SVG Icons in C++ with WinUI & Qt

Native C++ toolkits have no built-in SVG icon pipeline, so teams end up shipping dozens of PNG sizes or hand-tuned bitmaps that blur on high-DPI screens. This guide shows how to export a clean SVG from Axialis IconVectors and render it sharply in WinUI (Windows) and Qt (cross-platform), with code you can paste directly into a control.

You get three concrete paths: load an SVG at runtime with SvgImageSource or QSvgRenderer, export XAML geometry into a PathIcon for brush-based theming, or rasterize off-screen with LunaSVG when you control the drawing yourself.

Why SVG for native C++ apps?

• Crisp at any size — one source scales perfectly for 1×/2×/3× displays.
• Theme-ready — when icons use currentColor (or XAML brushes), you can recolor them from code or styles.
• Smaller bundles — a few SVGs replace many PNG variants.

Step-by-step: export in IconVectors, then render in C++

1. Export a clean SVG from IconVectors
   • Open or create: File → Open… (Ctrl+O) or New Icon (Ctrl+N).
   • Theme-ready paint: set fills/strokes to currentColor so you can recolor in apps.
   • Compact output: File → Export → Export Minified (Shift+Ctrl+M) for a lean SVG with the correct viewBox.
   • Alternate for WinUI: to bind color via XAML brushes, export geometry: File → Export → Export to XAML (Shift+Ctrl+X).

   

2. WinUI: load an SVG at runtime (uses SvgImageSource)

   XAML — bind an SVG file packaged in Assets/Icons/:

   <Image Width="24" Height="24">
     <Image.Source>
       <SvgImageSource UriSource="ms-appx:///Assets/Icons/check.svg"/>
     </Image.Source>
   </Image>

   C++/WinRT — create and set the source programmatically:

   #include <winrt/Microsoft.UI.Xaml.Media.Imaging.h>
   using namespace winrt::Microsoft::UI::Xaml::Media::Imaging;
   using namespace winrt::Windows::Foundation;
   
   SvgImageSource svg{ Uri{ L"ms-appx:///Assets/Icons/check.svg" } };
   // myImage is an Image control reference
   myImage().Source(svg);

   Tip: this approach is best when you keep the SVG's own colors. For app-driven theming, use XAML geometry in the next step.
3. WinUI: export XAML paths for brush-based theming

   Export geometry from IconVectors via File → Export → Export to XAML (Shift+Ctrl+X) and paste into a PathIcon. Now you can recolor with the control's Foreground brush.

   <PathIcon Width="20" Height="20"
             Foreground="{ThemeResource SystemControlForegroundBaseHighBrush}"
             Data="M4 12 8 16 20 4"/>

   Use theme resources or your own SolidColorBrush to match light/dark modes dynamically.

4. Qt: render an SVG with QSvgRenderer

   Package the icon in a Qt resource (.qrc) so it ships inside the app binary:

   <RCC>
     <qresource prefix="/icons">
       <file>icons/check.svg</file>
     </qresource>
   </RCC>

   Render to a QPixmap and create a QIcon:

   #include <QSvgRenderer>
   #include <QPainter>
   #include <QIcon>
   #include <QPixmap>
   
   QSvgRenderer renderer(QStringLiteral(":/icons/check.svg"));
   QPixmap pm(24, 24); pm.fill(Qt::transparent);
   QPainter p(&pm);
   renderer.render(&p);
   p.end();
   
   QIcon icon(pm);
   myButton->setIcon(icon);

5. Qt: recolor at runtime (uses currentColor)

   Export SVGs from IconVectors with fill="currentColor"/stroke="currentColor". To theme, replace currentColor with a hex color in memory, then render:

   #include <QFile>
   #include <QSvgRenderer>
   
   QIcon makeIconColored(const QString& svgPath, const QColor& color, const QSize& size) {
     QFile f(svgPath);
     if (!f.open(QIODevice::ReadOnly)) return QIcon{};
     QByteArray xml = f.readAll();
     xml.replace("currentColor", color.name(QColor::HexRgb).toUtf8());
   
