Display Component¶
The display
component houses ESPHome’s powerful rendering and display
engine. Fundamentally, there are these types of displays:
Text based displays like 7-Segment displays or some LCD displays.
Displays like the Nextion TFT LCD Display that have their own processors for rendering.
Binary displays which can toggle ON/OFF any pixel, like E-Paper displays or OLED displays.
For the last type, ESPHome has a powerful rendering engine that can do many things like draw some basic shapes, print text with any font you want, or even show images.
To achieve all this flexibility displays tie in directly into ESPHome’s lambda system. So when you want to write some text or sensor values to the screen you will be writing in C++ code using an API that is designed to
be simple and to be used without programming experience
but also be flexible enough to work with more complex tasks like displaying an analog clock.
Display Rendering Engine¶
In this section we will be discussing how to use ESPHome’s display rendering engine from ESPHome and some basic commands. Please note that this only applies to displays that can control each pixel individually.
So, first a few basics: When setting up a display platform in ESPHome there will be a configuration
option called lambda:
which will be called every time ESPHome wants to re-render the display.
In each cycle, the display is automatically cleared before the lambda is executed. You can disable
this behavior by setting auto_clear_enabled: false
.
In the lambda, you can write code like in any lambda in ESPHome. Display
lambdas are additionally passed a variable called it
which represents the rendering engine object.
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
// Write your display rendering code here
// For example, draw a line from [x=0,y=0] to [x=50,y=50]
it.line(0, 0, 50, 50);
Note
Lambdas are essentially just a lightly modified version of C++. So don’t forget to end each line
with a semicolon (;
). Otherwise you will be greeted by a long error message at the compilation stage.
If you compile and upload the configuration above, you should see a black (or white, depending on the display)
line which starts at the top left and goes a few pixels down at a 45° angle. (If it’s in another corner, use the
rotation:
option to rotate the display to your liking)
This already highlights one of the things you must learn before diving into writing your own custom display code:
The top left is always the origin of the pixel coordinate system. Also, all points in this coordinate system
are a pair of integers like 50, 50
which represent the shift to the right and shift downwards. So, in other words,
x always represents the horizontal axis (width) and y the vertical axis (height). And the convention in
the rendering engine is always first specify the x
coordinate and then the y
coordinate.
Basic Shapes¶
Now that you know a bit more about ESPHome’s coordinate system, let’s draw some basic shapes like lines, rectangles and circles:
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
// Draw a line from [0,0] to [100,50]
it.line(0, 0, 100, 50);
// Draw the outline of a rectangle with the top left at [50,60], a width of 30 and a height of 42
it.rectangle(50, 60, 30, 42);
// Draw the same rectangle, but this time filled.
it.filled_rectangle(50, 60, 30, 42);
// Circles! Let's draw one with the center at [25,25] and a radius of 10
it.circle(25, 25, 10);
// ... and the same thing filled again
it.filled_circle(25, 25, 10);
All the above methods can optionally also be called with an argument at the end which specifies in which
color to draw. For monochrome displays, only COLOR_ON
(the default if color is not given) and COLOR_OFF
are supported.
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
// Turn the whole display on.
it.fill(COLOR_ON);
// Turn the whole display off.
it.fill(COLOR_OFF);
// Turn a single pixel off at [50,60]
it.draw_pixel_at(50, 60, COLOR_OFF);
// Turn off a whole display portion.
it.rectangle(50, 50, 30, 42, COLOR_OFF);
For color displays (e.g. TFT displays), you can use the Color class.
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
auto red = Color(255, 0, 0);
auto green = Color(0, 255, 0);
auto blue = Color(0, 0, 255);
auto white = Color(255, 255, 255);
it.rectangle(20, 50, 30, 30, white);
it.rectangle(25, 55, 30, 30, red);
it.rectangle(30, 60, 30, 30, green);
it.rectangle(35, 65, 30, 30, blue);
Additionally, you have access to two helper methods which will fetch the width and height of the display:
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
// Draw a circle in the middle of the display
it.filled_circle(it.get_width() / 2, it.get_height() / 2, 20);
You can view the full API documentation for the rendering engine in the “API Reference” in the See Also section.
