What is GTK+? [GTK 2.x]

GTK+ is a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces, originally designed with the general look and feel of Motif. In reality, it looks much better than Motif. It contains common and complex widgets, such as file selection, and color selection widgets.

GTK+ was initially developed as a widget set for the GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program). It has grown extensively since then, and is today used by a large number of applications, and is the toolkit used by the GNOME desktop project.

GTK+ is free software and part of the GNU Project. However, the licensing terms for GTK+, the GNU LGPL, allow it to be used by all developers, including those developing proprietary software, without any license fees or royalties.

GTK+ has been designed from the ground up to support a range of language bindings, not only C/C++. Using GTK+ from languages such as Perl and Python (especially in combination with the Glade GUI builder) provides an effective method of rapid application development..