tkinter

#tkinter
Table of Contents
About 1

Chapter 1: Getting started with tkinter 2

Remarks 2

Differences between python 2 and 3 2

Importing in python 2.x 2

Importing in python 3.x 2

Further Reading 2

Versions 3

Tcl 3

Python 3

Examples 4

Installation or Setup 4

Hello, World! (minimal) 5

Hello, World! (modular, object-oriented) 6

Chapter 2: Adding Images To Label/Button 8

Introduction 8

Examples 8

File Formats Supported By Tkinter 8

Usage of .GIF formats. 8

Chapter 3: Customize ttk styles 9

Introduction 9

Examples 9

Customize a treeview 9

Chapter 4: Delaying a function 11

Syntax 11

Parameters 11

Remarks 11

Examples 11

.after() 11

Chapter 5: Multiple windows (TopLevel widgets) 13

 Examples 13

Difference between Tk and Toplevel 13

arranging the window stack (the .lift method) 14

Chapter 6: Scrolling widgets 16

Introduction 16

Syntax 16

Parameters 16

Remarks 16

Examples 16

Connecting a vertical scrollbar to a Text widget 16

Scrolling a Canvas widget horizontally and vertically 16

Scrolling a group of widgets 17

Chapter 7: The Tkinter Entry Widget 18

Syntax 18

Parameters 18

Remarks 18

Examples 18

Creating an Entry widget and setting a default value 18

Getting the value of an Entry widget 18

Adding validation to an Entry widget 19

Getting int From Entry Widget 19

Chapter 8: The Tkinter Radiobutton widget 20

Syntax 20

Parameters 20

Remarks 20

Examples 21

Here's an example of how to turn radio buttons to button boxes: 21

Create a group of radiobuttons 21

Chapter 9: Tkinter Geometry Managers 22

Introduction 22

Examples 22

pack() 22
 grid() 23

place() 24

Chapter 10: Ttk widgets 27

Introduction 27

Syntax 27

Parameters 27

Remarks 27

Examples 27

Treeview: Basic example 27

Create the widget 27

Definition of the columns 27

Definition of the headings 28

Insert some rows 28

Packing 28

Progressbar 29

Function updating the progressbar 29

Set the maximum value 29

Create the progress bar 29

Initial and maximum values 29

Emulate progress each 0.5 s 29

Credits 31
About
You can share this PDF with anyone you feel could benefit from it, downloaded the latest version
from: tkinter

It is an unofficial and free tkinter ebook created for educational purposes. All the content is
extracted from Stack Overflow Documentation, which is written by many hardworking individuals at
Stack Overflow. It is neither affiliated with Stack Overflow nor official tkinter.

The content is released under Creative Commons BY-SA, and the list of contributors to each
chapter are provided in the credits section at the end of this book. Images may be copyright of
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the property of their respective company owners.

Use the content presented in this book at your own risk; it is not guaranteed to be correct nor
accurate, please send your feedback and corrections to [email protected]

https://riptutorial.com/ 1
Chapter 1: Getting started with tkinter
Remarks
Tkinter ("Tk Interface")is python's standard cross-platform package for creating graphical user
interfaces (GUIs). It provides access to an underlying Tcl interpreter with the Tk toolkit, which itself
is a cross-platform, multilanguage graphical user interface library.

Tkinter isn't the only GUI library for python, but it is the one that comes standard. Additional GUI
libraries that can be used with python include wxPython, PyQt, and kivy.

Tkinter's greatest strength is its ubiquity and simplicity. It works out of the box on most platforms
(linux, OSX, Windows), and comes complete with a wide range of widgets necessary for most
common tasks (buttons, labels, drawing canvas, multiline text, etc).

As a learning tool, tkinter has some features that are unique among GUI toolkits, such as named
fonts, bind tags, and variable tracing.

Differences between python 2 and 3

Tkinter is largely unchanged between python 2 and python 3, with the major difference being that
the tkinter package and modules were renamed.

