 2011 Microchip Technology Inc.

DS01368A-page 21

AN1368

SOFTWARE

The basic software component required for any

graphics application is a Software Display Driver which

provides one basic operation (i.e., setting the color of a

pixel). A driver may also implement APIs to draw

fundamental shapes, for instance, a line, rectangle,

bar, circle, text, image and so on. The Software Display

Driver must be written for every separate graphics

driver used. More complex graphic elements, like

labels, buttons, check boxes, sliders and progress bars

are implemented in higher layers, which in turn, use the

Software Display Driver.

Microchip provides a ‘free to use on PIC MCU’ software

library, called “Microchip Graphics Library”, which

contains the above discussed drivers and higher

layers. Several demos are distributed with the graphics

library which the user can run out of the box on the

appropriate development tools.

Features of the Microchip Graphics Library are:

• Modular design, compile only what is required

• Supports multiple user interfaces

• Not dependent on display size or resolution

• Low-cost, full-featured development tools

• Utilities to import fonts and images

• Free to Microchip customers

• Includes multiple low-level drivers

The structure of the Microchip Graphics Library is

shown in Figure 22.

The Microchip Graphics Library v2.11 is distributed

along with the Microchip Applications Library and is

available for download at www.microchip.com/MAL.

FIGURE 22:

STRUCTURE OF MICROCHIP GRAPHICS LIBRARY

The Graphics Display Controller is the hardware module

consisting of the frame buffer and Display Controller.

The remaining layers are the software layers. The

Microchip Graphics Library is organized in a set of

folders under the folder, ‘Microchip Solutions’. The ‘C’

files are in the folder, Microchip Solutions/Microchip/

Graphics,

and the header files are in the folder,

Microchip Solutions/Microchip/Include/Graphics

. The

development board-specific files are in the folder,

Microchip Solutions/Board Support Package

. The

project path must be set to point to these folders.

Starting from the bottom-most Software layer to the

top-most layer, the functionality of each layer and the

files responsible for those layers are explained further

in the following sections. For more information, refer to

the Help file of the Microchip Graphics Library.

Application Layer

User Message Interface

(Touch Screen, Keypad, and so on)

Graphic Object Layer

(Button, Slider, Edit Box, and so on)

Graphic Primitive Layer

(Line, Circle, Bar, and so on)

Display Device Driver Layer

(PutPixel, SetColor, and so on)

Graphic Display Controller/Display Panel

Note:

The Microchip Graphics Library Version 2.11 is explained here. In future, the software structure may be modified. Refer

to the Help file of your Microchip Graphics Library for the latest information.