ImGuin

ImGuin is a Nim wrapper¹ for Dear ImGui through CImGui. It bundles Nim bindings and build support for Dear ImGui and several popular Dear ImGui extensions.

Current bundled Dear ImGui / CImGui version: v1.92.8 dock
Current ImGuin package version: 1.92.8.0
Updated: 2026/06

Contents

• Demo
• Features
• Requirements
• Install
• Quick Start
• Supported Frontends and Backends
• Bundled Libraries
• Examples
• Development
• Version Compatibility
• Tool Versions
• Related Projects
• Notes

Demo

Try the WebAssembly demo in your browser: glfw_opengl3_wasm_base

Source and build notes: Wasm example: glfw_opengl3_wasm_base

Features

• Dear ImGui bindings for Nim, generated with Futhark.
• Static-link focused C/C++ library integration.
• GLFW, SDL2, SDL3, Vulkan, OpenGL3, SDL renderer, SDL GPU, and WebAssembly examples.
• Bundled wrappers for ImPlot, ImNodes, ImGuizmo, ImGuiFileDialog, ImPlot3D, and more.
• Simple test application available through nimble test or nimble make.

Requirements

Nim

• Nim 2.2.4 or later

Windows

• Windows 11 or later is recommended.
• MSYS2 / MinGW command-line tools.
• make, cp, rm, git, and related Unix-style tools.

Install GLFW for the UCRT64 environment:

pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-glfw make

Linux

Ubuntu / Debian family distributions are tested most often.

sudo apt install gcc g++ make git curl xz-utils
sudo apt install libopengl-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglfw3-dev \
  libxcursor-dev libxinerama-dev libxi-dev libsdl2-dev

Install Nim with choosenim if Nim is not already installed:

curl https://nim-lang.org/choosenim/init.sh -sSf | sh

Make sure the Nimble binary directory is available in your PATH, for example:

export PATH="$HOME/.nimble/bin:$PATH"

Install

nimble refresh
nimble uninstall imguin
nimble install imguin

If you are installing from a local checkout:

pwd
imguin
nimble install

Quick Start

Run the default GLFW + OpenGL3 test application:

nimble test

Build the same test application without running it:

nimble make

The main test source is: tests/tglfw_opengl3.nim

Supported Frontends and Backends

Frontend	Backends
GLFW	OpenGL3, Vulkan (2026/03)
SDL2	OpenGL3, SDL_Renderer2
SDL3	OpenGL3, SDL_Renderer3, SDL_GPU3, Vulkan (2026/03)
WASM	WebGL 2.0 (2026/04)

Bundled Libraries

Status	Library	C wrapper / integration
Done	Dear ImGui	CImGui
Done	ImPlot	CImPlot
Done	ImNodes	CImNodes
Done	ImGuizmo	CImGuizmo
Done	ImGui-Knobs	CImGui-Knobs
Done	ImGuiFileDialog	CImGuiFileDialog
Done	ImGui_Toggle	CImGui_Toggle
Done	ImPlot3D	CImPlot3D
Done	ImSpinner	Built from source
Done	ImGuiColorTextEdit	cimCTE, 2025/03
Done	ImGuiTextSelect	CImGuiTextSelect, 2025/09
Done	imgui_zoomable_image	cimgui_zoomable_image, 2026/04
WIP	ImGui_Markdown	Planned, 2025/09

Additional libraries and assets:

• stb
• Font Awesome
• Naylib / Raylib with rlImGui

Examples

The main example repository is ImGuin examples.

GLFW + OpenGL3

nimble test

Dear ImGui + Naylib / Raylib + rlImGui

rlimgui_basic example

Development

The repository includes scripts for updating or downgrading the bundled Dear ImGui, CImGui, and extension sources. These steps are intended for package maintainers.

Futhark Setup

Install Futhark:

nimble install futhark

Confirm the installed Futhark version:

nimble dump futhark

The currently expected Futhark version is v0.16.0.

Windows

Install Clang / LLVM. See the Futhark installation guide.

libclang.a must be available in the library path, for example:

• c:\llvm\lib
• c:\msys64\ucrt64\bin

Linux

For Debian / Ubuntu family distributions:

sudo apt install libclang-19-dev
nimble install --passL:"-L/usr/lib/llvm-19" futhark

Update Bundled Sources

Clone this repository into a development workspace:

mkdir imguin_dev
cd imguin_dev
git clone https://github.com/dinau/imguin
cd imguin

Clone the upstream C/C++ libraries:

make clonelibs

The external libraries are cloned under ../libs/.