Importing in python 2.x

In python 2.x, the tkinter package is named Tkinter, and related packages have their own names.
For example, the following shows a typical set of import statements for python 2.x:

import Tkinter as tk
import tkFileDialog as filedialog
import ttk

Importing in python 3.x

Although functionality did not change much between python 2 and 3, the names of all of the tkinter
modules have changed. The following is a typical set of import statements for python 3.x:

import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import filedialog
from tkinter import ttk

Further Reading

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 • Tkinter questions on Stackoverflow
• Official Python 3 tkinter documentation
• Official Python 2 tkinter documentation
• Tkdocs.com - multiplatform tk documentation
• Effbot introduction to tkinter
• Tkinter reference guide, New Mexico Tech

Versions

Tcl

Version Release Date

8.6 2016-07-27

8.5 2016-02-12

8.4 2013-06-01

8.3 2002-10-18

8.2 1999-12-16

8.1 1999-05-26

8.0 1999-03-09

Python

Version Release Date

3.6 2016-12-23

3.5 2015-09-13

3.4 2014-03-17

3.3 2012-09-29

3.2 2011-02-20

3.1 2009-06-26

3.0 2008-12-03

2.7 2010-07-03

https://riptutorial.com/ 3
 Version Release Date

2.6 2008-10-02

2.5 2006-09-19

2.4 2004-11-30

2.3 2003-07-29

2.2 2001-12-21

2.1 2001-04-15

2.0 2000-10-16

Examples
Installation or Setup

Tkinter comes pre-installed with the Python installer binaries for Mac OS X and the Windows
platform. So if you install Python from the official binaries for Mac OS X or Windows platform, you
are good to go with Tkinter.

For Debian versions of Linux you have to install it manually by using the following commands.

For Python 3

sudo apt-get install python3-tk

For Python 2.7

sudo apt-get install python-tk

Linux distros with yum installer can install tkinter module using the command:

yum install tkinter

Verifying Installation

To verify if you have successfully installed Tkinter, open your Python console and type the
following command:

import tkinter as tk # for Python 3 version

or

import Tkinter as tk # for Python 2.x version

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You have successfully installed Tkinter, if the above command executes without an error.

To check the Tkinter version, type the following commands in your Python REPL:

For python 3.X

import tkinter as tk
tk._test()

For python 2.X

import Tkinter as tk
tk._test()

Note: Importing Tkinter as tk is not required but is good practice as it helps keep things consistent
between version.

Hello, World! (minimal)

Let's test our basic knowledge of tkinter by creating the classic "Hello, World!" program.

First, we must import tkinter, this will vary based on version (see remarks section about
"Differences between Python 2 and 3")

In Python 3 the module tkinter has a lowercase t:

import tkinter as tk

In Python 2 the module Tkinter has a uppercase T:

import Tkinter as tk

Using as tk isn't strictly necessary but we will use it so the rest of this example will work the same
for both version.

now that we have the tkinter module imported we can create the root of our application using the
Tk class:

root = tk.Tk()

This will act as the window for our application. (note that additional windows should be Toplevel
instances instead)

Now that we have a window, let's add text to it with a Label

label = tk.Label(root, text="Hello World!") # Create a text label

label.pack(padx=20, pady=20) # Pack it into the window

Once the application is ready we can start it (enter the main event loop) with the mainloop method

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 root.mainloop()

This will open and run the application until it is stopped by the window being closed or calling
exiting functions from callbacks (discussed later) such as root.destroy().

Putting it all together:

import tkinter as tk # Python 3.x Version

#import Tkinter as tk # Python 2.x Version

root = tk.Tk()

label = tk.Label(root, text="Hello World!") # Create a text label

label.pack(padx=20, pady=20) # Pack it into the window

root.mainloop()

And something like this should pop up:

Hello, World! (modular, object-oriented)

import tkinter as tk

class HelloWorld(tk.Frame):
def __init__(self, parent):
super(HelloWorld, self).__init__(parent)

self.label = tk.Label(self, text="Hello, World!")

self.label.pack(padx=20, pady=20)

if __name__ == "__main__":
root = tk.Tk()

main = HelloWorld(root)
main.pack(fill="both", expand=True)

root.mainloop()

Note: It's possible to inherit from just about any tkinter widget, including the root window. Inheriting
from tkinter.Frame is at least arguably the most flexible in that it supports multiple document
interfaces (MDI), single document interfaces (SDI), single page applications, and multiple-page

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applications.

Read Getting started with tkinter online: https://riptutorial.com/tkinter/topic/987/getting-started-with-

tkinter

https://riptutorial.com/ 7
Chapter 2: Adding Images To Label/Button
Introduction
This shows the proper usage of images and how to correctly display images.

Examples
File Formats Supported By Tkinter

Tkinter support .ppm files from PIL(Python Imaging Library), .JPG, .PNG and .GIF.

To import and image you first need to create a reference like so:

Image = PhotoImage(filename = [Your Image here])

Now, we can add this image to Button and Labels like so using the "img" callback:

Lbl = Label (width=490, img=image)

Usage of .GIF formats.

