How to get the CImg library working for Qt - c++

Question

I'm currently learning how to use Qt. I want to try out some simple image processing applications using Qt, and since I'm already familiar with CImg I want to use that. I guess it should be possible to do so, if not mark my question for deletion or something.
My question is: how to get CImg working for Qt? CImg is a header file. Lets say its located on my desktop. I import it using Qt creator 4.1.0, by using the "add existing file..." in the rightclick menu on the header folder. Then my menu looks like this:
.
It compiles when I add #include "CImg.h", but I can't use it, even when I'm trying to type using namespace cimg_library it will tell me that cimg_library doesn't exist. I also tried just creating a header file and copying the content of the CImg.h into it but then it simply fails to compile and the Qt Creator freezes.
Edit: I managed to make the situation a bit better by adding the header location to the include code (like this: #include "C:/Users/Marci/Desktop/CImg.h" )I can now "see" CImg related stuff in the dev environment, and it won't bother me with not finding the constructor for CImg or anything like that. However when I try to compile while using anything CImg related it will give me around 20 linker errors. (Error code: LNK2019) My .pro file looks like this:
#-------------------------------------------------
#
# Project created by QtCreator 2016-11-08T17:08:58
#
#-------------------------------------------------
QT += core gui
greaterThan(QT_MAJOR_VERSION, 4): QT += widgets
TARGET = grayscale
TEMPLATE = app
SOURCES += main.cpp\
mainwindow.cpp
HEADERS += mainwindow.h \
C:/Users/Marci/Desktop/CImg.h
LIBS += -C:/Users/Marci/Desktop/ -CImg.h
FORMS += mainwindow.ui
Edit2: after implementing the changes that PeterT suggested in his comment my .pro file looks like this:
#-------------------------------------------------
#
# Project created by QtCreator 2016-11-08T17:08:58
#
#-------------------------------------------------
QT += core gui
greaterThan(QT_MAJOR_VERSION, 4): QT += widgets
TARGET = grayscale
TEMPLATE = app
SOURCES += main.cpp\
mainwindow.cpp
HEADERS += mainwindow.h \
INCLUDEPATH += C:/Users/Marci/Desktop
FORMS += mainwindow.ui
And my mainwindow.cpp (in which i'm trying to create a CImg object) looks like this:
#include "mainwindow.h"
#include "ui_mainwindow.h"
#include <CImg.h>
using namespace cimg_library;
MainWindow::MainWindow(QWidget *parent) :
QMainWindow(parent),
ui(new Ui::MainWindow)
{
ui->setupUi(this);
CImg<unsigned char> myimage(100,200);
}
MainWindow::~MainWindow()
{
delete ui;
}
The compiler errors i get are: error: C2871: 'cimg_library': a namespace with this name does not exist
error: C2065: 'CImg': undeclared identifier
error: C2062: type 'unsigned char' unexpected
I hope this is specific enough.

Answer 1

After I few months I figured it out. The problem lies in the fact, that CImg uses a windows .dll file for the visualizing functions of the class cimg_display. Since Qt is platform independent it doesnt like this. However you can make it work with an interesting trick. First you need to include the header file normally, in the project file. After that, whenever you actually #include it, you need to write the following macro:
#define cimg_display 0
In my understanding this makes it work, because the C and C++ compilers simply copy the content of the included file into the source. And thanks to the macro the compiler will ignore the class thats causing trouble for us.