Rendering

The application renders by calling the render_rgb8 function of the generated code.[sls.paint.invocation]

Model

Rendering fills a frame buffer: a memory region holding a rectangle of pixels that the application eventually shows on a display. The frame buffer covers the window, the root element of the component, whose size is the size of the buffer. The coordinate origin is the top-left corner of the window; x grows to the right, y grows downwards, and one unit of length is one pixel.[sls.paint.model]

Order

Element instantiations paint in the order of their sequence, and an element paints before its children: an element that comes later in a sequence, or is nested deeper, appears on top.[sls.paint.order]

Blending

An element’s background is composited over what the frame buffer already holds where the element paints, so the content underneath shows through in proportion to the alpha channel of that background.[sls.paint.blend]

The red, green, and blue channels each blend on their own. Writing src for a channel of the background, dst for the channel already in the frame buffer, and alpha for the alpha channel of the background, all of them whole numbers from 0 to 255, the value written back is (src * alpha + dst * (255 - alpha) + 127) / 255, an integer division. That’s src * alpha / 255 + dst * (255 - alpha) / 255 rounded to the nearest whole number.[sls.paint.blend.formula]

A background whose alpha channel is 0 paints nothing, and the pixels it covers keep the value they had.[sls.paint.blend.transparent]

A background whose alpha channel is 255 replaces the pixels it covers.[sls.paint.blend.opaque]

An element blends with the frame buffer on its own, and an element and its children don’t share an intermediate layer that would blend as a group. Nested translucent elements accumulate: each blends with the result the ones before it left behind.[sls.paint.no-group-opacity]

The background of the window is opaque, so that rendering writes every pixel of the frame buffer and a rendered frame doesn’t depend on what the buffer held beforehand. A window background that the compiler can’t see to be opaque, because it isn’t a color literal or because its alpha channel isn’t 255, is an error.[sls.paint.window-opaque]

export component Example inherits Window {
    background: #d0d8e8;
    // Half of this green shows, and half of the window background below it
    Rectangle {
        x: 20px;
        y: 20px;
        width: 120px;
        height: 80px;
        background: #2a6e3f80;
        // Nested and translucent as well, so it blends with the result above
        // rather than with the window background
        Rectangle {
            x: 10px;
            y: 10px;
            width: 60px;
            height: 40px;
            background: #dfe98b80;
        }
    }
}

slint

Clipping

Painting is clipped to the frame buffer.[sls.paint.clip]

An element is not clipped to its parent: it may paint outside of its parent’s geometry.[sls.paint.no-parent-clip]

export component Example inherits Window {
    background: #d0d8e8;
    Rectangle {
        x: 20px;
        y: 20px;
        width: 120px;
        height: 80px;
        background: #2a6e3f;
        Rectangle {
            x: 10px;
            y: 10px;
            width: 60px;
            height: 40px;
            background: #dfe98b;
        }
    }
}

slint