In order to display a gif, you need to show it frame by frame sort of like an animation.

An animated gif consists of a number of frames in a single file. Tk loads the first frame but you can
specify different frames by passing an index parameter when creating the image. For example:

frame2 = PhotoImage(file=imagefilename, format="gif -index 2")

If you load up all the frames into separate PhotoImages and then use timer events to switch the
frame being shown (label.configure(image=nextframe)). The delay on the timer lets you control the
animation speed. There is nothing provided to give you the number of frames in the image other
than it failing to create a frame once you exceed the frame count.

Read Adding Images To Label/Button online: https://riptutorial.com/tkinter/topic/9746/adding-

images-to-label-button

https://riptutorial.com/ 8
Chapter 3: Customize ttk styles
Introduction
The style of the new ttk widgets is one of the most powerful aspects of ttk. Besides the fact that it
is a completely different way of working than the traditional tk package, it enables to perform a
huge degree of customization on your widgets.

Examples
Customize a treeview

By taking Treeview: Basic example, it can be shown how to customize a basic treeview.

In this case, we create a style "mystyle.Treeview" with the following code (see the comments to
understand what each line does):

style = ttk.Style()
style.configure("mystyle.Treeview", highlightthickness=0, bd=0, font=('Calibri', 11)) # Modify
the font of the body
style.configure("mystyle.Treeview.Heading", font=('Calibri', 13,'bold')) # Modify the font of
the headings
style.layout("mystyle.Treeview", [('mystyle.Treeview.treearea', {'sticky': 'nswe'})]) # Remove
the borders

Then, the widget is created giving the above style:

tree=ttk.Treeview(master,style="mystyle.Treeview")

If you would like to have a different format depending on the rows, you can make use of tags:

tree.insert(folder1, "end", "", text="photo1.png", values=("23-Jun-17 11:28","PNG file","2.6

KB"),tags = ('odd',))
tree.insert(folder1, "end", "", text="photo2.png", values=("23-Jun-17 11:29","PNG file","3.2
KB"),tags = ('even',))
tree.insert(folder1, "end", "", text="photo3.png", values=("23-Jun-17 11:30","PNG file","3.1
KB"),tags = ('odd',))

Then, for instance, a background color can be associated to the tags:

tree.tag_configure('odd', background='#E8E8E8')
tree.tag_configure('even', background='#DFDFDF')

The result is a treeview with modified fonts on both the body and headings, no border and different
colors for the rows:

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Note: To generate the above picture, you should add/change the aforementioned lines of code in
the example Treeview: Basic example.

Read Customize ttk styles online: https://riptutorial.com/tkinter/topic/10624/customize-ttk-styles

https://riptutorial.com/ 10
Chapter 4: Delaying a function
Syntax
• widget.after(delay_ms, callback, *args)

Parameters

Parameter Description

delay_ms Time (milliseconds) which is delayed the call to the function callback

Function that is called after the given delay_ms. If this parameter is not given,
callback
.after acts similar to time.sleep (in milliseconds)

Remarks
Syntax assumes a widget accepted by the method .after has been previously created (i.e
widget=tk.Label(parent))

Examples
.after()

.after(delay, callback=None) is a method defined for all tkinter widgets. This method simply calls
the function callback after the given delay in ms. If no function is given, it acts similar to time.sleep
(but in milliseconds instead of seconds)

Here is an example of how to create a simple timer using after:

# import tkinter
try:
import tkinter as tk
except ImportError:
import Tkinter as tk

class Timer:
def __init__(self, parent):
# variable storing time
self.seconds = 0
# label displaying time
self.label = tk.Label(parent, text="0 s", font="Arial 30", width=10)
self.label.pack()
# start the timer
self.label.after(1000, self.refresh_label)

def refresh_label(self):

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 """ refresh the content of the label every second """
# increment the time
self.seconds += 1
# display the new time
self.label.configure(text="%i s" % self.seconds)
# request tkinter to call self.refresh after 1s (the delay is given in ms)
self.label.after(1000, self.refresh_label)

if __name__ == "__main__":
root = tk.Tk()
timer = Timer(root)
root.mainloop()

Read Delaying a function online: https://riptutorial.com/tkinter/topic/6724/delaying-a-function

https://riptutorial.com/ 12
Chapter 5: Multiple windows (TopLevel
widgets)
Examples
Difference between Tk and Toplevel

Tkis the absolute root of the application, it is the first widget that needs to be instantiated and the
GUI will shut down when it is destroyed.

