Unix ==== Builds need qmake, that is official part of Qt. qmake qwt.pro make To build the designer plugin: cd designer qmake qwtplugin.pro make make install If you like to build the examples: cd examples qmake examples.pro make If you like to run the examples, don't forget to install the qwt libraries or set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH to the lib directory of your local build. Qwt doesn't distribute binary unix packages. qwt.spec is a template spec file for building rpm packages. Read the comments at the beginning of qwt.pro how to use it. Win32 ----- Please read the qmake documentation how to convert your *.pro files into your development environment. F.e MSVC with nmake: qmake qwt.pro nmake cd designer qmake qwtplugin.pro nmake nmake install cd examples qmake examples.pro nmake There is a msvc-qmake.bat batch file for Visual Studio users with Qt >= 3.0 to generate makefiles or project files (.dsp for MSVC-6.0 or vcproj for MSVC.NET) for Qwt, all examples and the designer plugin. To generate makefiles, type: msvc-qmake To generate project files, type: msvc-qmake vc Win32/Qt 4.0.0 If you use the MinGW compiler from the MSYS shell do: export MINGW_IN_SHELL=1; qmake; make cd designer qmake qwtplugin.pro make make install cd examples qmake make -i Good luck !