tkinter
— Python interface to Tcl/Tk¶
Source code: Lib/tkinter/__init__.py
The tkinter
package (“Tk interface”) is the standard Python interface to
the Tcl/Tk GUI toolkit. Both Tk and tkinter
are available on most Unix
platforms, including macOS, as well as on Windows systems.
Running python -m tkinter
from the command line should open a window
demonstrating a simple Tk interface, letting you know that tkinter
is
properly installed on your system, and also showing what version of Tcl/Tk is
installed, so you can read the Tcl/Tk documentation specific to that version.
Tkinter supports a range of Tcl/Tk versions, built either with or
without thread support. The official Python binary release bundles Tcl/Tk 8.6
threaded. See the source code for the _tkinter
module
for more information about supported versions.
Tkinter is not a thin wrapper, but adds a fair amount of its own logic to make the experience more pythonic. This documentation will concentrate on these additions and changes, and refer to the official Tcl/Tk documentation for details that are unchanged.
Note
Tcl/Tk 8.5 (2007) introduced a modern set of themed user interface components along with a new API to use them. Both old and new APIs are still available. Most documentation you will find online still uses the old API and can be woefully outdated.
See also
- TkDocs
Extensive tutorial on creating user interfaces with Tkinter. Explains key concepts, and illustrates recommended approaches using the modern API.
- Tkinter 8.5 reference: a GUI for Python
Reference documentation for Tkinter 8.5 detailing available classes, methods, and options.
Tcl/Tk Resources:
- Tk commands
Comprehensive reference to each of the underlying Tcl/Tk commands used by Tkinter.
- Tcl/Tk Home Page
Additional documentation, and links to Tcl/Tk core development.
Books:
- Modern Tkinter for Busy Python Developers
By Mark Roseman. (ISBN 978-1999149567)
- Python and Tkinter Programming
By Alan Moore. (ISBN 978-1788835886)
- Programming Python
By Mark Lutz; has excellent coverage of Tkinter. (ISBN 978-0596158101)
- Tcl and the Tk Toolkit (2nd edition)
By John Ousterhout, inventor of Tcl/Tk, and Ken Jones; does not cover Tkinter. (ISBN 978-0321336330)
Architecture¶
Tcl/Tk is not a single library but rather consists of a few distinct modules, each with separate functionality and its own official documentation. Python’s binary releases also ship an add-on module together with it.
- Tcl
Tcl is a dynamic interpreted programming language, just like Python. Though it can be used on its own as a general-purpose programming language, it is most commonly embedded into C applications as a scripting engine or an interface to the Tk toolkit. The Tcl library has a C interface to create and manage one or more instances of a Tcl interpreter, run Tcl commands and scripts in those instances, and add custom commands implemented in either Tcl or C. Each interpreter has an event queue, and there are facilities to send events to it and process them. Unlike Python, Tcl’s execution model is designed around cooperative multitasking, and Tkinter bridges this difference (see Threading model for details).
- Tk
Tk is a Tcl package implemented in C that adds custom commands to create and manipulate GUI widgets. Each
Tk
object embeds its own Tcl interpreter instance with Tk loaded into it. Tk’s widgets are very customizable, though at the cost of a dated appearance. Tk uses Tcl’s event queue to generate and process GUI events.- Ttk
Themed Tk (Ttk) is a newer family of Tk widgets that provide a much better appearance on different platforms than many of the classic Tk widgets. Ttk is distributed as part of Tk, starting with Tk version 8.5. Python bindings are provided in a separate module,
tkinter.ttk
.
Internally, Tk and Ttk use facilities of the underlying operating system, i.e., Xlib on Unix/X11, Cocoa on macOS, GDI on Windows.
When your Python application uses a class in Tkinter, e.g., to create a widget,
the tkinter
module first assembles a Tcl/Tk command string. It passes that
Tcl command string to an internal _tkinter
binary module, which then
calls the Tcl interpreter to evaluate it. The Tcl interpreter will then call into the
Tk and/or Ttk packages, which will in turn make calls to Xlib, Cocoa, or GDI.
Tkinter Modules¶
Support for Tkinter is spread across several modules. Most applications will need the
main tkinter
module, as well as the tkinter.ttk
module, which provides
the modern themed widget set and API:
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import ttk
-
class
tkinter.
Tk
(screenName=None, baseName=None, className='Tk', useTk=True, sync=False, use=None)¶ Construct a toplevel Tk widget, which is usually the main window of an application, and initialize a Tcl interpreter for this widget. Each instance has its own associated Tcl interpreter.
