stb

single-file public domain libraries for C/C++

library	lastest version	category	LoC	description
stb_vorbis.c	1.06	audio	5441	decode ogg vorbis files from file/memory to float/16-bit signed output
stb_image.h	2.08	graphics	6509	image loading/decoding from file/memory: JPG, PNG, TGA, BMP, PSD, GIF, HDR, PIC
stb_truetype.h	1.08	graphics	3235	parse, decode, and rasterize characters from truetype fonts
stb_image_write.h	0.99	graphics	843	image writing to disk: PNG, TGA, BMP
stb_image_resize.h	0.90	graphics	2586	resize images larger/smaller with good quality
stb_rect_pack.h	0.08	graphics	572	simple 2D rectangle packer with decent quality
stretchy_buffer.h	1.02	utility	216	typesafe dynamic array for C (i.e. approximation to vector<>), doesn't compile as C++
stb_textedit.h	1.7	UI	1301	guts of a text editor for games etc implementing them from scratch
stb_voxel_render.h	0.83	3D graphics	3750	Minecraft-esque voxel rendering "engine" with many more features
stb_dxt.h	1.04	3D graphics	630	Fabian "ryg" Giesen's real-time DXT compressor
stb_perlin.h	0.2	3D graphics	182	revised Perlin noise (3D input, 1D output)
stb_easy_font.h	0.6	3D graphics	232	quick-and-dirty easy-to-deploy bitmap font for printing frame rate, etc
stb_tilemap_editor.h	0.36	game dev	4127	embeddable tilemap editor
stb_herringbone_wa...	0.6	game dev	1220	herringbone Wang tile map generator
stb_c_lexer.h	0.06	parsing	815	simplify writing parsers for C-like languages
stb_divide.h	0.91	math	379	more useful 32-bit modulus e.g. "euclidean divide"
stb.h	2.25	misc	14136	helper functions for C, mostly redundant in C++; basically author's personal stuff
stb_leakcheck.h	0.2	misc	124	quick-and-dirty malloc/free leak-checking

Total libraries: 18
Total lines of C code: 46298

FAQ

What's the license?

These libraries are in the public domain (or the equivalent where that is not possible). You can do anything you want with them. You have no legal obligation to do anything else, although I appreciate attribution.

Are there other single-file public-domain/open source libraries with minimal dependencies out there?

Yes. I'll even tell you about some. However, I haven't used most of these libraries and can't comment on their quality. (If you use them and aren't their author, feel free to tell me about their quality.)

• images jo_gif.cpp: tiny GIF writer (public domain)
• images gif.h: animated GIF writer (public domain)
• images tiny_jpeg.h: JPEG encoder (public domain)
• images miniexr: OpenEXR writer (public domain)
• geometry nv_voronoi.h: find voronoi regions on lattice w/ integer inputs (public domain)
• network zed_net: cross-platform socket wrapper (public domain)
• misc DG_misc.h: Daniel Gibson's stb.h-esque cross-platform helpers: path/file, strings (public domain)
• misc MakeID.h: allocate/deallocate small integer IDs efficiently (public domain)

Not public domain:

• images lodepng: PNG encoder/decoder (zlib license)
• images nanoSVG: 1-file SVG parser; 1-file SVG rasterizer (zlib license)
• 3D tinyobjloader: wavefront OBJ file loader (BSD license)
• 2D blendish: blender-style widget rendering (MIT license)
• geometry sdf.h: compute signed-distance field from antialiased image (MIT license)
• geometry nanoflann: build KD trees for point clouds (BSD license)
• parsing SLRE: regular expression matcher (GPL v2)
• tests utest: unit testing (MIT license)
• tests catch: unit testing (Boost license)
• tests SPUT: unit testing (BSD license)

There are some that have a source file and require a separate header file (which they may not even supply). That's twice as many files, and we at nothings/stb cannot condone this! But you might like them anyway:

