Tkinter image_create performance when inserting image into text box - python-3.x

Question

I'm building a Python (3.7.4) app to display items from a text database of vendor manuals. One of the functions is to display a list of "item names" from the database for each manual (aka "product"). I'm using a Tkinter scrolled text box widget for this function and simply building rows with item names with tabs to separate them. I would like to insert a small icon (16x20 pixels) in front of each item name, and have successfully done so using the code below. The problem I am having is that for large manuals in the database (e.g., 10K+ item names) I take a significant performance hit from the image_create function. Without inserting the images, displaying the list of item names is almost instantaneous for 10K item names. With inserting the images, it may take upwards of 10-12 seconds.
Any suggestions on how to improve performance? I've even looked into creating a "image" font using FontForge, but would prefer not to go that route if possible.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Per Bryan Oakley's request, I have attached executable code here. If you un-comment the following lines:
tabContents_text.image_create("current", image=open_book_image)
you will see the difference in performance.
Link to the png file is HERE
import tkinter as tk
import tkinter.scrolledtext as tkst
win = tk.Tk()
frame1 = tk.Frame(master = win)
frame1.pack(fill='both', expand='yes')
win.state('zoomed')
tabContents_text = tkst.ScrolledText(frame1, cursor="arrow", wrap="none", tabs=150, font=('helvetica', 10, 'normal'))
tabContents_text.pack(side='top')
open_book_image = tk.PhotoImage(file="C:\\Users\\rhkea\\Downloads\\document_icon.png")
product_item_list=[]
for i in range(10000):
product_item_list.append("Item" + str(i).zfill(5))
col_count=4
row_count=2500
row_remain=0
tabContents_text.delete("1.0", "end")
row = 0
item = 0
while row < row_count:
col = 0
while col < col_count:
# tabContents_text.image_create("current", image=open_book_image)
tabContents_text.insert("end", product_item_list[item] + '\t')
col += 1
item += 1
tabContents_text.insert("end", "\n")
row += 1
col = 0
while col < row_remain:
# tabContents_text.image_create("current", image=open_book_image)
tabContents_text.insert("end", product_item_list[item] + '\t')
col += 1
item += 1
tabContents_text.insert("end", "\n")
win.mainloop()

Answer 1

Unfortunaly,I think there is no way to have a better performance.But you can use .update()
to show the image right away instead of blocking it in your code.
I don't know what's the purpose of second while loop
You can try this code,it will continue to load the image after you run it:
import tkinter as tk
import tkinter.scrolledtext as tkst
win = tk.Tk()
frame1 = tk.Frame(master = win)
frame1.pack(fill='both', expand='yes')
win.state('zoomed')
tabContents_text = tkst.ScrolledText(frame1, cursor="arrow", wrap="none", tabs=150, font=('helvetica', 10, 'normal'))
tabContents_text.pack(side='top')
open_book_image = tk.PhotoImage(file="document_icon.png")
product_item_list=[]
for i in range(10000):
product_item_list.append("Item" + str(i).zfill(5))
col_count=4
row_count=2500
row_remain=0
tabContents_text.delete("1.0", "end")
row = 0
item = 0
try:
while row < row_count:
col = 0
while col < col_count:
tabContents_text.image_create("end", image=open_book_image) # It's "end" instead of current.
tabContents_text.insert("end", product_item_list[item] + '\t')
win.update() # update right away.
col += 1
item += 1
tabContents_text.insert("end", "\n")
win.update()
row += 1
col = 0
# This while loop seems that it will create two empty lines
while col < row_remain:
tabContents_text.image_create("current", image=open_book_image)
tabContents_text.insert("end", product_item_list[item] + '\t')
win.update()
col += 1
item += 1
tabContents_text.insert("end", "\n")
except BaseException: # Catch the raised exception when you close the window if it doesn't load image completely.
pass
except Exception as e:
print(e.args)
win.mainloop()
Maybe use .after() is also OK.

Answer 2

You can combine the image and the text into a single Label and then use .window_create(...) to insert into the Text box:
font = tabContents_text.cget('font') # get the Text font
for i in range(len(product_item_list)):
# create label with both image and text
lbl = tk.Label(tabContents_text, text=product_item_list[i]+'\t',
image=open_book_image, compound='left',
bg='white', font=font)
# insert the label into text box
tabContents_text.window_create('end', window=lbl)
# insert line break after showing 'col_count' items
if i%col_count == col_count-1:
tabContents_text.insert('end', '\n')
It can reduce the total items inserted into text box by half.