Question
I am trying to make a text editor in Tkinter. If a large single-line file is opened, it lags massively and stops responding. Is there a way to set a wrap length for a text widget? I have scroll bars and I don't want to have the characters wrap at the end of the text box. I want it to wrap after a certain number of characters.
Is this possible?
If so, how can I do it?
I am using Python 3.9.6 on 64-bit Windows 10.
What I have tried
I have tried using wraplength= in the function, but that doesn't work. I have also searched for this question and found nothing.
Code
from tkinter import *
root = Tk()
root.title('Notpad [new file]')
root.geometry('1225x720')
txt = Text(root,width=150,height=40,wrap=NONE)
txt.place(x=0,y=0)
#Buttons here
scr = Scrollbar(root)
scr.pack(side='right',fill='y',expand=False)
txt.config(yscrollcommand=scr.set)
scr.config(command=txt.yview)
scr1 = Scrollbar(root,orient='horizontal')
scr1.pack(side='bottom',fill='x',expand=False)
txt.config(xscrollcommand=scr1.set)
scr1.config(command=txt.xview)
root.mainloop()
There is no wraplength option in tkinter Text widget. However you can simulate the effect using rmargin option of tag_configure().
Below is an example with a custom text widget using rmargin option:
import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import font
class MyText(tk.Text):
def __init__(self, master=None, **kw):
self.wraplength = kw.pop('wraplength', 80)
# create an instance variable of type font.Font
# it is required because Font.measure() is used later
self.font = font.Font(master, font=kw.pop('font', ('Consolas',12)))
super().__init__(master, font=self.font, **kw)
self.update_rmargin() # keep monitor and update "rmargin"
def update_rmargin(self):
# determine width of a character of current font
char_w = self.font.measure('W')
# calculate the "rmargin" in pixel
rmargin = self.winfo_width() - char_w * self.wraplength
# set up a tag with the "rmargin" option set to above value
self.tag_config('rmargin', rmargin=rmargin, rmargincolor='#eeeeee')
# apply the tag to all the content
self.tag_add('rmargin', '1.0', 'end')
# keep updating the "rmargin"
self.after(10, self.update_rmargin)
root = tk.Tk()
textbox = MyText(root, width=100, font=('Consolas',12), wrap='word', wraplength=90)
textbox.pack(fill='both', expand=1)
# load current file
with open(__file__) as f:
textbox.insert('end', f.read())
root.mainloop()
Note that I have used after() so that even there are changes on the content, the rmargin option is applied to updated content.
Note also that it may not be an efficient way, but it shows a possible way.
I'm programming a data-analysis programm for whatsapp chats and I have a matplotlib graph in my tkinter window. I know how to customize colors, but how do I set the background to transparent?
f = Figure(figsize=(4.1, 4.1), dpi=100)
f.set_facecolor('xkcd:gray') # this should be transparent
a = f.add_subplot(111)
a.plot(dates, mes_count)
a.xaxis.set_major_locator(MaxNLocator(prune='both',nbins=6))
a.set_facecolor('xkcd:gray')
canvas = FigureCanvasTkAgg(f, mainloop.root)
canvas.get_tk_widget().place(x=190, y=80)
I got a bit frustrated by trying to match the background color of the axes/figure with the background color of the tkinter app on each platform so I did a little digging:
In general, two things need to be done:
Tell matplotlib to use a transparent background for the figure and axes object by setting the facecolor to "none":
f.set_facecolor("none")
a.set_facecolor("none")
Tell the backend renderer to also make the background transparent, e.g. for saving it as png:
f.savefig('mygraph.png', transparent=True)
The problem is: How do I tell this to FigureCanvasTkAgg? Looking at the sourcecode of FigureCanvasTk, that does the drawing, one can see that the tk.Canvas always gets created with a white background. AFAIK a Canvas can't be transparent (please correct me), but when created without a specific background color, it will have the same background color as the Frame surrounding it, given by the ttk.Style of it. So there are two workarounds I can think of:
After creating the FigureCanvasTkAgg, set the background color of the canvas to the same as the current style:
s = ttk.Style()
bg = s.lookup("TFrame", "background")
bg_16bit = self.winfo_rgb(bg)
bg_string = "#" + "".join([hex(bg_color >> 8)[2:] for bg_color in bg_16bit])