The
Tk
class is typically instantiated using all default values. However, the following keyword arguments are currently recognized:- screenName
When given (as a string), sets the
DISPLAY
environment variable. (X11 only)- baseName
Name of the profile file. By default, baseName is derived from the program name (
sys.argv[0]
).- className
Name of the widget class. Used as a profile file and also as the name with which Tcl is invoked (argv0 in interp).
- useTk
If
True
, initialize the Tk subsystem. Thetkinter.Tcl()
function sets this toFalse
.- sync
If
True
, execute all X server commands synchronously, so that errors are reported immediately. Can be used for debugging. (X11 only)- use
Specifies the id of the window in which to embed the application, instead of it being created as an independent toplevel window. id must be specified in the same way as the value for the -use option for toplevel widgets (that is, it has a form like that returned by
winfo_id()
).Note that on some platforms this will only work correctly if id refers to a Tk frame or toplevel that has its -container option enabled.
Tk
reads and interprets profile files, named.className.tcl
and.baseName.tcl
, into the Tcl interpreter and callsexec()
on the contents of.className.py
and.baseName.py
. The path for the profile files is theHOME
environment variable or, if that isn’t defined, thenos.curdir
.-
tk
¶ The Tk application object created by instantiating
Tk
. This provides access to the Tcl interpreter. Each widget that is attached the same instance ofTk
has the same value for itstk
attribute.
-
master
¶ The widget object that contains this widget. For
Tk
, the master isNone
because it is the main window. The terms master and parent are similar and sometimes used interchangeably as argument names; however, callingwinfo_parent()
returns a string of the widget name whereasmaster
returns the object. parent/child reflects the tree-like relationship while master/slave reflects the container structure.
-
tkinter.
Tcl
(screenName=None, baseName=None, className='Tk', useTk=False)¶ The
Tcl()
function is a factory function which creates an object much like that created by theTk
class, except that it does not initialize the Tk subsystem. This is most often useful when driving the Tcl interpreter in an environment where one doesn’t want to create extraneous toplevel windows, or where one cannot (such as Unix/Linux systems without an X server). An object created by theTcl()
object can have a Toplevel window created (and the Tk subsystem initialized) by calling itsloadtk()
method.
The modules that provide Tk support include:
tkinter
Main Tkinter module.
tkinter.colorchooser
Dialog to let the user choose a color.
tkinter.commondialog
Base class for the dialogs defined in the other modules listed here.
tkinter.filedialog
Common dialogs to allow the user to specify a file to open or save.
tkinter.font
Utilities to help work with fonts.
tkinter.messagebox
Access to standard Tk dialog boxes.
tkinter.scrolledtext
Text widget with a vertical scroll bar built in.
tkinter.simpledialog
Basic dialogs and convenience functions.
tkinter.ttk
Themed widget set introduced in Tk 8.5, providing modern alternatives for many of the classic widgets in the main
tkinter
module.
Additional modules:
_tkinter
A binary module that contains the low-level interface to Tcl/Tk. It is automatically imported by the main
tkinter
module, and should never be used directly by application programmers. It is usually a shared library (or DLL), but might in some cases be statically linked with the Python interpreter.idlelib
Python’s Integrated Development and Learning Environment (IDLE). Based on
tkinter
.tkinter.constants
Symbolic constants that can be used in place of strings when passing various parameters to Tkinter calls. Automatically imported by the main
tkinter
module.tkinter.dnd
(experimental) Drag-and-drop support for
tkinter
. This will become deprecated when it is replaced with the Tk DND.tkinter.tix
(deprecated) An older third-party Tcl/Tk package that adds several new widgets. Better alternatives for most can be found in
tkinter.ttk
.turtle
Turtle graphics in a Tk window.
Tkinter Life Preserver¶
This section is not designed to be an exhaustive tutorial on either Tk or Tkinter. For that, refer to one of the external resources noted earlier. Instead, this section provides a very quick orientation to what a Tkinter application looks like, identifies foundational Tk concepts, and explains how the Tkinter wrapper is structured.
The remainder of this section will help you to identify the classes, methods, and options you’ll need in your Tkinter application, and where to find more detailed documentation on them, including in the official Tcl/Tk reference manual.
A Hello World Program¶
We’ll start by walking through a “Hello World” application in Tkinter. This isn’t the smallest one we could write, but has enough to illustrate some key concepts you’ll need to know.
from tkinter import *
from tkinter import ttk
root = Tk()
frm = ttk.Frame(root, padding=10)
frm.grid()
ttk.Label(frm, text="Hello World!").grid(column=0, row=0)
ttk.Button(frm, text="Quit", command=root.destroy).grid(column=1, row=0)
root.mainloop()
After the imports, the next line creates an instance of the Tk
class,
which initializes Tk and creates its associated Tcl interpreter. It also
creates a toplevel window, known as the root window, which serves as the main
window of the application.
