Mousefood - a no-std embedded-graphics backend for Ratatui!

Quickstart

Add mousefood as a dependency:

cargo add mousefood

Exemplary setup:

use mousefood::embedded_graphics::{mock_display::MockDisplay, pixelcolor::Rgb888};
use mousefood::prelude::*;
use ratatui::widgets::{Block, Paragraph};
use ratatui::{Frame, Terminal};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // replace this with your display driver
    // e.g. ILI9341, ST7735, SSD1306, etc.
    let mut display = MockDisplay::<Rgb888>::new();

    let backend = EmbeddedBackend::new(&mut display, EmbeddedBackendConfig::default());
    let mut terminal = Terminal::new(backend)?;

    terminal.draw(draw)?;
    Ok(())
}

fn draw(frame: &mut Frame) {
    let block = Block::bordered().title("Mousefood");
    let paragraph = Paragraph::new("Hello from Mousefood!").block(block);
    frame.render_widget(paragraph, frame.area());
}

Special characters

Embedded-graphics includes bitmap fonts that have a very limited set of characters to save space (ASCII, ISO 8859 or JIS X0201). This makes it impossible to draw most of Ratatui's widgets, which heavily use box-drawing glyphs, Braille, and other special characters.

Mousefood by default uses embedded-graphics-unicodefonts, which provides embedded-graphics fonts with a much larger set of characters.

Alternatives

In order to save space and speed up rendering, the fonts feature can be disabled by turning off the default crate features. ibm437 is a good alternative that includes some drawing characters, but is not as large as embedded-graphics-unicodefonts.

Bold and italic fonts

Bold and italic modifiers are supported, but this requires providing fonts through EmbeddedBackendConfig. If only regular font is provided, it serves as a fallback. All fonts must be of the same size.

use mousefood::embedded_graphics::{mock_display::MockDisplay, pixelcolor::Rgb888};
use mousefood::{EmbeddedBackend, EmbeddedBackendConfig, fonts};
use ratatui::Terminal;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut display = MockDisplay::<Rgb888>::new();
    let config = EmbeddedBackendConfig {
        font_regular: fonts::MONO_6X13,
        font_bold: Some(fonts::MONO_6X13_BOLD),
        font_italic: Some(fonts::MONO_6X13_ITALIC),
        ..Default::default()
    };
    let backend = EmbeddedBackend::new(&mut display, config);
    let _terminal = Terminal::new(backend)?;
    Ok(())
}

Color theme

Colors can be remapped using color_theme on EmbeddedBackendConfig. By default the ANSI palette is used.

use mousefood::{ColorTheme, EmbeddedBackend, EmbeddedBackendConfig};
use mousefood::embedded_graphics::{mock_display::MockDisplay, pixelcolor::Rgb888};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    let mut display = MockDisplay::<Rgb888>::new();
    let theme = ColorTheme {
        background: Rgb888::new(5, 5, 5),
        foreground: Rgb888::new(240, 240, 240),
        yellow: Rgb888::new(255, 200, 0),
        ..ColorTheme::ansi()
    };

    let config = EmbeddedBackendConfig {
        color_theme: theme,
        ..Default::default()
    };
    let backend = EmbeddedBackend::new(&mut display, config);
    Ok(())
}

Built-in themes

Mousefood includes popular color themes that can be used directly:

• ColorTheme::ansi() - Standard ANSI colors (default)
• ColorTheme::tokyo_night() - Tokyo Night dark theme with blue/purple tones

Cursor and blink

Mousefood supports configurable cursor styles and text blinking.

The cursor style can be set to Inverse (default), Underline, Outline, or Japanese. Inverse mode requires the framebuffer feature and falls back to underline without it.

let config = EmbeddedBackendConfig {
    cursor: CursorConfig {
        style: CursorStyle::Japanese,
        blink: true,
        color: Rgb888::WHITE,

    },
    ..Default::default()
};

Text blink modifiers (SLOW_BLINK, RAPID_BLINK) and cursor blinking are behind the blink feature flag to avoid unnecessary computation and memory usage when not needed:

[dependencies]
mousefood = { version = "*", features = ["blink"] }

Blink timing is configurable:

let config = EmbeddedBackendConfig {
    #[cfg(feature = "blink")]
    blink: BlinkConfig {
        fps: 30,
        slow: BlinkTiming { blinks_per_sec: 1, duty_percent: 15 },
        fast: BlinkTiming { blinks_per_sec: 3, duty_percent: 50 },
    },
    ..Default::default()
};

Without the blink feature, blink modifiers are silently ignored and the cursor is always visible.

Simulator

Mousefood can be run in a simulator using embedded-graphics-simulator crate.

Run simulator example:

git clone https://github.com/ratatui/mousefood.git
cd mousefood/examples/simulator
cargo run

For more details, view the simulator example.

EPD support

WeAct Studio

Support for EPD (e-ink displays) produced by WeAct Studio (weact-studio-epd driver) can be enabled using epd-weact feature.

This driver requires some additional configuration. Follow the weact-studio-epd crate docs and apply the same flush_callback pattern used in the Waveshare example below.