canvas.get_tk_widget().config(bg=bg_string)
Lines 3 & 4 are necessary on e.g. Windows, since s.lookup("TFrame", "background") can return a system color name here, that then needs to be converted to a standard #aabbcc hex color
Making your own MyFigureCanvasTk that's just a copy of the code in matplotlib, that skips setting the background color of the Canvas:
class MyFigureCanvasTk(FigureCanvasTk):
# Redefine __init__ to get rid of the background="white" in the tk.Canvas
def __init__(self, figure=None, master=None):
super().__init__(figure)
self._idle_draw_id = None
self._event_loop_id = None
w, h = self.get_width_height(physical=True)
self._tkcanvas = tk.Canvas(
master=master,
#background="white"
width=w,
height=h,
borderwidth=0,
highlightthickness=0,
)
self._tkphoto = tk.PhotoImage(master=self._tkcanvas, width=w, height=h)
self._tkcanvas.create_image(w // 2, h // 2, image=self._tkphoto)
self._tkcanvas.bind("<Configure>", self.resize)
if sys.platform == "win32":
self._tkcanvas.bind("<Map>", self._update_device_pixel_ratio)
self._tkcanvas.bind("<Key>", self.key_press)
self._tkcanvas.bind("<Motion>", self.motion_notify_event)
self._tkcanvas.bind("<Enter>", self.enter_notify_event)
self._tkcanvas.bind("<Leave>", self.leave_notify_event)
self._tkcanvas.bind("<KeyRelease>", self.key_release)
for name in ["<Button-1>", "<Button-2>", "<Button-3>"]:
self._tkcanvas.bind(name, self.button_press_event)
for name in ["<Double-Button-1>", "<Double-Button-2>", "<Double-Button-3>"]:
self._tkcanvas.bind(name, self.button_dblclick_event)
for name in ["<ButtonRelease-1>", "<ButtonRelease-2>", "<ButtonRelease-3>"]:
self._tkcanvas.bind(name, self.button_release_event)
# Mouse wheel on Linux generates button 4/5 events
for name in "<Button-4>", "<Button-5>":
self._tkcanvas.bind(name, self.scroll_event)
# Mouse wheel for windows goes to the window with the focus.
# Since the canvas won't usually have the focus, bind the
# event to the window containing the canvas instead.
# See https://wiki.tcl-lang.org/3893 (mousewheel) for details
root = self._tkcanvas.winfo_toplevel()
root.bind("<MouseWheel>", self.scroll_event_windows, "+")
class MyFigureCanvasTkAgg(FigureCanvasAgg, MyFigureCanvasTk):
def draw(self):
super().draw()
self.blit()
def blit(self, bbox=None):
_backend_tk.blit(
self._tkphoto, self.renderer.buffer_rgba(), (0, 1, 2, 3), bbox=bbox
)
This let's the graph blend in with whatever background color might be surrounding it. It should work on all platforms (tested only on Windows and Linux, with python 3.11, tkinter 8.6.12). Maybe this helps someone stumbling over this question.
I am not able to display an image as the background of my GUI window with the below code, any ideas? I have changed files extension types many times.
from tkinter import *
from PIL import ImageTk, Image
window = Tk()
window.title("My Application")
lbl = Label(window, text="Hello", font=("arial italic", 25))
lbl.grid(column=0, row=0)
backgroundImage = PhotoImage(file = "C:\\Users\\User
Person\\Desktop\\months.gif")
label = Label(master=window,
image = backgroundImage,
text='This is a test for stackflow',
height = 2
)
label.place(x=0, y=0, relwidth=1, relheight=1)
window.mainloop()
I am able to display an image with your code but I used a raw string to define the path for the gif image. You should use it like this:
backgroundImage = PhotoImage(file = r"C:\Users\User Person\Desktop\months.gif")
Notice the r" " which makes the image path a raw string, so you don't need to escape the \.
I also defined a window geometry:
window.title("My Application")
window.geometry("320x240")
Update:
As per comment, you can also use the PIL library to open the image first to fix the error Tkinter error: Couldn't recognize data in image file:
from PIL import ImageTk, Image
backgroundImage = ImageTk.PhotoImage(Image.open(r"C:\Users\User Person\Desktop\months.gif"))
Note:
You must also verify that this is a valid gif file. Try opening the file in Windows Picture viewer or similar software. Also, you mentioned that you have changed the file extension, this could make the file unstable and render it invalid. Therefore, make sure you use the original file extension. If you'd like to convert the file to a different format, use specialized software for that or write a simple Python script(although I've never tried this option) that could perform this conversion without breaking the file.
