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1
2---
3title: "Skia Viewer"
4linkTitle: "Skia Viewer"
5
6---
7
8The Skia Viewer displays a series of slides that exhibit specific features of Skia, including the Skia GMs and programmed samples that allow interaction. In addition, the Viewer is used to debug and understand different parts of the Skia system:
9
10* Observe rendering performance - placing the Viewer in stats mode displays average frame times.
11* Try different rendering methods - it's possible to cycle among the three rendering methods: raster, OpenGL and Vulkan (on supported platforms). You can use this with stats mode to see the effect that the different rendering methods have on drawing performance.
12* Display and manipulate your own pictures.
13
14Some slides require resources stored outside the program. These resources are stored in the `<skia-path>/resources` directory.
15
16Linux, Macintosh and Windows
17----------------------------
18
19The Viewer can be built using the regular GN build process, e.g.
20
21    bin/gn gen out/Release --args='is_debug=false'
22    ninja -C out/Release viewer
23
24To load resources in the desktop Viewers, use the `--resourcePath` option:
25
26    <skia-path>/out/Release/viewer --resourcePath <skia-path>/resources
27
28Similarly, `--skps <skp-file-path>` will load any `.skp` files in that directory
29for display within the Viewer.
30
31Other useful command-line options: using `--match <pattern>` will load only SKPs or slides
32matching that name; using `--slide <name>` will launch at that slide; and you can start up
33with a particular rendering method by using `--backend`, i.e., `--backend sw`, `--backend gl`,
34`--backend vk`, or `--backend mtl`.
35
36The desktop Viewers are controlled using the keyboard and mouse: left (←) and right
37(→) arrows to move from slide to slide; up (↑) and down (↓) arrows to
38zoom in and out; clicking and dragging will translate. Other display options and a slide
39picker can be found in the Tools UI, which can be toggled by hitting the spacebar.
40
41Key    | Action
42-------|-------------
43← →    | Move between the slides
44↑ ↓    | Zoom in / out
45d      | Change render methods among raster, OpenGL and Vulkan
46s      | Display rendering times and graph
47Space  | Toggle display of Tools UI
48
49Android
50-------
51
52To build Viewer as an Android App, first follow the
53[Android build instructions](/docs/user/build#android) to set up the
54Android NDK and a ninja out directory. In addition, you will need the
55[Android SDK](https://developer.android.com/studio/#command-tools) installed and your
56`ANDROID_HOME` environment variable set.
57
58    mkdir ~/android-sdk
59    ( cd ~/android-sdk; unzip ~/Downloads/sdk-tools-*.zip )
60    yes | ~/android-sdk/tools/bin/sdkmanager --licenses
61    export ANDROID_HOME=~/android-sdk  # Or wherever you installed the Android SDK.
62
63If you are not using the NDK included with the Android SDK (at ~/android-sdk/ndk-bundle
64in this example) you'll need to set the environmental variable `ANDROID_NDK_HOME`, e.g.,
65
66    export ANDROID_NDK_HOME=/tmp/ndk
67
68The Viewer APK must be built by gradle which can be invoked on the command line
69with the following script:
70
71    platform_tools/android/bin/android_build_app -C <out_dir> viewer
72
73where `<out_dir>` is the ninja out directory (e.g., `out/arm64`)
74that you created. Upon completion of the script the APK
75can be found at `<out_dir>/viewer.apk`
76
77To load resources in the Android Viewer place them in
78`/data/local/tmp/resources`; to load SKPs place them in `/data/local/tmp/skps`.
79
80Swiping left and right will switch slides, pinch-zoom will zoom in and out, and
81display options are available in the UI.
82
83iOS
84---
85
86Viewer on iOS is built using the regular GN process, e.g.
87
88    bin/gn gen out/Release --args='target_os="ios" is_debug=false'
89    ninja -C out/Release viewer
90
91Like other iOS apps it can be deployed either by using something like
92[ios-deploy](https://github.com/ios-control/ios-deploy)
93or by building within Xcode and launching via the IDE. See the
94[iOS build instructions](https://skia.org/docs/user/build#ios) for more information
95on managing provisioning profiles for signing and deployment.
96
97Viewer will
98automatically bundle the `resources` directory in the top-level Skia directory,
99and will bundle an `skps` directory if also placed in the Skia directory.
100
101On iOS the Viewer provides basic touch functionality: you can view slides,
102swipe between them, pinch-zoom to scale, and translate via panning. There is not
103yet support for display options or selecting from a list of slides.
104
105