• images picopng.cpp: tiny PNG loader (zlib license)
• images jpeg-compressor: 2-file jpeg compress, 2-file jpeg decompress (public domain)
• images tinyexr: EXR image read/write (BSD license) uses miniz internally
• 3D mikktspace: compute tangent space for normal mapping (zlib)
• 2D tigr: quick-n-dirty window text/graphics for Windows (public domain)
• 2D noc_turtle: procedural graphics generator (public domain)
• geometry Tomas Akenine-Moller snippets: various 3D intersection calculations, not lib-ified (public domain)
• geometry Clipper: line & polygon clipping & offsetting (Boost license)
• network yocto: non-production-use http server (public domain)
• network happyhttp: http client requests (zlib license)
• AI micropather: pathfinding with A* (zlib license)
• compression miniz.c: zlib compression,decompression, zip file, png writing (public domain)
• compression lz4: fast but larger LZ compression (BSD license)
• compression fastlz: fast but larger LZ compression (MIT license)
• compression pithy: fast but larger LZ compression (BSD license)
• profiling Remotery: CPU/GPU profiler Win/Mac/Linux, using web browser for viewer (Apache 2.0 license)
• profiling MicroProfile: CPU (and GPU?) profiler, 1-3 header files (unlicense) uses miniz internally
• parsing json.h: JSON parser (public domain)
• parsing Zange: another JSON parser (MIT license)
• misc utf8: utf8 string library (zlib)
• misc whereami: get path/filename of executable or module (WTFPL v2 license)
• tests pempek_assert.cpp: flexible assertions in C++ (WTFPL v2 license)

There is also this XML library, but if you're using XML, shame on you:

• parsing tinyxml2: XML (zlib license)

List FAQ

Can I link directly to this list?

You can use this URL to link directly to this list.

Why isn't library XXX which is made of 3 or more files on this list?

I draw the line arbitrarily at 2 files at most. (Note that some libraries that appear to be two files require a separate LICENSE file, which made me leave them out). Some of these libraries are still easy to drop into your project and build, so you might still be ok with them. But since people come to stb for single-file public domain libraries, I feel that starts to get too far from what we do here.

Why isn't library XXX which is at most two files and has minimal other dependencies on this list?

Probably because I don't know about it, feel free to submit an issue. But I might not include it for various other reasons, including subtleties of what is 'minimal other dependencies' and subtleties about what is 'lightweight'.

Why isn't SQLite's amalgamated build on this list?

Come on.

If I wrap an stb library in a new library, does the new library have to be public domain?

No.

Some of these libraries seem redundant to existing open source libraries. Are they better somehow?

Generally they're only better in that they're easier to integrate, easier to use, and easier to release (single file; good API; no attribution requirement). They may be less featureful, slower, and/or use more memory. If you're already using an equivalent library, there's probably no good reason to switch.

Can I link directly to the table of stb libraries?

You can use this URL to link directly to that list.

Why do you list "lines of code"? It's a terrible metric.

Just to give you some idea of the internal complexity of the library, to help you manage your expectations, or to let you know what you're getting into. While not all the libraries are written in the same style, they're certainly similar styles, and so comparisons between the libraries are probably still meaningful.

Note though that the lines do include both the implementation, the part that corresponds to a header file, and the documentation.

Why single-file headers?

Windows doesn't have standard directories where libraries live. That makes deploying libraries in Windows a lot more painful than open source developers on Unix-derivates generally realize. (It also makes library dependencies a lot worse in Windows.)

There's also a common problem in Windows where a library was built against a different version of the runtime library, which causes link conflicts and confusion. Shipping the libs as headers means you normally just compile them straight into your project without making libraries, thus sidestepping that problem.

Making them a single file makes it very easy to just drop them into a project that needs them. (Of course you can still put them in a proper shared library tree if you want.)

Why not two files, one a header and one an implementation? The difference between 10 files and 9 files is not a big deal, but the difference between 2 files and 1 file is a big deal. You don't need to zip or tar the files up, you don't have to remember to attach two files, etc.

Why "stb"? Is this something to do with Set-Top Boxes?

No, they are just the initials for my name, Sean T. Barrett. This was not chosen out of egomania, but as a moderately sane way of namespacing the filenames and source function names.

Will you add more image types to stb_image.c?

If people submit them, I generally add them, but the goal of stb_image is less for applications like image viewer apps (which need to support every type of image under the sun) and more for things like games which can choose what images to use, so I may decline to add them if they're too rare or if the size of implementation vs. apparent benefit is too low.

Do you have any advice on how to create my own single-file library?

Yes. https://github.com/nothings/stb/blob/master/docs/stb_howto.txt

Why public domain?

I prefer it over GPL, LGPL, BSD, zlib, etc. for many reasons. Some of them are listed here: https://github.com/nothings/stb/blob/master/docs/why_public_domain.md

Why C?

Primarily, because I use C, not C++. But it does also make it easier for other people to use them from other languages.

Why not C99? stdint.h, declare-anywhere, etc.

I still use MSVC 6 (1998) as my IDE because it has better human factors for me than later versions of MSVC.