Toplevel is a window in the application, closing the window will destroy all children widgets placed
on that window{1} but will not shut down the program.

try:
import tkinter as tk #python3
except ImportError:
import Tkinter as tk #python2

#root application, can only have one of these.

root = tk.Tk()

#put a label in the root to identify the window.

label1 = tk.Label(root, text="""this is root
closing this window will shut down app""")
label1.pack()

#you can make as many Toplevels as you like

extra_window = tk.Toplevel(root)
label2 = tk.Label(extra_window, text="""this is extra_window
closing this will not affect root""")
label2.pack()

root.mainloop()

If your python program only represents a single application (which it almost always will) then you
should have only one Tk instance, but you may create as many Toplevel windows as you like.

try:
import tkinter as tk #python3
except ImportError:
import Tkinter as tk #python2

def generate_new_window():
window = tk.Toplevel()
label = tk.Label(window, text="a generic Toplevel window")
label.pack()

root = tk.Tk()

spawn_window_button = tk.Button(root,
text="make a new window!",
command=generate_new_window)

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 spawn_window_button.pack()

root.mainloop()

{1}: if a Toplevel (A = Toplevel(root)) is the parent of another Toplevel (B = Toplevel(A)) then

closing window A will also close window B.

arranging the window stack (the .lift method)

The most basic case to lift a particular window above the others, just call the .lift() method on
that window (either Toplevel or Tk)

import tkinter as tk #import Tkinter as tk #change to commented for python2

root = tk.Tk()

for i in range(4):
#make a window with a label
window = tk.Toplevel(root)
label = tk.Label(window,text="window {}".format(i))
label.pack()
#add a button to root to lift that window
button = tk.Button(root, text = "lift window {}".format(i), command=window.lift)
button.grid(row=i)

root.mainloop()

However if that window is destroyed trying to lift it will raise an error like this:

Exception in Tkinter callback

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/.../tkinter/__init__.py", line 1549, in __call__
return self.func(*args)
File "/.../tkinter/__init__.py", line 785, in tkraise
self.tk.call('raise', self._w, aboveThis)
_tkinter.TclError: bad window path name ".4385637096"

Often when we are trying to put a particular window in front of the user but it was closed a good
alternative is to recreate that window:

import tkinter as tk #import Tkinter as tk #change to commented for python2

dialog_window = None

def create_dialog():
"""creates the dialog window
** do not call if dialog_window is already open, this will
create a duplicate without handling the other
if you are unsure if it already exists or not use show_dialog()"""
global dialog_window
dialog_window = tk.Toplevel(root)
label1 = tk.Label(dialog_window,text="this is the dialog window")
label1.pack()
#put other widgets

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 dialog_window.lift() #ensure it appears above all others, probably will do this anyway

def show_dialog():
"""lifts the dialog_window if it exists or creates a new one otherwise"""
#this can be refactored to only have one call to create_dialog()
#but sometimes extra code will be wanted the first time it is created
if dialog_window is None:
create_dialog()
return
try:
dialog_window.lift()
except tk.TclError:
#window was closed, create a new one.
create_dialog()

root = tk.Tk()

dialog_button = tk.Button(root,
text="show dialog_window",
command=show_dialog)
dialog_button.pack()
root.mainloop()

This way the function show_dialog will show the dialog window whether it exists or not, also note
that you can call .winfo_exists() to check if it exists before trying to lift the window instead of
wrapping it in a try:except.

There is also the .lower() method that works the same way as the .lift() method, except
lowering the window in the stack:

import tkinter as tk #import Tkinter as tk #change to commented for python2

root = tk.Tk()
root.title("ROOT")
extra = tk.Toplevel()
label = tk.Label(extra, text="extra window")
label.pack()

lower_button = tk.Button(root,
text="lower this window",
command=root.lower)
lower_button.pack()

root.mainloop()

You will notice that it lowers even below other applications, to only lower below a certain window
you can pass it to the .lower() method, similarly this can also be done with the .lift() method to
only raise a window above another one.

Read Multiple windows (TopLevel widgets) online:

https://riptutorial.com/tkinter/topic/6439/multiple-windows--toplevel-widgets-

https://riptutorial.com/ 15
Chapter 6: Scrolling widgets
Introduction
Scrollbars can be added to Listbox, Canvas, and Text widgets. In addition, Entry widgets can be
scrolled horizontally. To be able to scroll other type of widgets, you need to put them inside a
Canvas or a Text widget.

