# Set up a project

## Get the library

LVGL is available on GitHub: [https://github.com/lvgl/lvgl](https://github.com/lvgl/lvgl).

You can clone it or [Download](https://github.com/lvgl/lvgl/archive/refs/heads/master.zip) the latest version of the library from GitHub.

## Add lvgl to your project

The graphics library itself is the `lvgl` directory. It contains a couple of folders but to use `lvgl` you only need `.c` and `.h` files from the `src` folder.

### Automatically add files
If your IDE automatically adds the files from the folders copied to the project folder (as Eclipse or VSCode does), you can simply copy the `lvgl` folder as it is into your project.

### Make and CMake
LVGL also supports `make` and `CMake` build systems out of the box. To add LVGL to your Makefile based build system add these lines to your main Makefile:
```make
LVGL_DIR_NAME ?= lvgl     #The name of the lvgl folder (change this if you have renamed it)
LVGL_DIR ?= ${shell pwd}  #The path where the lvgl folder is
include $(LVGL_DIR)/$(LVGL_DIR_NAME)/lvgl.mk
```

For integration with CMake take a look this section of the [Documentation](/get-started/platforms/cmake).

### Other platforms and tools
The [Get started](/get-started/index.html) section contains many platform specific descriptions e.g. for ESP32, Arduino, NXP, RT-Thread, NuttX, etc.

### Demos and Examples

The `lvgl` folder also contains an `examples` and a `demos` folder. If you needed to add the source files manually to your project, you can do the same with the source files of these two folders too. `make` and `CMake` handles the examples and demos, so no extra action required in these cases.

## Configuration file

There is a configuration header file for LVGL called **lv_conf.h**. You modify this header to set the library's basic behavior, disable unused modules and features, adjust the size of memory buffers in compile-time, etc.

To get `lv_conf.h` **copy lvgl/lv_conf_template.h** next to the `lvgl` directory and rename it to *lv_conf.h*. Open the file and change the `#if 0` at the beginning to `#if 1` to enable its content. So the layout of the files should look like this:
```
|-lvgl
|-lv_conf.h
|-other files and folders
```

Comments in the config file explain the meaning of the options. Be sure to set at least `LV_COLOR_DEPTH` according to your display's color depth. Note that, the examples and demos explicitly need to be enabled in `lv_conf.h`.

Alternatively, `lv_conf.h` can be copied to another place but then you should add the `LV_CONF_INCLUDE_SIMPLE` define to your compiler options (e.g. `-DLV_CONF_INCLUDE_SIMPLE` for GCC compiler) and set the include path manually (e.g. `-I../include/gui`).
In this case LVGL will attempt to include `lv_conf.h` simply with `#include "lv_conf.h"`.

You can even use a different name for `lv_conf.h`. The custom path can be set via the `LV_CONF_PATH` define.
For example `-DLV_CONF_PATH="/home/joe/my_project/my_custom_conf.h"`

If `LV_CONF_SKIP` is defined, LVGL will not try to include `lv_conf.h`. Instead you can pass the config defines using build options. For example `"-DLV_COLOR_DEPTH=32 -DLV_USE_BTN=1"`. The unset options will get a default value which is the same as the ones in `lv_conf_template.h`.

LVGL also can be used via `Kconfig` and `menuconfig`.  You can use `lv_conf.h` together with Kconfig, but keep in mind that the value from `lv_conf.h` or build settings (`-D...`) overwrite the values set in Kconfig. To ignore the configs from `lv_conf.h` simply remove its content, or define `LV_CONF_SKIP`. 


## Initialization

To use the graphics library you have to initialize it and setup required components. The order of the initialization is:

1. Call `lv_init()`.
2. Initialize your drivers.
3. Register the display and input devices drivers in LVGL.  Learn more about [Display](/porting/display) and [Input device](/porting/indev) registration.
4. Call `lv_tick_inc(x)` every `x` milliseconds in an interrupt to report the elapsed time to LVGL. [Learn more](/porting/tick).
5. Call `lv_timer_handler()` every few milliseconds to handle LVGL related tasks. [Learn more](/porting/timer-handler).