- Qt 6.8
- Qt 5 Compatibility APIs: Graphical Effects
- Qt 6.8.1 Reference Documentation

# Qt 5 Compatibility APIs: Graphical Effects

The Qt Graphical Effects module is provided for compatibility with applications written for Qt 5.

The Qt Graphical Effects module provides a set of QML types for adding visually impressive and configurable effects to user interfaces. Effects are visual items that can be added to Qt Quick user interface as UI components.

The API consists of over 20 effects provided as separate QML types. The effects cover functional areas such as masking, blurring, coloring, and many more.

## Getting Started

To load Qt Graphical Effects, add the following import statement to your .qml file:

     import Qt5Compat.GraphicalEffects

To use the effects, simply add a specific effect declaration to the QML scene and configure the effects properties. Effects have one or more source properties for specifying the visual input for which the effect is applied to. The altered visual output is then presented in the effect item itself. The source can be another, often hidden, item in the QML scene. More complex effects can have multiple sources. The source item type can be any QML type, even video or another effect. Pipelining multiple effects together is a simple way to create even more impressive output.

Each effect has a set of properties that can be used to configure the effect output. Properties can be animated just like any other QML properties. The QML type documentation contains property descriptions and basic usage examples.

Note: Effects are not available when running with the `software` backend of Qt Quick. For more information on Qt Quick scene graph backends, see Scene Graph Adaptations.

Note: Runtime-generated effects such as GaussianBlur will store the shader-files in temporary storage using QTemporaryFile, thus they require a writable file system.

## QML Types

Blend | Merges two source items by using a blend mode
BrightnessContrast | Adjusts brightness and contrast
ColorOverlay | Alters the colors of the source item by applying an overlay color
Colorize | Sets the color in the HSL color space
ConicalGradient | Draws a conical gradient
Desaturate | Reduces the saturation of the colors
DirectionalBlur | Applies blur effect to the specified direction
Displace | Moves the pixels of the source item according to the given displacement map
DropShadow | Generates a soft shadow behind the source item
FastBlur | Applies a fast blur effect to one or more source items
GammaAdjust | Alters the luminance of the source item
GaussianBlur | Applies a higher quality blur effect
Glow | Generates a blurred and colorized image of the source and places it behind the original, giving impression that the source is glowing
HueSaturation | Alters the source item colors in the HSL color space
InnerShadow | Generates a colorized and blurred shadow inside the source
LevelAdjust | Adjusts color levels in the RGBA color space
LinearGradient | Draws a linear gradient
MaskedBlur | Applies a blur effect with a varying intesity
OpacityMask | Masks the source item with another item
RadialBlur | Applies directional blur in a circular direction around the items center point
RadialGradient | Draws a radial gradient
RectangularGlow | Generates a blurred and colorized rectangle, which gives the impression that the source is glowing
RecursiveBlur | Blurs repeatedly, providing a strong blur effect
ThresholdMask | Masks the source item with another item and applies a threshold value
ZoomBlur | Applies directional blur effect towards source items center point

## Reference

- QML Types