     QSvgRenderer r(xml);
     QPixmap pm(size); pm.fill(Qt::transparent);
     QPainter p(&pm); r.render(&p); p.end();
     return QIcon(pm);
   }
   
   // Usage:
   auto themed = makeIconColored(":/icons/check.svg", QColor("#2563EB"), QSize(20,20));
   myAction->setIcon(themed);

6. Package & verify
   • WinUI: put SVGs under Assets/Icons/, build action Content, and ensure they copy to output.
   • Qt: register in .qrc; reference via :/icons/name.svg.
   • Final check: open the SVG in IconVectors' read-only viewer (View → Source Code (F3)) to confirm viewBox and currentColor are present for theming.

Render a SVG icon using LunaSVG

LunaSVG is a lightweight, MIT-licensed C++ library that parses and renders SVG to an RGBA bitmap buffer. It targets static SVG rendering (no scripting or animation) and covers most of SVG 1.1/Tiny. It installs via Homebrew, vcpkg, and Conan, and builds cleanly with CMake.

• When to use it: render SVGs to pixels off-screen (for custom toolkits, game UIs, Dear ImGui overlays, etc.), or to feed another API (e.g., Qt QImage/QPixmap).
• Notable users/integrations: RmlUi's SVG plugin uses LunaSVG under the hood.

Install options

• Homebrew (macOS/Linux): brew install lunasvg
• vcpkg: vcpkg install lunasvg (then integrate with CMake toolchain)
• Conan: add lunasvg/<version> to conanfile (e.g., 3.0.1)
• From source: clone and build with CMake; the repo includes a simple svg2png example.

Minimal C++ example for Windows (render to RGBA and convert to HBITMAP)

The snippet below loads an SVG, rasterizes it to a LunaSVG Bitmap, then converts it to a Windows HBITMAP. The LunaSVG API centers on lunasvg::Document, loaded with loadFromData() (or loadFromFile()) and rendered with renderToBitmap().

Embedding the SVG as a string literal (static const char kSVGContent[]) keeps the icon inside the binary, so the executable needs no external file at runtime. Paste the minified SVG from IconVectors straight into the raw-string block.

#include <lunasvg.h>

#include <windows.h>   // HBITMAP, CreateDIBSection, etc.
#include <algorithm>
#include <cstdint>
#include <cstring>
#include <iostream>

using namespace lunasvg;

// Helper: copy a lunasvg::Bitmap into a 32-bpp top-down DIB HBITMAP.
static HBITMAP CreateHBITMAPFromLunaBitmap(const lunasvg::Bitmap& bmp)
{
    if (!bmp.valid()) return nullptr;

    const int width     = bmp.width();
    const int height    = bmp.height();
    const int srcStride = bmp.stride();       // bytes per row from LunaSVG (ARGB premultiplied)
    const int dstStride = width * 4;          // BGRA premultiplied for 32bpp DIB

    BITMAPINFO bi{};
    bi.bmiHeader.biSize        = sizeof(BITMAPINFOHEADER);
    bi.bmiHeader.biWidth       = width;
    bi.bmiHeader.biHeight      = -height;     // top-down DIB
    bi.bmiHeader.biPlanes      = 1;
    bi.bmiHeader.biBitCount    = 32;
    bi.bmiHeader.biCompression = BI_RGB;

    void* dibData = nullptr;
    HDC hdc = GetDC(nullptr);
    HBITMAP hbmp = CreateDIBSection(hdc, &bi, DIB_RGB_COLORS, &dibData, nullptr, 0);
    ReleaseDC(nullptr, hdc);
    if (!hbmp || !dibData) return nullptr;

    const uint8_t* src = bmp.data();              // ARGB premultiplied (A,R,G,B)
    uint8_t* dst       = static_cast<uint8_t*>(dibData); // BGRA premultiplied (B,G,R,A)

    for (int y = 0; y < height; ++y)
    {
        const uint8_t* srow = src + y * srcStride;
        uint8_t* drow       = dst + y * dstStride;