Fonts¶
The rendering engine also has a powerful font drawer which integrates seamlessly into ESPHome.
Whereas in most Arduino display projects you have to use one of a few pre-defined fonts in very
specific sizes, with ESPHome you have the option to use any TrueType (.ttf
) font file
at any size, as well as fixed-size PCF and BDF bitmap fonts! Granted the reason for it is
actually not having to worry about the licensing of font files :)
To use fonts you first have to define a font object in your ESPHome configuration file. Just grab
a .ttf
, .pcf
, or .bdf
file from somewhere on the internet and place it, for example,
inside a fonts
folder next to your configuration file.
Next, create a font:
section in your configuration:
font:
- file: "fonts/Comic Sans MS.ttf"
id: my_font
size: 20
# gfonts://family[@weight]
- file: "gfonts://Roboto"
id: roboto
size: 20
- file:
type: gfonts
family: Roboto
weight: 900
id: font2
size: 16
- file: "fonts/tom-thumb.bdf"
id: tomthumb
display:
# ...
Configuration variables:
file (Required): The path (relative to where the .yaml file is) of the font file. You can use the
gfonts://
short form to use Google Fonts, or use the below structure:type (Required, string): Can be
gfonts
orlocal
.Google Fonts:
Each Google Font will be downloaded once and cached for future use.
family (Required, string): The name of the Google Font family.
weight (Optional, enum): The weight of the font. Can be either the text name or the integer value:
thin: 100
extra-light: 200
light: 300
regular: 400 (default)
medium: 500
semi-bold: 600
bold: 700
extra-bold: 800
black: 900
italic (Optional, boolean): Whether the font should be italic.
Local Fonts:
path (Required, string): The path (relative to where the .yaml file is) of the TrueType or bitmap font file.
id (Required, ID): The ID with which you will be able to reference the font later in your display code.
size (Optional, int): The size of the font in pt (not pixel!). If you want to use the same font in different sizes, create two font objects. Note: size is ignored by bitmap fonts. Defaults to
20
.glyphs (Optional, list): A list of characters you plan to use. Only the characters you specify here will be compiled into the binary. Adjust this if you need some special characters or want to reduce the size of the binary if you don’t plan to use some glyphs. The items in the list can also be more than one character long if you for example want to use font ligatures. Defaults to
!"%()+=,-_.:°0123456789ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
.
Note
To use fonts you will need to have the python pillow
package installed, as ESPHome uses that package
to translate the TrueType and bitmap font files into an internal format. If you’re running this as a Home Assistant
add-on or with the official ESPHome docker image, it should already be installed. Otherwise you need
to install it using
pip install pillow
.
Drawing Static Text¶
In your display code, you can render static text by referencing the font and just entering your string:
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
// Print the string "Hello World!" at [0,10]
it.print(0, 10, id(my_font), "Hello World!");
By default, ESPHome will align the text at the top left. That means if you enter the coordinates
[0,10]
for your text, the top left of the text will be at [0,10]
. If you want to draw some
text at the right side of the display, it is however sometimes useful to choose a different text alignment.
When you enter [0,10]
you’re really telling ESPHome that it should position the anchor point of the text
at [0,10]
. When using a different alignment, like TOP_RIGHT
, the text will be positioned left of the anchor
pointed, so that, as the name implies, the anchor point is a the top right corner of the text.
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
// Aligned on left by default
it.print(0, 0, id(my_font), "Left aligned");
// Aligned on right edge
it.print(it.get_width(), 0, id(my_font), TextAlign::TOP_RIGHT, "Right aligned");
As with basic shapes, you can also specify a color for the text:
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
// Syntax is always: it.print(<x>, <y>, <font>, [color=COLOR_ON], [align=TextAlign::TOP_LEFT], <text>);
it.print(0, 0, id(my_font), COLOR_ON, "Left aligned");
Formatted Text¶
Static text by itself is not too impressive. What we really want is to display dynamic content like sensor values
on the display!. That’s where printf
comes in. printf
is a formatting engine from the C era and ESPHome
chose to use because … well, I’m too lazy to create a fully-fledged format engine where the existing stuff
is way better documented :)
printf
can do way more stuff than you will probably ever need, but it’s also quite simple for the basic stuff.
