1. Tkinter widgets

Tkinter provides a collection of widgets that are used to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Widgets are the visible components of an application, such as buttons, labels, text boxes, menus, and list controls. Each widget is designed for a specific purpose and can be customised using configuration options such as colours, fonts, sizes, and event bindings.

Most widgets are created by passing a parent widget (typically a Tk window or Frame) followed by optional keyword arguments.

widget = tk.Widget(parent, option=value)

parent is the window or frame or container that will contain the widget.

Widget options are supplied as keyword arguments separated by commas.

e.g. button = tk.Button(root, text="OK")

Widgets are typically positioned within their parent using one of Tkinter's geometry managers:

• pack() - Arranges widgets one after another.

• grid() - Arranges widgets in rows and columns.

• place() - Positions widgets using absolute or relative coordinates.

Note

A widget should generally use only one geometry manager within the same parent container. Mixing pack() and grid() inside the same parent widget can produce unexpected results.

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1.1. Common Tkinter widgets

The following table lists the widgets available in the standard tkinter package.

Widget	Description
Button	A clickable button used to perform an action.
Canvas	A drawing surface for graphics, images, shapes and custom widgets.
Checkbutton	A check box that can be either selected or cleared.
Entry	A single-line text entry field.
Frame	A container used to group and organise other widgets.
Label	Displays text, images or other information.
LabelFrame	A frame with a title displayed along its border.
Listbox	Displays a list of selectable text items.
Menu	Creates application menus and context (popup) menus.
Menubutton	A button that displays an associated menu.
Message	Displays automatically wrapped multi-line text.
OptionMenu	Displays a drop-down list of choices.
PanedWindow	A container with resizable panes separated by draggable dividers.
Radiobutton	Allows one option to be selected from a group.
Scale	A slider used to select a numeric value.
Scrollbar	Provides horizontal or vertical scrolling for compatible widgets.
Spinbox	Allows selection of a value by typing or using increment/decrement arrows.
Text	A multi-line text editing widget with rich formatting support.
Toplevel	Creates an additional application window.

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1.2. Themed ttk widgets

The tkinter.ttk module provides themed versions of many standard Tkinter widgets. These widgets adopt the native appearance of the operating system and are generally recommended for modern applications.

Common ttk widgets include:

• Button

• Checkbutton

• Combobox

• Entry

• Frame

• Label

• LabelFrame

• Menubutton

• Notebook

• PanedWindow

• Progressbar

• Radiobutton

• Scale

• Scrollbar

• Separator

• Sizegrip

• Spinbox

• Treeview

Note

Some widgets, such as Canvas, Text, Listbox and Menu, do not have themed ttk equivalents and continue to use their standard tkinter implementations.

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1.3. Choosing the right widget

Task	Recommended widget
Display text	Label
Display long text	Message
Single-line input	Entry
Multi-line input	Text
Choose one option	Radiobutton
Choose many options	Checkbutton
Choose from a list	Listbox or Combobox
Numeric input	Spinbox or Scale
Perform an action	Button
Group widgets	Frame or LabelFrame
Display graphics	Canvas
Show hierarchical data	Treeview