- Qt Design Studio Manual
- User Interface
- Qt Design Studio Manual 2.3.1

Tutorials ◦ Selecting Modes

# User Interface

When you start Qt Design Studio, it opens to the Welcome mode, where you can:

- Open recent projects
- Create and open projects
- Open tutorials and example projects
- Read news from the online community and Qt blogs
- Create or manage a Qt Account

You can use the mode selector to switch to the Design mode (1), where you will do most of your work and the Help (2) mode, where you can read the product documentation. The other modes are for more advanced use, and you are likely to need them less often.

Below the mode selector, you can find shortcuts to some more advanced functions, such as running the application or finding problems in the QML code by debugging or profiling it.

## For macOS Users

Qt Design Studio uses standard names and locations for standard features, such as options or preferences. In this manual, the names and locations on Windows and Linux are usually used to keep the instructions short. Here are some places to check if you cannot find a function, dialog, or keyboard shortcut on macOS when following the instructions:

For | Look In
--- | ---
Tools > Options | Qt Design Studio > Preferences
Help > About Plugins | Qt Design Studio > About Plugins
Keyboard shortcuts | Qt Design Studio > Preferences > Environment > Keyboard

## Switching UI Themes

Themes enable you to change the appearance of the UI from dark to light, for example. To switch themes, select Tools > Options > Environment, and then select a theme in the Theme field.

## Changing Languages

Qt Design Studio has been localized into several languages. If the system language is one of the supported languages, it is automatically selected. To change the language, select Tools > Options > Environment and select a language in the Language field. Select Restart Now to restart Qt Design Studio and have the change take effect.

## High DPI Scaling

The operating systems supported by Qt Design Studio implement high dots-per-inch (DPI) scaling at varying levels. Therefore, Qt Design Studio handles high DPI scaling differently on different operating systems:

- On macOS, high DPI scaling is forced, which means that Qt Design Studio allows Qt to use the system scaling factor as the Qt Design Studio scaling factor.
- On Windows, if no scaling environment variables are set, Qt Design Studio instructs Qt to detect the scaling factor and use it for Qt Design Studio.
- On Linux, Qt Design Studio leaves it to the user to enable high DPI scaling, because the process varies so much on different distributions and windowing systems that it cannot be reliably done automatically.

To override the default approach and always enable high-DPI scaling, select Tools > Options > Environment > Enable high DPI scaling. The changes will take effect after you restart Qt Design Studio.

## Navigating with Keyboard

Qt Design Studio caters not only to those users who like to use the mouse, but also to those who are more comfortable with the keyboard. A wide range of keyboard and navigation shortcuts are available to help you work faster.

## Viewing Images

Qt Design Studio opens image files in the image viewer.

Use the toolbar buttons (1) or keyboard shortcuts to:

- Export SVG images to pixmaps
- Switch between background and outline modes
- Zoom in and out
- Fit images to screen
- Return to original size
- Play and pause animated GIF and MNG images

### Exporting SVG Images

If you have a freely scalable icon in the SVG format, you can export it to several images of different sizes to create a set of pixmaps.

Tutorials ◦ Selecting Modes