Syntax
• scrollbar = tk.Scrollbar(parent, **kwargs)

Parameters

Parameter Description

tkinter widgets exist in a hierarchy. Except for the root window, all widgets have
parent a parent. Some online tutorials call this "master". When the widget is added to
the screen with pack, place or grid, it will appear inside this parent widget

orient Orientation of the scrollbar, either "vertical" (default value) or "horizontal"

Remarks
These examples assume that tkinter has been imported with either import tkinter as tk (python 3)
or import Tkinter as tk (python 2).

Examples
Connecting a vertical scrollbar to a Text widget

The connection between the widget and the scrollbar goes both ways. The scrollbar needs to be
expanded vertically so that it has the same height as the widget.

text = tk.Text(parent)
text.pack(side="left")

scroll_y = tk.Scrollbar(parent, orient="vertical", command=text.yview)

scroll_y.pack(side="left", expand=True, fill="y")

text.configure(yscrollcommand=scroll_y.set)

Scrolling a Canvas widget horizontally and vertically

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The principle is essentially the same as for the Text widget, but a Grid layout is used to put the
scrollbars around the widget.

canvas = tk.Canvas(parent, width=150, height=150)

canvas.create_oval(10, 10, 20, 20, fill="red")
canvas.create_oval(200, 200, 220, 220, fill="blue")
canvas.grid(row=0, column=0)

scroll_x = tk.Scrollbar(parent, orient="horizontal", command=canvas.xview)

scroll_x.grid(row=1, column=0, sticky="ew")

scroll_y = tk.Scrollbar(parent, orient="vertical", command=canvas.yview)

scroll_y.grid(row=0, column=1, sticky="ns")

canvas.configure(yscrollcommand=scroll_y.set, xscrollcommand=scroll_x.set)

Unlike for the Text widget, the scrollable region of the Canvas is not updated automatically when
its content is modified, so we need to define it and update it manually using the scrollregion
argument:

canvas.configure(scrollregion=canvas.bbox("all"))

canvas.bbox("all") returns the coordinates of the rectangle fitting the whole canvas content.

Scrolling a group of widgets

When a window contains many widgets, they might not all be visible. However, neither a window
(Tk or Toplevel instance) nor a Frame are scrollable. One solution to make the window content
scrollable is to put all the widgets in a Frame, and then, embed this Frame in a Canvas using the
create_window method.

canvas = tk.Canvas(parent)
scroll_y = tk.Scrollbar(parent, orient="vertical", command=canvas.yview)

frame = tk.Frame(canvas)
# group of widgets
for i in range(20):
tk.Label(frame, text='label %i' % i).pack()
# put the frame in the canvas
canvas.create_window(0, 0, anchor='nw', window=frame)
# make sure everything is displayed before configuring the scrollregion
canvas.update_idletasks()

canvas.configure(scrollregion=canvas.bbox('all'),
yscrollcommand=scroll_y.set)

canvas.pack(fill='both', expand=True, side='left')

scroll_y.pack(fill='y', side='right')

Read Scrolling widgets online: https://riptutorial.com/tkinter/topic/8931/scrolling-widgets

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Chapter 7: The Tkinter Entry Widget
Syntax
• entry = tk.Entry(parent, **kwargs)
• entry.get()
• entry.insert(index, "value")
• entry.delete(start_index, end_index)
• entry.bind(event, callback)

Parameters

Parameter Description

tkinter widgets exist in a hieararchy. Except for the root window, all widgets
have a parent. Some online tutorials call this "master". When the widget is
parent
added to the screen with pack, place or grid, it will appear inside this parent
widget

The width specifies the desired width of the widget based on an average
character width. For variable width fonts, this is based on the width of the zero
width
character (0). The default is 20. Note that the actual width could be larger or
smaller depending on how it is added to the screen.

Remarks
These examples assume that tkinter has been imported with either import tkinter as tk (python 3)
or import Tkinter as tk (python 2).

Examples
Creating an Entry widget and setting a default value

entry = tk.Entry(parent, width=10)

entry.insert(0, "Hello, World!")

