thorvg-rs
⚠️ Work in progress — This crate is under active development and not yet ready for production use. APIs may change without notice.
Rust bindings for ThorVG, a production-ready vector graphics engine supporting SVG, Lottie animations, shapes, text, gradients, effects, and more.
Crates
| Crate | Description |
|---|---|
thorvg-sys |
Raw FFI bindings generated by bindgen |
thorvg |
Safe, idiomatic Rust wrapper |
Quick Start
use ;
let engine = init.unwrap;
let mut canvas = engine.sw_canvas.unwrap;
let mut buffer = vec!;
// SAFETY: `buffer` outlives `canvas`; not moved or reallocated until set_target is called again
unsafe
let mut shape = engine.shape.unwrap;
shape.append_rect.unwrap;
shape.set_fill_color.unwrap;
canvas.add.unwrap;
canvas.draw.unwrap;
canvas.sync.unwrap;
// buffer now contains rendered pixels
Features
thorvg (safe wrapper)
| Feature | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
std |
✅ | Enables std::path::Path-taking wrappers (Picture::load, Text::load_font); implies file-io |
vendored |
✅ | Build ThorVG from source via the cc crate |
lottie |
✅ | Lottie animation loader |
svg |
✅ | SVG loader |
png |
✅ | Built-in PNG loader (lodepng, no system dep) |
fonts |
✅ | SFNT / OTF / TTF font loaders |
expressions |
✅ | Lottie expressions via JerryScript (~200 KB RAM) |
threads |
✅ | Multi-threaded TaskScheduler (std::thread) |
file-io |
✅ | Compiles ThorVG's filesystem I/O code path (without std, only the byte-slice-taking load_data / load_from_str variants are exposed) |
vendored, lottie, svg, png, fonts, expressions,
threads, and file-io are pass-throughs to the corresponding
thorvg-sys features. std is wrapper-only — it enables
thorvg-sys/file-io plus the path-taking wrapper APIs.
Desktop (default — everything enabled)
[]
= "0.4"
Embedded / no_std (pick only what you need)
[]
= { = "0.4", = false, = ["vendored", "lottie", "svg"] }
This gives you Lottie + SVG playback with no threads, no JerryScript, no PNG/font loaders — suitable for microcontrollers with limited RAM.
Cross-Compilation
ThorVG is compiled from C++ source using the cc crate, which
picks up the correct cross-compiler from Cargo's target environment.
No meson or ninja required.
Tested targets (⚙️ = exercised in CI):
| Target | Runtime | Notes |
|---|---|---|
x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu |
system libc | Desktop default ⚙️ |
x86_64-pc-windows-msvc |
system libc (MSVC) | Desktop ⚙️ |
aarch64-apple-darwin |
system libc | macOS, Apple Silicon ⚙️ |
xtensa-esp32s3-espidf |
ESP-IDF | SDK provides libc |
xtensa-esp32-espidf |
ESP-IDF | SDK provides libc |
riscv32imc-esp-espidf |
ESP-IDF | SDK provides libc |
riscv32imac-unknown-none-elf |
bare-metal | Vendored picolibc — see thorvg-sys/docs/bare_metal.md ⚙️ |
CI also covers the non-vendored path (linking a system ThorVG via
pkg-config) on Linux and macOS.
On target_os == "none" targets, thorvg-sys vendors and compiles
picolibc as the libc; the
cross toolchain's libstdc++ / libgcc / libm are still used.
Wired architectures today: riscv32, riscv64, aarch64, x86,
x86_64, powerpc[64], mips[64], sparc[64], m68k, msp430.
See the bare-metal docs for the
build pipeline, runtime stubs, and how to override them.
API Coverage
157 of the 161 ThorVG C API functions are wrapped (~98%). Unwrapped:
the four tvg_paint_ref / tvg_paint_unref / tvg_paint_get_ref /
tvg_paint_get_parent refcount-and-parent helpers (ownership is
already modelled in the Rust types).
- Canvas —
SwCanvas(software, fully wired).GlCanvasandWgCanvastype wrappers exist for API parity, but the vendored build strips the GPU engine — they are not yet runtime-usable - Paint — opacity, visibility, transforms, clipping, masking, blending, hit-testing
- Shape — paths, rectangles, circles, fill, stroke, gradients, trim path
- Gradient — linear, radial, color stops, spread, transforms
- Picture — load SVG / PNG / Lottie / raw from file or memory
(JPG and WebP loaders exist in the upstream tree but are not
compiled by
thorvg-sys) - Scene — grouping, effects (blur, drop shadow, fill, tint, tritone)
- Text — font loading, styling, wrapping, metrics, outline
- Animation — frame control, segments, duration
- LottieAnimation — slots, markers, tweening, expressions, quality
- Saver — export paint/animation to file
- Accessor — scene tree traversal with callbacks
no_std Support
Both crates are no_std compatible. The safe wrapper requires alloc.
File I/O APIs (Picture::load, Text::load_font, Saver::save) are
gated behind the std feature. All rendering, shapes, gradients,
scenes, and canvas operations work in no_std.
For target_os == "none" targets, thorvg-sys ships its own libc
(vendored picolibc) — see thorvg-sys/docs/bare_metal.md.
Examples
All examples output PNG files in the current directory.
Building
ThorVG is vendored as a git submodule and compiled automatically via
the cc crate. You need a C++ compiler
(any g++ or clang++ will do) plus libclang for
bindgen
(typically packaged as libclang-dev / clang-devel / llvm on macOS).
No meson, ninja, or pkg-config required for vendored builds.
Development
Requires just for task running:
Acknowledgments
This project provides Rust bindings to ThorVG, created and maintained by the ThorVG project contributors. ThorVG is a Linux Foundation project. All vector graphics rendering is performed by the ThorVG engine — this crate is a thin binding layer.
This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the ThorVG project or the Linux Foundation.
Special thanks to Hermet Park and all ThorVG contributors for building such an excellent, lightweight, and well-designed vector graphics engine with a clean C API that made these bindings possible.
License
MIT — same as ThorVG.