For example, a printf call can look like this:
sensor:
- platform: ...
# ...
id: my_sensor
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
it.printf(0, 0, id(my_font), "The sensor value is: %.1f", id(my_sensor).state);
// If the sensor has the value 30.02, the result will be: "The sensor value is: 30.0"
As you can see, when you call printf
most of the string is printed as-is, but when this weird percent sign with some
stuff after it is encountered, it is magically replaced by the argument after the format (here id(my_sensor).state
).
Every time you type a percent sign %
in a printf format string, it will treat the following letters as a format tag
until a so-called “specifier” is encountered (in this case f
). You can read more about it
here,
but for ESPHome there are really just a few things you need to know.
Let’s break %.1f
down:
%
- initiate the format string.1
- round the decimal number to1
digits after the decimal point.f
- the specifier which tells printf the data type of the argument. Here it is a f(loat).
For example, if you would like to print a sensor value with two digits of accuracy, you would write %.2f
and with
zero digits of accuracy (without a decimal) %.0f
.
Another interesting format string is %7.2f
, which would become the right-justified string
" 20.51"
for a value of 20.506.
%
- initiate the format7
- means that the number will be right-justified and be padded on the left by spaces if the result would be shorter than 7 characters long..2
- round the decimal number to2
digits after the decimal point.f
- specifier: f(loat).
You can even have as many format strings as you want in a single printf call. Just make sure the put the arguments after the format string in the right order.
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
// %% - literal % sign
it.printf(0, 0, id(my_font), "Temperature: %.1f°C, Humidity: %.1f%%", id(temperature).state, id(humidity).state);
To display a text string from a text_sensor
, append .c_str()
to the end of your variable.
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
it.printf(0, 0, id(my_font), "Text to follow: %s", id(template_text).state.c_str());
The last printf tip for use in displays I will discuss here is how to display binary sensor values. You
could of course just check the state with an if
statement as the first few lines in the example below, but if
you want to be efficient you can use an inline if too. With the %s
print specifier you can tell it to
use any string you pass it, like "ON"
or "OFF"
.
binary_sensor:
- platform: ...
# ...
id: my_binary_sensor
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
if (id(my_binary_sensor).state) {
it.print(0, 0, id(my_font), "state: ON");
} else {
it.print(0, 0, id(my_font), "state: OFF");
}
// Shorthand:
it.printf(0, 0, id(my_font), "State: %s", id(my_binary_sensor).state ? "ON" : "OFF");
Note
For displaying external data on the display, for example data from your Home Assistant instance, you can use the MQTT Subscribe Text Sensor (see the example there for more information).
Displaying Time¶
You can display current time using a time component. Please see the example here.
Screen Clipping¶
Screen clipping is a new set of methods since version 2023.2.0 of esphome. It could be useful when you just want to show a part of an image or make sure that what you draw on the screen does not go outside a specific region on the screen.
With start_clipping(left, top, right, bottom);
start you the clipping process and when you are done drawing in that region
you can stop the clipping process with end_clipping();
. You can nest as many start_clipping();
as you want as long
you end them as many times as well.
binary_sensor:
- platform: ...
# ...
id: my_binary_sensor
color:
- name: my_red
red: 100%
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
if (id(my_binary_sensor).state) {
it.print(0, 0, id(my_font), "state: ON");
} else {
it.print(0, 0, id(my_font), "state: OFF");
}
// Shorthand:
it.start_clipping(40,0,140,20);
it.printf(0, 0, id(my_font), id(my_red), "State: %s", id(my_binary_sensor).state ? "ON" : "OFF");
it.end_clipping();
After you started clipping you can manipulate the region with extend_clipping(left, top, right, bottom);
and shrink_clipping(left, top, right, bottom);
within previous set clipping region.
