Graphiclity: A Minimal Graphics Library

Graphiclity is a minimal graphics library that makes drawing pixels to a window simple.

If you've ever tried to draw pixels to a window in Rust for example, for a CHIP-8 emulator you know the pain. Using iced or egui often feels like overkill, while wgpu + winit feels far too low-level.

Graphiclity exists to bridge that gap.

It provides a small, immediate-mode drawing API on top of a window and render loop, without forcing a UI framework or architectural style.

Graphiclity is not!

• A UI framework
• A widget or layout system
• A retained scene graph
• A game engine
• An alternative for iced or egui
• A replacement for wgpu

If you need those things, Graphiclity is probably not the right tool and that’s okay, it doesn't have to be.

Features

• ✅ Simple pixel and shape drawing (rectangles, pixels)
• ✅ Built-in 8×8 bitmap font for text rendering
• ✅ Automatic DPI scaling
• ✅ Fixed logical resolution (perfect for pixel-art games and emulators)
• ✅ Resizable windows with aspect ratio preservation
• ✅ Zero-setup: just call run() and start drawing

Example

Basic Drawing

use graphiclity::{run, Color};

fn main() {
    run(|ctx| {
        let g = ctx.graphics();
        g.clear(Color::WHITE);
        g.rect(50, 50, 100, 100, Color::BLACK);
    });
}

And A bouncing Rect

use graphiclity::Color;
fn main() {
    let mut pos = Vec2 { x: 50, y: 50 };
    let mut vel = Vec2 { x: 2, y: 3 };
    let size = Vec2 { x: 20, y: 20 };

    graphiclity::run_with(conf, move |ctx| {
        let dt = ctx.delta_time();
        let g = ctx.graphics();

        pos.x += (vel.x as f64 * dt * 60.0) as i32;
        pos.y += (vel.y as f64 * dt * 60.0) as i32;

        let (width, height) = g.logical_size();

        if pos.x <= 0 || pos.x + size.x >= width as i32 {
            vel.x = -vel.x;
        }
        if pos.y <= 0 || pos.y + size.y >= height as i32 {
            vel.y = -vel.y;
        }

        g.clear(Color::WHITE);

        g.rect(pos, size, Color::rgb(128, 23, 255));

        g.text((10, 10), "Graphiclity v0.2.0", Color::CYAN);
        g.text((10, height as i32 - 20), format!("Pos: {}, {}", pos.x, pos.y), Color::BLACK);

    });
}

When to use Graphiclity?

• Developing a Emulator(Especially a Retro one) = Perfect ✅
• Developing Software in Rust that needs basic Graphical Output = Perfect ✅
• Developing a UI Framework taking Graphiclity as a foundation = Plausible ⚠️(Extensibility API is not yet implemented)
• Developing a Full fledged Game or a Desktop Application = Nope ❌ You'll struggle and will need to implement most of the things by yourself

How it works

Internally, Graphiclity handles:

• Window creation and events
• A simple render loop
• Pixel drawing
• DPI Controls

You control what is drawn. Graphiclity handles how it appears on screen.

Philosophy

Graphiclity is designed to be the first mile of graphics in Rust.

It favors:

• Explicit code over magic
• Simplicity over complexity
• Approachability over completeness

Drawing a rectangle should not require hundreds of lines of setup.

Limitations

• No low-level access: Graphiclity intentionally hides renderer internals to keep things simple
• Letterboxing: The current backend (Pixels 0.14) adds black bars when window aspect ratio doesn't match logical resolution
  • Solution: Use matching aspect ratios (e.g., logical 320×240 with window 640×480, both 4:3)
• No audio: Graphiclity is graphics-only
• Single window: One window per application

Status

Graphiclity is currently under heavy development. APIs may change as the library is refined through real-world use.

Final Notes

Any Kind of Contributions are welcome! From Extending to Changing out the Core check out the CONTRIBUTING.md