Getting the value of an Entry widget

The value of an entry widget can be obtained with the get method of the widget:

name_entry = tk.Entry(parent)
...
name = name_entry.get()

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Optionally, you may associate an instance of a StringVar, and retrieve the value from the StringVar
rather than from the widget:

name_var = tk.StringVar()
name_entry = tk.Entry(parent, textvariable=name_var)
...
name = name_var.get()

Adding validation to an Entry widget

To restrict the characters that can be typed into an entry widget, only numbers for instance, a
validate command can be added to the entry. A validate command is a function that return True if
the change is accepted, False otherwise. This function will be called each time the content of the
entry is modified. Various arguments can be passed to this function, like the type of change
(insertion, deletion), the inserted text, ...

def only_numbers(char):
return char.isdigit()

validation = parent.register(only_numbers)
entry = Entry(parent, validate="key", validatecommand=(validation, '%S'))

The validate option determines the type of event that triggers the validation, here, it's any
keystroke in the entry. The '%S' in the validatecommand option means that the inserted or deleted
character is passed in argument to the only_numbers function. The full list of possibilities can be
found here.

Getting int From Entry Widget

When using the .get() method whatever is in the entry widget will be converted into a string. For
example, regardless of the type of input(It can be a number or sentence), the resulting outcome
will be a string. If the user types 4 the output will be "4" as in a string. To get an int from an Entry
Widget, first, call the .get() method.

What_User_Wrote = Entry.get()

Now we convert that string into an int like so:

Convert_To_Int = int(What_User_Wrote)

Likewise, if you want to save time you can simply do:

Convert_To_Int = int(Entry.get())

You can use the above method if you don't want to convert str to int.

Read The Tkinter Entry Widget online: https://riptutorial.com/tkinter/topic/4868/the-tkinter-entry-

widget

https://riptutorial.com/ 19
Chapter 8: The Tkinter Radiobutton widget
Syntax
• radiobutton = tk.Radiobutton(parent, **kwargs)

Parameters

Parameter Description

tkinter widgets exist in a hierarchy. Except for the root window, all widgets have
parent a parent. Some online tutorials call this "master". When the widget is added to
the screen with pack, place or grid, it will appear inside this parent widget.

command function called each time the user changes the state of the radiobutton

indicatoron 1 or True for radio buttons, 0 or False for button boxes

text Text to display next to the radiobutton.

value When the radiobutton is selected, the associated control variable is set to value.

variable Control variable the radiobutton shares with the other radiobutton of the group.

Remarks
These examples assume that tkinter has been imported with either import tkinter as tk (python 3)
or import Tkinter as tk (python 2).

Reference:

To turn the above example into a “button box” rather than a set of radio buttons, set the
indicatoron option to 0. In this case, there’s no separate radio button indicator, and the
selected button is drawn as SUNKEN instead of RAISED:

https://riptutorial.com/ 20
-effbot

Examples
Here's an example of how to turn radio buttons to button boxes:

import tkinter as tk
root = tk.Tk()

rbvar = StringVar()
rbvar.set(" ")

rb1 = tk.Radiobutton(root, text="Option 1", variable=rbvar, value='a', indicatoron=0)

rb1.pack()

rb2 = tk.Radiobutton(root, text="Option 2", variable=rbvar, value='b', indicatoron=0)

rb2.pack()

Create a group of radiobuttons

Such a group is made of radiobuttons that share a control variable so that no more than one can
be selected.

# control variable
var = tk.IntVar(parent, 0)

# group of radiobuttons
for i in range(1,4):
tk.Radiobutton(parent, text='Choice %i' % i, value=i, variable=var).pack()

tk.Button(parent, text='Print choice', command=lambda: print(var.get())).pack()

Read The Tkinter Radiobutton widget online: https://riptutorial.com/tkinter/topic/6338/the-tkinter-

radiobutton-widget

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Chapter 9: Tkinter Geometry Managers
Introduction
There are three geometry managers to position widgets: pack(), grid() and place().

Examples
pack()

The pack() geometry manager organizes widgets in blocks before placing them in the parent
widget. It uses the options fill, expand and side.

Syntax

widget.pack(option)

Fill
Determines if the widget keeps the minimal space needed or takes up any extra space allocated to
it. Attributes: NONE (default), X (fill horizontally), Y (fill vertically), or BOTH (fill both horizontally
and vertically).

Expand
When set to YES, the widget expands to fill any space not used in widget's parent. Attributes:
YES, NO.

Side
Determines which side of the widget's parent it packs to. Attributes: TOP (default), BOTTOM,
LEFT, or RIGHT.