I've been working through the Tkinter chapters in Programming Python and encountered a problem where the foreground and background colours of a button will not change. I am working on a Mac OS X 10.6 system with Python 2.6.1. The colours of a label will change, but not the colours of a button. For example:
from Tkinter import *
Label(None, text='label', fg='green', bg='black').pack()
Button(None, text='button', fg='green', bg='black').pack()
mainloop()
On my Mac system the colours of the label change, but the colours of the button do not. On a Windows system with Python 2.6.1 the colours of both the label and button change.
Anyone know what is going wrong?
I've checked Interface Builder and it appears that there is no option to change the foreground or background colour of a button in that tool. There is the ability to edit the foreground and background colours of a label.
The Mac OS X rendering system (Quartz?) may just not support (easily) changing the fg and bg of a button.
There is a solution for changing the background of buttons on Mac.
Use:
highlightbackground=color
For example:
submit = Button(root, text="Generate", highlightbackground='#3E4149')
This results in the following, a nice button that fits in with the background:
I think the answer is that the buttons on the mac simply don't support changing the background and foreground colors. As you've seen, this isn't unique to Tk.
You can do it with tkmacosx library from PyPI.
Installation:
For Python 2, use pip install tkmacosx.
For Python 3, use pip3 install tkmacosx.
This is how you use tkmacosx:
from tkinter import *
from tkmacosx import Button
root = Tk()
B1 = Button(root, text='Mac OSX', bg='black',fg='green', borderless=1)
B1.pack()
root.mainloop()
It works fine on Mac OS X.
For anyone else who happens upon this question as I did, the solution is to use the ttk module, which is available by default on OS X 10.7. Unfortunately, setting the background color still doesn't work out of the box, but text color does.
It requires a small change to the code:
Original:
from Tkinter import *
Label(None, text='label', fg='green', bg='black').pack()
Button(None, text='button', fg='green', bg='black').pack()
mainloop()
With ttk:
import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import ttk
root = tk.Tk()
# background="..." doesn't work...
ttk.Style().configure('green/black.TLabel', foreground='green', background='black')
ttk.Style().configure('green/black.TButton', foreground='green', background='black')
label = ttk.Label(root, text='I am a ttk.Label with text!', style='green/black.TLabel')
label.pack()
button = ttk.Button(root, text='Click Me!', style='green/black.TButton')
button.pack()
root.mainloop()
Its quite annoying that after years this is still a problem.
Anyways, as others have mentioned, highlightbackground (the border color) can be used in place of background on a Mac. If you increase the size of the border to be huge (the size of the button or greater), you will get a nice, solid background color. This will give your button the appearance of a label.
This works if you are using place, but not if you are using something like grid. With grid, increasing the border size increases the button size automatically, unfortunately.
However, if you must use grid, you can always hack it....create your colorless grid button. Next use place to parent a background color button on top of it. This will be the button with the 'command' on it or the button you bind events to.
If you want your code to be OS independent, you can either add an 'if OS == "Mac"' statement or even add a custom function that modifies the button if its on a Mac but leaves it alone on Windows or Linux. Here's the former:
from tkinter import *
import platform
if platform.system() == "Darwin": ### if its a Mac
B = Button(text="Refersh All Windows", highlightbackground="Yellow", fg="Black", highlightthickness=30)
else: ### if its Windows or Linux
B = Button(text="Refresh All Windows", bg="Yellow", fg="Black")
B.place(x=5, y=10, width=140, height=30)
mainloop()
This worked for me:
self.gnuplot_bt = Button(
self.run_but_container, text="Plot with Gnuplot", font="Helvetica", command=self.gnuplot,
highlightbackground ="#8EF0F7", pady=2, relief=FLAT
)
I was looking as to why this doesn't work as well. I found a quick way to try and fix it is to have a label and then bind a click with the label. Then have the label change colors for a short time to mimic clicking. Here is an example.
def buttonPress(*args):
searchB.config(state = "active")
searchB.update()
time.sleep(0.2)
searchB.config(state = "normal")
## Whatever command you want
searchB = Label(main, text = "Search", bg = "#fecc14", fg = "Black", activebackground = "Red", highlightbackground="Black")
searchB.bind("<Button-1>", startSearch)
searchB.pack()
Confirm following code can change the background of tkinter Button on Mac OS X.
self.btn_open = tk.Button(self.toolbar,
text = "Open",
command=self.open,
highlightbackground = "gray")
But it cannot change bg of ttk.Button.
