Creating a custom widget

It is time to actually get something onto the screen by painting on a widget. A widget is repainted as a result of receiving a paint event, which is handled by reimplementing the paintEvent() virtual method. This method accepts a pointer to the event object of the QPaintEvent type that contains various bits of information about the repaint request. Remember that you can only paint on the widget from within that widget's paintEvent() call.

Time for action – Custom-painted widgets

Let's immediately put our new skills in to practice! Start by creating a new Qt Widgets Application in Qt Creator, choosing QWidget as the base class, and ensuring that the Generate Form box is unchecked. The...