Example

from tkinter import *

root = Tk()
btn_fill = Button(root, text="Button")
btn_fill.pack(fill=X)

btn_expand = Button(root, text="Button")

btn_expand.pack(expand=YES)

btn_side = Button(root, text="Button")

btn_side.pack(side=RIGHT)

root.mainloop()

Result

https://riptutorial.com/ 22
grid()

The grid() geometry manager organises widgets in a table-like structure in the parent widget. The
master widget is split into rows and columns, and each part of the table can hold a widget. It uses
column, columnspan, ipadx, ipady, padx, pady, row, rowspan and sticky.

Syntax

widget.grid(options)

Column
The column to put widget in. The default column is 0, which is the leftmost column.

Columnspan
How many columns widget takes up. The default is 1.

Ipadx
How many pixels to pad widget horizontally inside the widget's borders.

Ipady
How many pixels to pad widget vertically inside the widget's borders.

Padx
How many pixels to pad widget horizontally outside the widget's borders.

Pady
How many pixels to pad widget vertically outside the widget's borders.

Row
The row to put widget in. The default row is 0, which is the topmost column.

Rowspan
How many rows the widget takes up. The default is 1.

Sticky
When the widget is smaller than the cell, sticky is used to indicate which sides and corners of the
cell the widget sticks to. The direction is defined by compass directions: N, E, S, W, NE, NW, SE,
and SW and zero. These could be a string concatenation, for example, NESW make the widget
take up the full area of the cell.

Example

from tkinter import *

root = Tk()

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 btn_column = Button(root, text="I'm in column 3")
btn_column.grid(column=3)

btn_columnspan = Button(root, text="I have a columnspan of 3")

btn_columnspan.grid(columnspan=3)

btn_ipadx = Button(root, text="ipadx of 4")

btn_ipadx.grid(ipadx=4)

btn_ipady = Button(root, text="ipady of 4")

btn_ipady.grid(ipady=4)

btn_padx = Button(root, text="padx of 4")

btn_padx.grid(padx=4)

btn_pady = Button(root, text="pady of 4")

btn_pady.grid(pady=4)

btn_row = Button(root, text="I'm in row 2")

btn_row.grid(row=2)

btn_rowspan = Button(root, text="Rowspan of 2")

btn_rowspan.grid(rowspan=2)

btn_sticky = Button(root, text="I'm stuck to north-east")

btn_sticky.grid(sticky=NE)

root.mainloop()

Result

place()

The place() manager organises widgets by placing them in a specific position in the parent widget.
This geometry manager uses the options anchor, bordermode, height, width, relheight, relwidth,relx,
rely, x and y.

Anchor
Indicates where the widget is anchored to. The options are compass directions: N, E, S, W, NE,
NW, SE, or SW, which relate to the sides and corners of the parent widget. The default is NW (the

https://riptutorial.com/ 24
upper left corner of widget)

Bordermode
Bordermode has two options: INSIDE, which indicates that other options refer to the parent's inside,
(Ignoring the parent's borders) and OUTSIDE, which is the opposite.

Height
Specify the height of a widget in pixels.

Width
Specify the width of a widget in pixels.

Relheight
Height as a float between 0.0 and 1.0, as a fraction of the height of the parent widget.

Relwidth
Width as a float between 0.0 and 1.0, as a fraction of the width of the parent widget.

Relx
Horizontal offset as a float between 0.0 and 1.0, as a fraction of the width of the parent widget.

Rely
Vertical offset as a float between 0.0 and 1.0, as a fraction of the height of the parent widget.

X
Horizontal offset in pixels.

Y
Vertical offset in pixels.

Example

from tkinter import *

root = Tk()
root.geometry("500x500")

btn_height = Button(root, text="50px high")

btn_height.place(height=50, x=200, y=200)

btn_width = Button(root, text="60px wide")

btn_width.place(width=60, x=300, y=300)

btn_relheight = Button(root, text="Relheight of 0.6")

btn_relheight.place(relheight=0.6)

btn_relwidth= Button(root, text="Relwidth of 0.2")

btn_relwidth.place(relwidth=0.2)

btn_relx=Button(root, text="Relx of 0.3")

btn_relx.place(relx=0.3)

btn_rely=Button(root, text="Rely of 0.7")

btn_rely.place(rely=0.7)

https://riptutorial.com/ 25
 btn_x=Button(root, text="X = 400px")
btn_x.place(x=400)

btn_y=Button(root, text="Y = 321")

btn_y.place(y=321)

root.mainloop()

Result

Read Tkinter Geometry Managers online: https://riptutorial.com/tkinter/topic/9620/tkinter-

geometry-managers

https://riptutorial.com/ 26
Chapter 10: Ttk widgets
Introduction
Examples of the different ttk widgets. Ttk has a total of 17 widgets, eleven of which already existed
in tkinter (tk).

