Debugging with GtkInspector

GtkInspector is an incredible interactive debugging tool for your GTK applications. In GTK 4, it is activated by default. In GTK 3, type:

$ gsettings set org.gtk.Settings.Debug enable-inspector-keybinding true

Launch your GTK application and put the focus on it. Press CTRL+SHIFT+D to launch the GtkInspector (or CTRL+SHIFT+I to directly inspect the widget under the mouse cursor).

You can see and edit on the fly the properties of each widget, you can change the graphical theme, you can zoom on a widget, edit the CSS properties, and many other things.

External tutorials

• Short tutorial of the GTK Development Blog.
• Michael B.'s videos:
  • GTK - GtkInspector Part-01
  • GTK - GtkInspector Part-02