Introduction to SDL_ttf with CMake

The easiest way to use SDL_ttf is to include it along with SDL as subprojects in your project.

We'll start by creating a simple project to build and run hello.c

Create the file CMakeLists.txt

cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16)
project(hello)

# set the output directory for built objects.
# This makes sure that the dynamic library goes into the build directory automatically.
set(CMAKE_RUNTIME_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/$<CONFIGURATION>")
set(CMAKE_LIBRARY_OUTPUT_DIRECTORY "${CMAKE_BINARY_DIR}/$<CONFIGURATION>")

# Use vendored libs
set(SDLTTF_VENDORED ON)

# This assumes the SDL source is available in vendored/SDL
add_subdirectory(vendored/SDL EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)

# This assumes the SDL_ttf source is available in vendored/SDL_ttf
add_subdirectory(vendored/SDL_ttf EXCLUDE_FROM_ALL)

# Create your game executable target as usual
add_executable(hello WIN32 hello.c)

# Link to the actual SDL3 library.
target_link_libraries(hello PRIVATE SDL3_ttf::SDL3_ttf SDL3::SDL3)

Run external/download.sh or external/Get-GitModules.ps1

Build:

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build

Run:

• On Windows the executable is in the build Debug directory:

cd build/Debug
./hello

• On other platforms the executable is in the build directory:

cd build
./hello

A more complete example is available at:

https://github.com/Ravbug/sdl3-sample

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