Not sure if anyone is still viewing this thread, but I have created a simple solution to this problem by creating my own Button class. It is available on GitHub.
import tkinter as tk
class Button():
button_frame = None
root = None
width=100
height=20
text=""
bg="white"
fg="black"
font="f 12"
bordercolor = "black"
bordersize = 3
label = None
command = None
def __init__(self,root,width=100,height=20,text="",bg="white",fg="black",font="f 12",command=None,bordercolor="black",bordersize=0):
self.root = root
self.width=width
self.height=height
self.text=text
self.bg=bg
self.fg=fg
self.font=font
self.command = command
self.bordercolor = bordercolor
self.bordersize = bordersize
self.button_frame = tk.Frame(root,width=width,height=height,bg=bg)
self.label = tk.Label(self.button_frame,text=self.text,bg=self.bg,width=self.width,height=self.height,fg=self.fg,font=self.font,highlightbackground=self.bordercolor,highlightthickness=self.bordersize)
self.label.place(anchor="center",relx=0.5,rely=0.5,relheight=1,relwidth=1)
self.label.bind("<Button-1>",self.call_command)
def call_command(self,event):
if (self.command != None):
self.command()
def place(self,anchor="nw",relx=0,rely=0):
self.button_frame.place(anchor=anchor,relx=relx,rely=rely)
def configure(self,width=width,height=height,text=text,bg=bg,fg=fg,font=font,command=command,bordercolor=bordercolor,bordersize=bordersize):
self.button_frame.configure(width=width,height=height,bg=bg)
self.label.configure(text=text,bg=bg,width=width,height=height,fg=fg,font=font,highlightbackground=bordercolor,highlightthickness=bordersize)
self.command =
Button and Label seem pretty similar to me, so I find it odd that the Label and Button work differently... even after all these years.
You can always make your own Button class which is wrapped around a Label with a border (default width is 2) and a bind call for the Button Release. You'd miss out on some of the "animation" of button press and release, but you'd get your background and foreground colors as desired.
I wrote a project called Tagged Text Widgets ('ttwidgets' on PyPI.org) which essentially does just that. I wrote the project to allow multi-font, multi-color Buttons and Labels. Essentially the project creates a compound Button or Label consisting of multiple underlying Label widgets (each with its own color/font) but acting like a single object. Those different colors and fonts are created by passing in HTML-like tagged text in lieu of regular text. And because of the underlying Labels rather than Buttons, it works around the issue on macOS.
I just tested it on macOS Sierra, and it works around the Button bg/fg color problem.
You can use it as follows:
from ttwidgets import TTButton
A TTButton supports the full interface of a Tkinter Button but with many enhancements. But for someone trying to work around the macOS color issue, just using a TTButton in lieu of a Tkinter Button suffices.
How do you hide a canvas so it only shows when you want it displayed?
self.canvas.config(state='hidden')
just gives the error saying you can only use 'disabled' or 'normal'
In the comments you say you are using pack. In that case, you can make it hidden by using pack_forget.
import tkinter as tk
def show():
canvas.pack()
def hide():
canvas.pack_forget()
root = tk.Tk()
root.geometry("400x400")
show_button = tk.Button(root, text="show", command=show)
hide_button = tk.Button(root, text="hide", command=hide)
canvas = tk.Canvas(root, background="pink")
show_button.pack(side="top")
hide_button.pack(side="top")
canvas.pack(side="top")
root.mainloop()
However, it's usually better to use grid in such a case. pack_forget() doesn't remember where the widget was, so the next time you call pack the widget may end up in a different place. To see an example, move canvas.pack(side="top") up two lines, before show_button.pack(side="top")
grid, on the other hand, has a grid_remove method which will remember all of the settings, so that a subsequent call to grid() with no options will put the widget back in the exact same spot.