With get_clipping();
you get a Rect
object back with the latest set clipping region.
class Rect {
int16_t x; ///< X/Left coordinate
int16_t y; ///< Y/Top coordinate
int16_t w; ///< Width
int16_t h; ///< Height
int16_t x2(); ///< Right coordinate
int16_t y2(); ///< bottom coordinate
};
With is_clipping();
tells you if clipping is activated.
Color¶
When using RGB-capable displays in ESPHome you may wish to use custom colors.
A color
component exists for just this purpose:
color:
- id: my_light_red
red: 100%
green: 20%
blue: 25%
white: 0%
Alternatively, you can use <color>_int
to specify the color as an int value:
color:
- id: my_light_red
red_int: 255
green_int: 51
blue_int: 64
white_int: 0
Or, if you are more comforatble with hex values, you can use hex
:
color:
- id: my_light_red
hex: FF3340
Configuration variables:
red (Optional, percentage): The percentage of the red component. Defaults to
100%
.red_int (Optional, integer): The brightness of the red component on a scale of
0
to255
. Defaults to255
.green (Optional, percentage): The percentage of the green component. Defaults to
100%
.green_int (Optional, integer): The brightness of the green component on a scale of
0
to255
. Defaults to255
.blue (Optional, percentage): The percentage of the blue component. Defaults to
100%
.blue_int (Optional, integer): The brightness of the blue component on a scale of
0
to255
. Defaults to255
.white (Optional, percentage): The percentage of the white component. Defaults to
100%
.white_int (Optional, integer): The brightness of the white component on a scale of
0
to255
. Defaults to255
.hex (Optional, string): The color in hexadecimal representation. Defaults to
FFFFFF
.
RGB displays use red, green, and blue, while grayscale displays may use white.
Graph Component¶
You can display a graph of a sensor value(s) using this component. The states used for the graph are stored in memory at the time the sensor updates and will be lost when the device reboots.
Examples:


Graph component with options for grids, border and line-types.
graph:
# Show bare-minimum auto-ranged graph
- id: single_temperature_graph
sensor: my_temperature
duration: 1h
width: 151
height: 51
# Show multi-trace graph
- id: multi_temperature_graph
duration: 1h
x_grid: 10min
y_grid: 1.0 # degC/div
width: 151
height: 51
traces:
- sensor: my_inside_temperature
line_type: DASHED
line_thickness: 2
color: my_red
- sensor: my_outside_temperature
line_type: SOLID
line_thickness: 3
color: my_blue
- sensor: my_beer_temperature
line_type: DOTTED
line_thickness: 2
color: my_green
Configuration variables:
id (Required, ID): The ID with which you will be able to reference the graph later in your display code.
width (Required, int): The graph width in pixels
height (Required, int): The graph height in pixels
duration (Required, Time): The total graph history duration.
border (Optional, boolean): Specifies if a border will be drawn around the graph. Default is True.
x_grid (Optional): Specifies the time per division. If not specified, no vertical grid will be drawn.
y_grid (Optional, float): Specifies the number of units per division. If not specified, no horizontal grid will be drawn.
max_range (Optional): Specifies the maximum Y-axis range.
min_range (Optional): Specifies the minimum Y-axis range.
max_value (Optional): Specifies the maximum Y-axis value.
min_value (Optional): Specifies the minimum Y-axis value.
traces (Optional): Use this to specify more than a single trace.
Trace specific fields:
sensor (Optional, ID): The sensor value to plot
line_thickness (Optional): Defaults to 3
line_type (Optional): Specifies the plot line-type. Can be one of the following:
SOLID
,DOTTED
,DASHED
. Defaults toSOLID
.color (Optional): Sets the color of the sensor trace.
