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I was looking into ElectronJS recently, all the apps seem to have nice GUIs in common. https://www.electronjs.org/apps

You guys must use something else? your GUI is pretty slick too.

Cheers

Glad to hear you like our UI! PureRef is built using Qt (https://www.qt.io/) which offers a lot of customization. Although the UI design is custom, as with most of the apps that use electron and web tech as well usually.

Thanks so much for your response! I really appreciate the insight into your use of Qt for PureRef’s UI—it makes a lot of sense considering the app’s fluidity and lightweight performance.

I’ve been wondering about this for years, to be honest. Seeing the stability and performance you’ve achieved has left me in awe. It’s rare to see such a seamless experience with tools in this space, and I can’t help but appreciate the craftsmanship behind it.

If you don’t mind, I’d love to learn a bit more about the tech stack you’ve used beyond Qt. For example, I’m curious about the programming language(s) you used to bring everything together. Did you stick to C++ (which I know is common with Qt), or did you integrate other languages or frameworks to handle specific tasks or functionalities?

I’m also interested in any challenges you encountered during development, especially with the custom UI. Since Qt offers a lot of flexibility, I imagine there must have been unique hurdles in balancing performance, cross-platform compatibility, and keeping the design clean.

Any insights you’re willing to share would be incredibly valuable. I know many devs don’t always get asked about the nitty-gritty, but I’d love to understand more about what went into creating such a great tool!

Thanks again for your time, and I will truly appreciate any additional details you can share about the journey behind PureRef. if you told us more like.
much love ♥♥♥,

It's been a long journey so not gonna get into too much details here, but it's mostly C++ yes :) If you're curious about what other libraries we use you can take a look at the license dialog in PureRef that can be found under Help > About > Licenses.

As for challenges, while Qt gives us a lot when it comes to platform compatibility, a big one is probably to make all non-standard windowing features available in PureRef work well cross platform. And the fact that developing software for desktop computers in general is a lot of work as everyone's setup is different.

Thank you for the kind words, we're happy to hear that you find PureRef useful!

PureRef's smooth performance really stands out. Using Qt and C++ makes a lot of sense for its lightweight feel. I'd love to know how you balanced the custom UI with cross-platform compatibility—such a clean design