STM32 Based Touchscreen Menu Display UI and Memory Optimization

Hello everyone,

I’m currently working on a small STM32-based project where I’m designing a touchscreen menu display for a food & beverage ordering concept. The idea is similar to a coffee shop menu (for example a Dunkin’ Donuts style menu with categories, prices, and images) mainly to test UI responsiveness, memory usage, and image rendering on a constrained MCU.

Project details:

• MCU: STM32F4 series

• Display: 3.5" TFT (RGB interface)

• Graphics: Simple icons, menu lists, and price labels

• Toolchain: STM32CubeIDE + HAL

• UI framework: Lightweight custom graphics (not LVGL yet)

I’m facing a few challenges:

1. Optimizing Flash and RAM usage when loading multiple menu images

2. Best practices for font rendering and scaling without excessive memory overhead

3. Whether switching to external QSPI Flash is recommended for menu-style UI projects

4. Any suggestions for structuring menu data (categories, items, prices) efficiently

For reference, I’ve mocked up a sample menu layout similar to a café menu here.

This is only a demo UI not a commercial project.

I’d really appreciate advice from anyone who has worked on UI heavy or menu-driven STM32 applications  especially with small to mid range MCUs.

Thanks in advance for your time and guidance.

Best regards.

[Andrew Neil]

Have you looked at TouchGFX - which is specifically targetted at (optimised for?) STM32 ?