And then later in code:
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
pages:
- id: page1
lambda: |-
// Draw the graph at position [x=10,y=20]
it.graph(10, 20, id(single_temperature_graph));
- id: page2
lambda: |-
// Draw the graph at position [x=10,y=20]
it.graph(10, 20, id(multi_temperature_graph), my_yellow);
color:
- id: my_red
red: 100%
green: 0%
blue: 0%
- id: my_green
red: 0%
green: 100%
blue: 0%
- id: my_blue
red: 0%
green: 0%
blue: 100%
- id: my_yellow
red: 100%
green: 100%
blue: 0%
Note
Here are some things to note:
- Setting y_grid
will expand any specified range to the nearest multiple of grid spacings.
- Axis labels are currently not possible without manually placing them.
- The grid and border color is set with it.graph(), while the traces are defined separately.
QR Code Component¶
Use this component to generate a QR-code containing a string on the device, which can then be drawn on compatible displays.
qr_code:
- id: homepage_qr
value: esphome.io
Configuration variables:
id (Required, ID): The ID with which you will be able to reference the QR-code later in your display code.
value (Required, string): The string which you want to encode in the QR-code.
ecc (Optional, string): The error correction code level you want to use. Defaults to
LOW
. You can use one of the following values:LOW
: The QR Code can tolerate about 7% erroneous codewordsMEDIUM
: The QR Code can tolerate about 15% erroneous codewordsQUARTILE
: The QR Code can tolerate about 25% erroneous codewordsHIGH
: The QR Code can tolerate about 30% erroneous codewords
To draw the QR-code, call the it.qr_code
function from your render lambda:
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
pages:
- id: page1
lambda: |-
// Draw the QR-code at position [x=50,y=0] with white color and a 2x scale
it.qr_code(50, 0, id(homepage_qr), Color(255,255,255), 2);
Images¶
Use this component to store graphical images on the device, you can then draw the images on compatible displays.
image:
- file: "image.png"
id: my_image
resize: 100x100
Configuration variables:
file (Required, string): The path (relative to where the .yaml file is) of the image file.
id (Required, ID): The ID with which you will be able to reference the image later in your display code.
resize (Optional, string): If set, this will resize the image to fit inside the given dimensions
WIDTHxHEIGHT
and preserve the aspect ratio.type (Optional): Specifies how to encode image internally. Defaults to
BINARY
.BINARY
: Two colors, suitable for 1 color displays or 2 color image in color displays. Uses 1 bit per pixel, 8 pixels per byte.GRAYSCALE
: Full scale grey. Uses 8 bits per pixel, 1 pixel per byte.RGB24
: Full RGB color stored. Uses 3 bytes per pixel.RGB565
: Lossy RGB color stored. Uses 2 bytes per pixel.TRANSPARENT_BINARY
: One color, any pixel that is fully transparent will not be drawn, and any other pixel will be the on color. Uses 1 bit per pixel, 8 pixels per byte.
dither (Optional): Specifies which dither method used to process the image, only used in GRAYSCALE and BINARY type image. Defaults to
NONE
. You can read more about it here and here.NONE
: Every pixel convert to its nearest color.FLOYDSTEINBERG
: Uses Floyd-Steinberg dither to approximate the original image luminosity levels.
Note
To use images you will need to have the python pillow
package installed.
If you’re running this as a Home Assistant add-on or with the official ESPHome docker image, it should already be
installed. Otherwise you need to install it using pip install pillow
.
And then later in code:
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
// Draw the image my_image at position [x=0,y=0]
it.image(0, 0, id(my_image));
For binary images the image
method accepts two additional color parameters which can
be supplied to modify the color used to represent the on and off bits respectively. e.g.
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
// Draw the image my_image at position [x=0,y=0]
// with front color red and back color blue
it.image(0, 0, id(my_image), id(red), id(blue));
You can also use this to invert images in two colors display, use COLOR_OFF
then COLOR_ON
as the additional parameters.
Animation¶
Allows to use animated images on displays. Animation inherits all options from the image component.
It adds additional lambda methods: next_frame()
, prev_frame()
and set_frame()
to change the shown picture of a gif.
animation:
- file: "animation.gif"
id: my_animation
resize: 100x100
The animation can be rendered just like the image component with the image()
function of the display component.