Using ttk module gives your application a more modern and improved look.

Syntax
• tree=ttk.Treeview(master,**kwargs)

Parameters

Parameter Description

tkinter widgets exist in a hieararchy. Except for the root window, all widgets
master have a parent (also called "master"). When the widget is added to the screen
with pack, place or grid, it will appear inside this parent widget

Remarks
These examples assume that tkinter has been imported with either import tkinter as tk (python 3)
or import Tkinter as tk (python 2).

It is also assumed that ttk has been imported with either from tkinter import ttk (python 3) or
import ttk (python 2).

Examples
Treeview: Basic example

This widget is used to display items with hierarchy. For instance, windows explorer can be
reproduced in this way. Some nice tables can be also done using treeview widget.

Create the widget

tree=ttk.Treeview(master)

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Definition of the columns
You can define how many columns, their width and minimum width when the user tries to stretch
it. By defining stretch=tk.NO, the user cannot modify the width of the column.

tree["columns"]=("one","two","three")
tree.column("#0", width=270, minwidth=270, stretch=tk.NO)
tree.column("one", width=150, minwidth=150, stretch=tk.NO)
tree.column("two", width=400, minwidth=200)
tree.column("three", width=80, minwidth=50, stretch=tk.NO)

Definition of the headings

tree.heading("#0",text="Name",anchor=tk.W)
tree.heading("one", text="Date modified",anchor=tk.W)
tree.heading("two", text="Type",anchor=tk.W)
tree.heading("three", text="Size",anchor=tk.W)

Insert some rows

# Level 1
folder1=tree.insert("", 1, "", text="Folder 1", values=("23-Jun-17 11:05","File folder",""))
tree.insert("", 2, "", text="text_file.txt", values=("23-Jun-17 11:25","TXT file","1 KB"))
# Level 2
tree.insert(folder1, "end", "", text="photo1.png", values=("23-Jun-17 11:28","PNG file","2.6
KB"))
tree.insert(folder1, "end", "", text="photo2.png", values=("23-Jun-17 11:29","PNG file","3.2
KB"))
tree.insert(folder1, "end", "", text="photo3.png", values=("23-Jun-17 11:30","PNG file","3.1
KB"))

Packing
tree.pack(side=tk.TOP,fill=tk.X)

On Windows, the following screenshot can be obtained from this example.

https://riptutorial.com/ 28
Progressbar

The widget ttk.progress is useful when dealing with long computations so that the user knows that
the program is running. Following, an example updating a progressbar each 0.5 seconds is given:

Function updating the progressbar

def progress(currentValue):
progressbar["value"]=currentValue

Set the maximum value

maxValue=100

Create the progress bar

progressbar=ttk.Progressbar(master,orient="horizontal",length=300,mode="determinate")
progressbar.pack(side=tk.TOP)

"determinate" mode is used when the progressbar is under control of the program.

Initial and maximum values

currentValue=0
progressbar["value"]=currentValue
progressbar["maximum"]=maxValue

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Emulate progress each 0.5 s
divisions=10
for i in range(divisions):
currentValue=currentValue+10
progressbar.after(500, progress(currentValue))
progressbar.update() # Force an update of the GUI

Read Ttk widgets online: https://riptutorial.com/tkinter/topic/10622/ttk-widgets

https://riptutorial.com/ 30
Credits
S.
Chapters Contributors
No

Billal BEGUERADJ, Bryan Oakley, Community, J.J. Hakala,

Getting started with
1 j_4321, JGreenwell, Mike - SMT, Neil A., Nico Brubaker, Razik,
tkinter
ryneke, Tadhg McDonald-Jensen, tao, Yamboy1

Adding Images To
2 Angrywasabi
Label/Button

3 Customize ttk styles David Duran

4 Delaying a function David Duran, Neil A., Tadhg McDonald-Jensen

Multiple windows
5 Tadhg McDonald-Jensen
(TopLevel widgets)

6 Scrolling widgets j_4321

The Tkinter Entry

7 Angrywasabi, Bryan Oakley, double_j, j_4321
Widget

The Tkinter
8 j_4321, nbro, Parviz Karimli
Radiobutton widget

Tkinter Geometry
9 Henry
Managers

10 Ttk widgets David Duran

https://riptutorial.com/ 31