The following line creates a frame widget, which in this case will contain a label and a button we’ll create next. The frame is fit inside the root window.
The next line creates a label widget holding a static text string. The
grid()
method is used to specify the relative layout (position) of the
label within its containing frame widget, similar to how tables in HTML work.
A button widget is then created, and placed to the right of the label. When
pressed, it will call the destroy()
method of the root window.
Finally, the mainloop()
method puts everything on the display, and
responds to user input until the program terminates.
Important Tk Concepts¶
Even this simple program illustrates the following key Tk concepts:
- widgets
A Tkinter user interface is made up of individual widgets. Each widget is represented as a Python object, instantiated from classes like
ttk.Frame
,ttk.Label
, andttk.Button
.- widget hierarchy
Widgets are arranged in a hierarchy. The label and button were contained within a frame, which in turn was contained within the root window. When creating each child widget, its parent widget is passed as the first argument to the widget constructor.
- configuration options
Widgets have configuration options, which modify their appearance and behavior, such as the text to display in a label or button. Different classes of widgets will have different sets of options.
- geometry management
Widgets aren’t automatically added to the user interface when they are created. A geometry manager like
grid
controls where in the user interface they are placed.- event loop
Tkinter reacts to user input, changes from your program, and even refreshes the display only when actively running an event loop. If your program isn’t running the event loop, your user interface won’t update.
Understanding How Tkinter Wraps Tcl/Tk¶
When your application uses Tkinter’s classes and methods, internally Tkinter
is assembling strings representing Tcl/Tk commands, and executing those
commands in the Tcl interpreter attached to your applicaton’s Tk
instance.
Whether it’s trying to navigate reference documentation, trying to find the right method or option, adapting some existing code, or debugging your Tkinter application, there are times that it will be useful to understand what those underlying Tcl/Tk commands look like.
To illustrate, here is the Tcl/Tk equivalent of the main part of the Tkinter script above.
ttk::frame .frm -padding 10
grid .frm
grid [ttk::label .frm.lbl -text "Hello World!"] -column 0 -row 0
grid [ttk::button .frm.btn -text "Quit" -command "destroy ."] -column 1 -row 0
Tcl’s syntax is similar to many shell languages, where the first word is the command to be executed, with arguments to that command following it, separated by spaces. Without getting into too many details, notice the following:
The commands used to create widgets (like
ttk::frame
) correspond to widget classes in Tkinter.Tcl widget options (like
-text
) correspond to keyword arguments in Tkinter.Widgets are referred to by a pathname in Tcl (like
.frm.btn
), whereas Tkinter doesn’t use names but object references.A widget’s place in the widget hierarchy is encoded in its (hierarchical) pathname, which uses a
.
(dot) as a path separator. The pathname for the root window is just.
(dot). In Tkinter, the hierarchy is defined not by pathname but by specifying the parent widget when creating each child widget.Operations which are implemented as separate commands in Tcl (like
grid
ordestroy
) are represented as methods on Tkinter widget objects. As you’ll see shortly, at other times Tcl uses what appear to be method calls on widget objects, which more closely mirror what would is used in Tkinter.
How do I…? What option does…?¶
If you’re not sure how to do something in Tkinter, and you can’t immediately find it in the tutorial or reference documentation you’re using, there are a few strategies that can be helpful.
First, remember that the details of how individual widgets work may vary across different versions of both Tkinter and Tcl/Tk. If you’re searching documentation, make sure it corresponds to the Python and Tcl/Tk versions installed on your system.
When searching for how to use an API, it helps to know the exact name of the
class, option, or method that you’re using. Introspection, either in an
interactive Python shell or with print()
, can help you identify what
you need.
To find out what configuration options are available on any widget, call its
configure()
method, which returns a dictionary containing a variety of
information about each object, including its default and current values. Use
keys()
to get just the names of each option.
btn = ttk.Button(frm, ...)
print(btn.configure().keys())
As most widgets have many configuration options in common, it can be useful to find out which are specific to a particular widget class. Comparing the list of options to that of a simpler widget, like a frame, is one way to do that.
print(set(btn.configure().keys()) - set(frm.configure().keys()))
Similarly, you can find the available methods for a widget object using the
standard dir()
function. If you try it, you’ll see there are over 200
common widget methods, so again identifying those specific to a widget class
is helpful.
print(dir(btn))
print(set(dir(btn)) - set(dir(frm)))