Download Qt Community
Berry Spitsberg
How to Download Qt Community Edition for Free
Qt is a cross-platform application development framework that enables you to create rich and interactive user interfaces for various devices and platforms. Qt Community Edition is a free and open source version of Qt that allows you to use it for non-commercial purposes.
In this article, I will show you how to download Qt Community Edition for free and install it on your computer. You will also learn how to create a simple Qt application and run it.
Step 1: Download Qt Community Edition
To download Qt Community Edition, you need to visit the official website of Qt at https://www.qt.io/ and click on the "Download" button at the top right corner. You will be redirected to a page where you can choose the edition of Qt that suits your needs.
Since we are interested in the free and open source version of Qt, we will select the "Qt for Application Development" option and then click on the "Go open source" button. You will be asked to create a Qt account or sign in with an existing one. You can also use your Google or GitHub account to sign in.
After signing in, you will see a list of available downloads for different operating systems. Choose the one that matches your system and click on the "Download" button. The download size may vary depending on the components you select during the installation process.
Step 2: Install Qt Community Edition
Once you have downloaded the Qt installer, you need to run it and follow the instructions on the screen. You will be asked to accept the license agreement and choose the components you want to install. You can customize your installation by selecting or deselecting the components from the list.
The components include different versions of Qt, tools, examples, documentation, and additional libraries. You can also choose the installation directory and whether you want to create desktop shortcuts or not. The installation process may take some time depending on your internet speed and system performance.
When the installation is complete, you will see a confirmation message and a button to launch Qt Creator, which is the integrated development environment (IDE) for Qt. You can also find Qt Creator in your start menu or desktop.
Step 3: Create a Simple Qt Application
To create a simple Qt application, you need to launch Qt Creator and select "New Project" from the "File" menu. You will see a wizard that guides you through the steps of creating a new project. You can choose from different templates such as "Qt Widgets Application", "Qt Quick Application", or "Qt Console Application".
For this example, we will choose "Qt Widgets Application" which creates a graphical user interface (GUI) application using widgets. Widgets are basic elements of a GUI such as buttons, labels, text boxes, etc. You can name your project and choose the location where you want to save it.
Next, you will be asked to select the kit for your project. A kit is a combination of a compiler, a debugger, and a Qt version that you want to use for building and running your application. You can choose from the kits that are automatically detected by Qt Creator or add your own custom kit.
After selecting the kit, you will see a summary of your project settings and options. You can review them and click on "Finish" to create your project. You will see your project files in the left pane of Qt Creator and a default main window in the center pane.
You can modify the appearance and behavior of your main window by using the design mode or the code mode. The design mode allows you to drag and drop widgets from the widget box to the main window and adjust their properties using the property editor. The code mode allows you to write C++ code using the Qt framework.
To run your application, you need to click on the green "Run" button at the bottom left corner of Qt Creator. You will see your application window appear on your screen. You can interact with it using your mouse and keyboard.
Conclusion
In this article, you learned how to download Qt Community Edition for free and install it on your computer. You also learned how to create a simple Qt application and run it using Qt Creator. You can explore more features and functionalities of Qt by reading the documentation, watching tutorials, or browsing examples
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