font backends: embedded-graphics, embedded-ttf, bdf-parser, cosmic-text.
• High performance: optimized for real-time UIs (hundreds of FPS on normal workloads).
• WASM compatible: run your ratatui apps in the browser via egui.
• Bevy & GUI friendly — bevy and eframe examples included.

Installation

Add the crate to your project:

cargo add egui_ratatui

You will typically also add soft_ratatui (the rendering backends) and ratatui:

cargo add soft_ratatui
cargo add ratatui

Or clone and run the included examples:

git clone https://github.com/gold-silver-copper/egui_ratatui.git
cd egui_ratatui
cd bevy_example
cargo run --release

Quick usage

Minimal example

use eframe::egui;
use egui_ratatui::RataguiBackend;
use ratatui::Terminal;
use ratatui::prelude::Stylize;
use ratatui::widgets::{Block, Borders, Paragraph, Wrap};
use soft_ratatui::embedded_graphics_unicodefonts::{
    mono_8x13_atlas, mono_8x13_bold_atlas, mono_8x13_italic_atlas,
};
use soft_ratatui::{EmbeddedGraphics, SoftBackend};

fn main() -> eframe::Result {
    let options = eframe::NativeOptions {
        viewport: egui::ViewportBuilder::default().with_inner_size([320.0, 240.0]),
        ..Default::default()
    };

    let font_regular = mono_8x13_atlas();
    let font_italic = mono_8x13_italic_atlas();
    let font_bold = mono_8x13_bold_atlas();
    let soft_backend = SoftBackend::<EmbeddedGraphics>::new(
        100,
        50,
        font_regular,
        Some(font_bold),
        Some(font_italic),
    );
    let mut backend = RataguiBackend::new("soft_rat", soft_backend);
    let mut terminal = Terminal::new(backend).unwrap();

    eframe::run_simple_native("My egui App", options, move |ctx, _frame| {
        terminal
            .draw(|frame| {
                let area = frame.area();
                let textik = format!("Hello eframe! The window area is {}", area);
                frame.render_widget(
                    Paragraph::new(textik)
                        .block(Block::new().title("Ratatui").borders(Borders::ALL))
                        .white()
                        .on_blue()
                        .wrap(Wrap { trim: false }),
                    area,
                );
            })
            .expect("epic fail");
        egui::CentralPanel::default().show(ctx, |ui| {
            ui.add(terminal.backend_mut());
        });
    })
}

Feature Flags (set these on soft_ratatui dependency)

soft_ratatui (and therefore egui_ratatui) is modular. Enable only the backends you need to reduce binary size and dependencies. (Note: these features flags must be set on the soft_ratatui dependency, I am only mentioning them here for visibility)

Tip: Only enable the font backends you actually use in Cargo.toml to keep compile times and binary size down.

Integration notes

• The crate is designed so RataguiBackend<R> is generic over any R: RasterBackend. That means you can use the same RataguiBackend code with SoftBackend<EmbeddedGraphics>, SoftBackend<EmbeddedTTF>, SoftBackend<Bdf>, or whichever backend you enable.

• RataguiBackend implements Ratatui's Backend trait, so it can be used anywhere a ratatui::Terminal is expected.

• For web/WASM deployment, remember to enable the appropriate features and follow the host GUI / wasm backend guide (see links below).

Examples

• bevy_example/ — embedding Ratagui inside Bevy (with bevy_egui).

• eframe_example/ — minimal eframe example.

• See the soft_ratatui repo for font/backend-specific examples (BDF, TTF, CosmicText, embedded-graphics).

Useful links

• soft_ratatui — software rendering backends used by egui_ratatui.
• ratatui — terminal UI crate.
• egui — immediate mode GUI used to embed the widget.
• bevy_ratatui — Bevy integration for Ratatui.
• mousefood - a no-std embedded-graphics backend for Ratatui!
• ratzilla - Build terminal-themed web applications with Rust and WebAssembly.
• ratatui-wgpu - A wgpu based rendering backend for ratatui.
• bevy_ratatui_camera - A bevy plugin for rendering your bevy app to the terminal using ratatui.

WASM & platform guides:

• Bevy WASM guide: https://bevy-cheatbook.github.io/platforms/wasm.html
• Macroquad WASM: https://macroquad.rs/articles/wasm/
• eframe (egui desktop + wasm): https://github.com/emilk/eframe_template

Font and text engine links:

• embedded-graphics

• embedded_graphics_unicodefonts

• bdf-parser

• embedded-ttf

• cosmic-text

Cool BDF fonts

• spleen — many sizes, perfect block drawing.

• cozette — pretty font.

License

Dual-licensed under MIT or Apache 2.0.