EPD drivers include their own internal buffers, so the mousefood framebuffer adds memory overhead with no benefit. Disable default features to turn it off:

[dependencies]
mousefood = { version = "*", default-features = false, features = ["epd-weact"] }

use mousefood::prelude::*;
use weact_studio_epd::graphics::Display290BlackWhite;
use weact_studio_epd::WeActStudio290BlackWhiteDriver;

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Configure SPI + GPIO + delay provider for your board.
    // let (spi_interface, busy, rst, delay) = ...;

    let mut driver = WeActStudio290BlackWhiteDriver::new(spi_interface, busy, rst, delay);
    let mut display = Display290BlackWhite::new();

    driver.init()?;

    let config = EmbeddedBackendConfig {
        flush_callback: Box::new(move |d| {
            driver.full_update(d).expect("epd update failed");
        }),
        ..Default::default()
    };

    let backend = EmbeddedBackend::new(&mut display, config);
    let _terminal = Terminal::new(backend)?;
    Ok(())
}

Waveshare

Support for EPD (e-ink displays) produced by Waveshare Electronics (epd-waveshare driver) can be enabled using epd-waveshare feature.

EPD drivers include their own internal buffers, so the mousefood framebuffer adds memory overhead with no benefit. Disable default features to turn it off:

[dependencies]
mousefood = { version = "*", default-features = false, features = ["epd-waveshare"] }

use mousefood::prelude::*;
use epd_waveshare::{epd2in9_v2::*, prelude::*};

fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Configure SPI + GPIO + delay provider for your board.
    // let (mut spi_device, busy, dc, rst, mut delay) = ...;

    let mut epd = Epd2in9::new(&mut spi_device, busy, dc, rst, &mut delay, None)?;
    let mut display = Display2in9::default();

    let config = EmbeddedBackendConfig {
        flush_callback: Box::new(move |d| {
            epd.update_and_display_frame(&mut spi_device, d.buffer(), &mut delay)
                .expect("epd update failed");
        }),
        ..Default::default()
    };

    let backend = EmbeddedBackend::new(&mut display, config);
    let _terminal = Terminal::new(backend)?;
    Ok(())
}

See the full embedded example at examples/epd-waveshare-demo.

Lilygo T5 e-paper

Support for the lilygo T5 e-paper produced by Lilygo with an esp32s3 and the EDO47TC1 panel driver. (lilygo-epd47 driver) can be enabled using lilygo-epd47 feature.

The lilygo-epd47 driver include its own internal buffers, so the mousefood framebuffer adds memory overhead with no benefit. Disable default features to turn it off:

[dependencies]
mousefood = { version = "*", default-features = false, features = ["lilygo-epd47"] }

use mousefood::prelude::*;

#[main]
fn main() -> Result<(), Box<dyn std::error::Error>> {
    // Setup all that is required for your board and get the peripherals.
    // let peripherals = ...;

    let mut display = Display::new(
        pin_config!(peripherals),
        peripherals.DMA_CH0,
        peripherals.LCD_CAM,
        peripherals.RMT,
    )?;

    let theme = ColorTheme {
        background: Rgb888::WHITE,
        foreground: Rgb888::BLACK,
        ..ColorTheme::ansi()
    };

    // setup mousefood
    let backend = EmbeddedBackendConfig {
        color_theme: theme,
        font_regular: mousefood::fonts::mono_10x20_atlas(),
        flush_callback: Box::new(move |display: &mut Display| {
            display
                .flush(DrawMode::BlackOnWhite)
                .expect("to flush to the display")
        }),
        ..Default::default()
    };

    let backend = EmbeddedBackend::new(&mut display, backend);
    let _terminal = Terminal::new(backend)?;
    Ok(())
}

See the full embedded example at examples/lilygo-epd47-demo.

Performance and hardware support

Flash memory on most embedded devices is very limited. Additionally, to achieve high frame rate when using the fonts feature, it is recommended to use opt-level = 3, which can make the resulting binary even larger.

Mousefood is hardware-agnostic. Successfully tested on:

Microcontrollers

• ESP32 (Xtensa)
• ESP32-S3 (Xtensa)
• ESP32-C6 (RISC-V)
• STM32
• RP2040
• RP2350

Display drivers

For every driver, the list of displays is not exhaustive.

• ssd1306 for SSD1306
• mipidsi for ILI9341, ST7735, etc.
• epd-waveshare for e-paper displays from Waveshare (requires enabling epd-waveshare feature)
• weact-studio-epd for e-paper displays from WeAct Studio (requires enabling epd-weact feature)
• lilygo-epd47 for the Lilygo T5 e-paper from Lilygo (requires enabling lilygo-epd47 feature)

Send a pull request to add your microcontroller or display driver here!

Docs

Full API docs are available on docs.rs.

Contributing

All contributions are welcome!

Before opening a pull request, please read the contributing guidelines.

Built with Mousefood

Here are some projects built using Mousefood:

• AirSniffer - Get information about your indoor climate at a glance.
• Tuitar - A portable guitar training tool.
• Mnyaoo32 - An eccentric way to consume IRC messages using ESP32.
• Phone-OS - A modern phone OS for ESP32 CYD.
• MaraTUI - A terminal dashboard for keeping an eye on Lelit Mara X espresso shots.

Send a pull request to add your project here!

License

Mousefood is dual-licensed under Apache 2.0 and MIT terms.