DISPLAY & UI
How to develop the Graphical User Interface (GUI)
by Keith Wong, technical business development manager, Inelco Hunter
Why GUI software selection matters Selecting a GUI toolchain is not simply a matter of picking a drag-and-drop layout builder. It directly dictates the fundamental mechanics of your product: Hardware & performance: Efficient GUI frameworks leverage hardware acceleration, allowing you to run complex visual interfaces with minimal MCU involvement Time-to-market: High-level abstractions, ready-to-use GUI components, instant desktop simulation, and WYSIWYG editors allow designers and software engineers to collaborate without long code-build-deploy loops
Maintainability & portability: Software architectures like Model-View-Controller (MVC) or event-driven models prevent UI code from entangling with core device logic, ensuring future product iterations don’t require total rewrites
Among the various GUI frameworks tailored for embedded systems, two leading contenders stand out: the free, vendor- tailored TouchGFX, and the commercial, cross-platform powerhouse Embedded Wizard.
TouchGFX: the free, hardware- optimised ecosystem
Developed directly by STMicroelectronics, TouchGFX is a free, enterprise-ready GUI software framework tightly integrated into the STM32 ecosystem. Key Advantages Zero license cost: TouchGFX is completely royalty-free for commercial production on STM32 microcontrollers, dramatically lowering upfront software expenditures Deep hardware acceleration: Because it is built specifically for STM32 architectures, TouchGFX directly leverages hardware graphic accelerators (like DMA2D and NeoChrom GPU). This enables smooth 60 FPS transitions and alpha blending with minimal CPU load
C++ Architecture: Built on the Model-View- Presenter (MVP) pattern, TouchGFX uses clean object-oriented C++, making it easy for
C/C++ developers to hook UI events straight to real-time operating systems (FreeRTOS) and underlying peripheral drivers Trade-offs
One of the key considerations when using TouchGFX is its tight integration with the STM32 ecosystem. TouchGFX is designed exclusively for STM32 microcontrollers, meaning applications developed with TouchGFX are closely tied to the STM32 platform.
Embedded Wizard: The premium, cross-platform engine
Developed by TARA Systems, Embedded Wizard is a professional, commercial GUI platform built to deploy scalable graphical interfaces across virtually any microcontroller or microprocessor. Key advantages
Multi-platform portability (single codebase, multiple targets): Embedded Wizard decouples your visual application from target hardware by generating clean ANSI C. A single GUI build can be ported effortlessly across different MCUs, MPUs, and silicon vendors (ST, NXP, Renesas, Microchip, or Linux), protecting your software investment if hardware requirements change
Chora language: It uses its own object- oriented programming language, Chora, designed specifically for GUI development. Chora includes integrated memory management, instant prototyping, and garbage collection features that shield UI logic from low-level memory bugs Memory optimisation: Embedded Wizard uses a specialised runtime engine that keeps RAM footprint exceptionally small, rendering graphics directly without requiring massive frame buffers in external RAM Trade-offs
As a commercial tool, Embedded Wizard carries licensing costs per developer seat and deployment target. For tight project budgets, software licensing fees can add noticeable upfront friction.
Hardware Integration: Inelco Hunter’s STM32 displays
Choosing software is only half the battle; your framework must pair cleanly with real-world display hardware. This is where high-performance display solution providers like Inelco Hunter fit into the development workflow.
Inelco Hunter supplies ready-to-run touch display modules built on high-performance STM32 architectures (such as the STM32H7 series). These turnkey display platforms integrate the panel, capacitive touch layer, memory, and board support packages (BSPs) for both TouchGFX and Embedded Wizard, eliminating low-level hardware integration hurdles.
By providing a proven, ready-to-run platform, Inelco Hunter can help customers reduce development time by at least six months, accelerating time-to-market while reducing engineering effort and development risk.
The final verdict
Choose TouchGFX if your project is strictly tied to the STM32 platform, you want to eliminate third-party software licensing costs, and your development team is comfortable working directly in C++. Choose Embedded Wizard if you are building an enterprise GUI component library meant to run across diverse hardware architectures, or if your team prefers high- level memory safety abstractions like Chora. Pairing either software engine with off-the- shelf Inelco Hunter STM32 display modules gives your engineering team a proven hardware foundation. This combination allows you to validate UI prototypes on day one, reduce time-to-market, and avoid costly design iterations down the road.
SEPTEMBER 2026 | ELECTRONICS FOR ENGINEERS 37
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