To show the next frame of the animation call id(my_animation).next_frame()
, to show the previous picture use id(my_animation).prev_frame()
. To show a specific picture use id(my_animation).set_frame(int frame)
.
This can be combined with all Lambdas:
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
lambda: |-
//Ingress shown animation Frame.
id(my_animation).next_frame();
// Draw the animation my_animation at position [x=0,y=0]
it.image(0, 0, id(my_animation), COLOR_ON, COLOR_OFF);
Note
To draw the next animation independent of Display draw cycle use an interval:
interval:
- interval: 5s
then:
lambda: |-
id(my_animation).next_frame();
Configuration variables:¶
file (Required, string): The path (relative to where the .yaml file is) of the gif file.
id (Required, ID): The ID with which you will be able to reference the animation later in your display code.
resize (Optional, string): If set, this will resize all the frames to fit inside the given dimensions
WIDTHxHEIGHT
and preserve the aspect ratio.type (Optional): Specifies how to encode each frame internally. Defaults to
BINARY
.BINARY
: Two colors, suitable for 1 color displays or 2 color image in color displays. Uses 1 bit per pixel, 8 pixels per byte.GRAYSCALE
: Full scale grey. Uses 8 bits per pixel, 1 pixel per byte.RGB24
: Full RGB color stored. Uses 3 bytes per pixel.RGB565
: Lossy RGB color stored. Uses 2 bytes per pixel.
Display Pages¶
Certain display types also allow you to show “pages”. With pages you can create drawing lambdas that you can switch between. For example with pages you can set up 3 screens, each with different content, and switch between them on a timer.
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
id: my_display
pages:
- id: page1
lambda: |-
it.print(0, 10, id(my_font), "This is page 1!");
- id: page2
lambda: |-
it.print(0, 10, id(my_font), "This is page 2!");
You can then switch between these with three different actions:
show_next / show_previous: Shows the next or previous page, wraps around at the end.
on_...:
- display.page.show_next: my_display
- display.page.show_previous: my_display
# For example cycle through pages on a timer
interval:
- interval: 5s
then:
- display.page.show_next: my_display
- component.update: my_display
display.page.show: Show a specific page
on_...:
- display.page.show: page1
# Templated
- display.page.show: !lambda |-
if (id(my_binary_sensor).state) {
return id(page1);
} else {
return id(page2);
}
Note
To trigger a redraw right after the page show use a component.update action:
# For example cycle through pages on a timer
interval:
- interval: 5s
then:
- display.page.show_next: my_display
- component.update: my_display
display.is_displaying_page: This condition returns true while the specified page is being shown.
# In some trigger:
on_...:
- if:
condition:
display.is_displaying_page: page1
then:
...
- if:
condition:
display.is_displaying_page:
id: my_display
page_id: page2
then:
...
on_page_change: This automation will be triggered when the page that is shown changes.
display:
- platform: ...
# ...
on_page_change:
- from: page1
to: page2
then:
lambda: |-
ESP_LOGD("display", "Page changed from 1 to 2");
from (Optional, ID): A page id. If set the automation is only triggered if changing from this page. Defaults to all pages.
to (Optional, ID): A page id. If set the automation is only triggered if changing to this page. Defaults to all pages.
Additionally the old page will be given as the variable from
and the new one as the variable to
.
See Also¶
- Addressable Light
- ILI9xxx TFT LCD Series
- Inkplate 6, 10 and 6 Plus
- Character-Based LCD Display
- MAX7219 7-Segment Display
- MAX7219 Digit Display
- Nextion TFT LCD Display
- PCD 8544 Display (Nokia 5110/3310)
- PVVX MiThermometer Display
- SSD1306 OLED Display
- SSD1322 OLED Display
- SSD1325/7 OLED Display
- SSD1327 OLED Display
- SSD1331 OLED Display
- SSD1351 OLED Display
- ST7735 Display
- ST7789V TFT LCD
- ST7920 LCD Graphic Display
- TM1621 LCD Display
- TM1637 7-Segment Display
- TM1638 7 Segment Display Keypad & LED Module
- Waveshare E-Paper Display