Update or checkout each library version as needed, for example:

• ../libs/cimgui
• ../libs/cimguizmo
• ../libs/cimnodes
• ../libs/cimplot

Then regenerate the Nim definitions:

make gen

If needed, update the version metadata in imguin.nimble, then install the local package:

nimble uninstall imguin
nimble install

Repeat the update, checkout, and make gen steps when moving to another upstream version.

Version Compatibility

Windows builds are confirmed unless otherwise noted.

ImGui / CImGui	ImGuin	Date	Linux Debian family	Notes
1.92.8 dock	1.92.8.0	2026/06	OK
1.92.7 dock	1.92.7.0	2026/04	OK
1.92.6 dock	1.92.6.2	2026/03	OK	Added Wasm function
1.92.6 dock	1.92.6.1	2026/03	OK	Breaking change in impl_glfw.nim
1.92.6 dock	1.92.6.0	2026/02	OK
1.92.4 dock	1.92.4.0	2025/11	OK
1.92.3 dock	1.92.3.0	2025/09	OK
1.92.2b dock	1.92.2.1	2025/09	OK
1.92.2b dock	1.92.2.0	2025/08	OK
1.92.0 dock	1.92.0.2	2025/08	OK
1.92.0 dock	1.92.0.1	2025/07	OK
1.91.9b dock	1.91.9.4	2025/06	OK
1.91.8 dock	1.91.8.2	2025/03	OK
1.91.6 dock	1.91.6.15	2025/01	Not checked	Probably works
1.91.4 dock	1.91.4.2	2024/12	OK
1.91.3 dock	1.91.3.1	2024/10	Not checked	Probably works
1.91.2 dock	1.91.2.0	2024/10	Not checked	Probably works
1.91.1 dock	1.91.1.2	2024/09	Partial	Except ImNodes example
1.91.0 dock	1.91.0.0	2024/08	Not checked	Probably works
1.90.4 dock	1.90.4.2	2024/02	Use Nim 2.0.2
1.89.9 dock	1.89.9.8	2023/12	Partial	Except ImNodes and SDL2 examples; works best in debug mode

My Tool Versions

Windows 11

• Nim Compiler Version 2.2.10
• GCC 16.1.0, MSYS2 build
• Visual Studio C++/C 2022
• Git 2.46.0.windows.1
• GNU Make 4.4.1
• MSYS2 / MinGW-UCRT tools

Linux Debian 13

• Nim Compiler Version 2.2.6
• GCC 14.2.0
• GNU Make 4.4.1

Related Projects

Nim / ImGui

• nimgl/imgui
• nimgl-imgui
• nim_implot
• nimgl_test
• daniel-j/nimgl-imgui

Similar ImGui / CImGui Projects

Language	Type	Project
Lua	Script	LuaJITImGui
NeLua	Compiler	NeLuaImGui, NeLuaImGui2
Nim	Compiler	ImGuin, Nimgl_test, Nim_implot
Python	Script	DearPyGui for 32-bit Windows binary
Ruby	Script	igRuby examples
Zig	Compiler	ImGuinz / ImGuinz2

File Dialogs

• Cross Platform File Dialog for Dear ImGui
• SDL2 ImGui File Dialogs
• SDL3 ImGui File Dialogs
• Dear ImGui file dialog without extra dependencies

Other UI / Graphics Links

• Node Editor built using Dear ImGui
• nuklear-nim (archived)
• Immediate Mode Plotting
• SOIL2

SDL Platformer Examples

Language	Type	SDL	Project
LuaJIT	Script	SDL2	LuaJIT-Platformer
Nelua	Compiler	SDL2	NeLua-Platformer
Nim	Compiler	SDL3 / SDL2	Nim-Platformer-sdl2, Nim-Platformer-sdl3
Ruby	Script	SDL3	Ruby-Platformer
Zig	Compiler	SDL2	Zig-Platformer

Notes

ImPlot / ImPlot3D

• This project builds and runs Dear ImGui, ImPlot, and ImPlot3D from Nim.
• ImPlot is compiled from source with implot.h and implot.cpp.
• ImPlot3D is compiled from source with implot3d.h and implot3d.cpp.

Const CString Workaround

If you hit this C compiler warning:

error: assignment to 'char **' from incompatible pointer type 'const char * const*' [-Wincompatible-pointer-types]

This Nim declaration may help:

type ConstCstring {.importc: "const char *".} = cstring

Footnotes

1. Depending on your project requirements, the mainstream nimgl/imgui project or related Nim ImGui packages may also be worth checking. See Related Projects. ↩