        // Convert per pixel: ARGB -> BGRA
        for (int x = 0; x < width; ++x)
        {
            const uint8_t A = srow[x*4 + 0];
            const uint8_t R = srow[x*4 + 1];
            const uint8_t G = srow[x*4 + 2];
            const uint8_t B = srow[x*4 + 3];

            drow[x*4 + 0] = B; // B
            drow[x*4 + 1] = G; // G
            drow[x*4 + 2] = R; // R
            drow[x*4 + 3] = A; // A (premultiplied already)
        }
    }
    return hbmp;
}

// Export the minified code from IconVectors and copy it here
static const char kSVGContent[] = R"SVG(
<svg width="400" height="200" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg">
  <rect id="red-rect" x="20" y="20" width="100" height="100" fill="red"/>
  <circle id="blue-circle" cx="200" cy="70" r="50" fill="blue"/>
  <rect id="green-rect" x="300" y="30" width="70" height="130" fill="green"/>
</svg>
)SVG";

int main()
{
    // 1) Load the SVG from in-memory text
    auto document = Document::loadFromData(kSVGContent);
    if (!document)
    {
        std::cerr << "Failed to load SVG.\n";
        return 1;
    }

    // 2) Render to a bitmap. You can specify explicit pixel size if you like:
    //    auto bmp = document->renderToBitmap(400, 200);
    auto bmp = document->renderToBitmap();
    if (!bmp.valid())
    {
        std::cerr << "Failed to render SVG.\n";
        return 2;
    }

    // 3) Convert to HBITMAP (32-bpp top-down DIB)
    HBITMAP hbmp = CreateHBITMAPFromLunaBitmap(bmp);
    if (!hbmp)
    {
        std::cerr << "Failed to create HBITMAP.\n";
        return 3;
    }

    // TODO: use hbmp with GDI/GDI+ or assign to a control.
    // Example: select into a memory DC, BitBlt to a window DC, etc.

    // 4) Cleanup when done
    DeleteObject(hbmp);
    return 0;
}

Notes

• Helper function — the CreateHBITMAPFromLunaBitmap helper shows the exact layout of LunaSVG's bitmap buffer, so you can adapt it to any target (GDI+, Direct2D, a texture upload).
• LunaSVG pixel format — the bitmap returned by LunaSVG is ARGB premultiplied in byte order (A, R, G, B). Your DIB copy should preserve premultiplication.
• 32-bpp DIB layout — a 32-bit BI_RGB DIB is stored as BGRA (little-endian). Swizzle channels from ARGB→BGRA when copying to avoid red/blue swap.
• Alpha blending — GDI's AlphaBlend expects premultiplied source pixels when AC_SRC_ALPHA is set, which matches LunaSVG's output.

Optional: blit the HBITMAP with per-pixel alpha

// After you get HBITMAP hbmp:
HDC hdcScreen = GetDC(hwnd);
HDC hdcMem    = CreateCompatibleDC(hdcScreen);
HBITMAP old   = (HBITMAP)SelectObject(hdcMem, hbmp);

BLENDFUNCTION bf{};
bf.BlendOp             = AC_SRC_OVER;
bf.BlendFlags          = 0;
bf.SourceConstantAlpha = 255;       // use per-pixel alpha
bf.AlphaFormat         = AC_SRC_ALPHA;

AlphaBlend(hdcScreen, dstX, dstY, width, height,
           hdcMem,     0,    0,  width, height, bf);

SelectObject(hdcMem, old);
DeleteDC(hdcMem);
ReleaseDC(hwnd, hdcScreen);

Pair with IconVectors exports
For best results, export icons from IconVectors as minified SVG with a clean viewBox and currentColor paints, then rasterize with LunaSVG—or keep SVGs vector and recolor upstream.

Troubleshooting

• Icon won't recolor — ensure your paths use currentColor (SVG) or you exported XAML geometry and you're setting Foreground.
• Fuzzy at small sizes — design on a grid (e.g., 24×24), keep whole-pixel coordinates, and export integer pixel sizes for raster previews.
• Missing at runtime — verify build actions (WinUI) and your .qrc resource path (Qt).