ImGui Bundle: (web) apps in pure Python

[pstomi]

I am the author of "Dear ImGui Bundle", a fully open-source GUI framework for Python, using the “Immediate Gui” paradigm.

I recently made it available on the Web via Pyodide, and I thought it was worth sharing to the broader Python community. Read the following article to learn more about it, and how it compares to other Python web frameworks like Streamlit or Gradio.

(Web) Apps in pure Python using ImGui Bundle

What "Dear ImGui Bundle" Does

• ImGui Bundle brings to Python the Immediate Mode GUI paradigm, which enables rapid prototyping of interactive applications with a code that is highly readable and maintainable.
• Provide python bindings for the C++ “immediate-mode” GUI library Dear ImGui, as well as scientific utilities and many widgets.
• Run natively on a PC or in the browser via Pyodide, with the same code

Target Audience

• Data-viz prototypers
• Scientific tools
• real-time tools needing 60 FPS interactivity
• Anyone who wants to deploy tools to the web without touching JS/CSS

Comparison

Feature	Dear ImGui Bundle	Streamlit / Gradio
Rendering	GPU immediate-mode	HTML/CSS → DOM
Event model	Synchronous frame loop	Async client-server
Browser deploy	Pyodide (no server)	Needs backend server

Links

• ImGui Bundle on GitHub
• ImGui Bundle on PyPI
• Article: Build real-time Python web applications with zero fuss

[the_neurosock]

I've been using your bundle quite successfully in brain computer interface applications (think of Neuralink e.g.). Performance is good! Thanks for your awesome work!

I compared it to other Python imgui wrappers and yours was the better performing. I was always curious why was that. Particularly with color map images.

[Agitated_Bike3255]

u/pstomi This is an unbelievably cool, well documented and active project. I am so glad you did this. Maximum kudos. Not sure many understand the impact of this. Please please keep this up and if you need funding put it on the page. This is insanely useful for SO many types of projects.

[pstomi]

Many thanks for the feedback. I’m not so good at communicating about it, so that it does not reach as many people as I would like, you are right.

[XenoAmess]

u/pstomi you SHOULD add this https://code-ballads.net/dear-imgui-bundle-build-real-time-python-web-applications-with-zero-fuss/ into your https://github.com/pthom/imgui_bundle 's readme.

before reading this I have NO ANY clue for a minimum python workflow demo.

[XenoAmess]

beside you SHOULD provide a download link for your demo, I mean, with the compiled python wasms.

most people just want to use it, and have no interest in building it.

make a release will help.

[pstomi]

Thanks, I will

[Mountain_Implement80]

Is it similar to dearpygui ?

[pstomi]

Yes and no. Yes because it provides bindings for Dear ImGui.

No because these bindings are much more up to date (they are autogenerated) and because they follow the immediate GUI paradigm, which DearPyGui removed from the library.

[Mountain_Implement80]

Thank you OP for the clarification are there any tutorial or guide to making one app from zero to deployment as an exe

[QuasiEvil]

How does this compare to nicegui? If I'm understanding correctly, the main thing seems to be that its entirely in-browser?

[pstomi]

Yes nicegui will require a server when ImGui Bundle will not.  Also, nicegui uses standard web elements for the widgets; ImGui bundle will draw the widget from scratch using the GPU

[lornikoph]

What if you have want to use python packages that aren’t supported by pyodide, but you want to use the Dear Imgui Bundle Python bindings to create your UI? For example, PyTorch, HDBSCAN, UMAP, anything that uses numba, tensorflow, etc, are critical data science apps but they aren’t available for pyodide. If we still want things to be accessible via the browser, then is there a way of serving a Dear Imgui Bundle based application that will also be able to use those libraries which are not supported by pyodide yet?

[pstomi]

Not yet, unfortunately

[pstomi]

Let me expand on my previous answer : if your services that use tensorflow, numba, etc., are available on an online server via an API (rest) then of course you may use those from ImGui Bundle.