CustomTkinter

With CustomTkinter you can create modern looking user interfaces in python with tkinter. CustomTkinter is a tkinter extension which provides extra ui-elements like the CTkButton, which can be used like a normal tkinter.Button, but can be customized with a border and round edges.

CustomTkinter also supports a light and dark theme, which can either be set manually or get controlled by the system appearance mode.

Installation

To use CustomTkinter, just place the /customtkinter folder from this repository next to your program, or install the module with pip:

pip3 install customtkinter

Update existing installation: pip3 install customtkinter --upgrade
(from time to time bugs are getting fixed and new features are added)

PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/customtkinter/

Example program (simple button):

To test customtkinter you can try this simple example with only a single button:

import tkinter
import customtkinter  # <- import the CustomTkinter module

root_tk = tkinter.Tk()  # create the Tk window like you normally do
root_tk.geometry("400x240")
root_tk.title("CustomTkinter Test")

def button_function():
    print("button pressed")

# Use CTkButton instead of tkinter Button
button = customtkinter.CTkButton(master=root_tk, corner_radius=10, command=button_function)
button.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=tkinter.CENTER)

root_tk.mainloop()

which gives the following:

Use custom colors and shapes:

If you dont specify any colors, customtkinter uses the standard blue color in the light theme. You can change the color theme to dark by calling customtkinter.set_appearance_mode("Dark"). If you specify custom colors for CustomTkinter elements, the you can either use a tuple in the form: (light_color, dark_color). Or you can set a single color which will be used in light and dark theme.

customtkinter.set_appearance_mode("Dark") # Other: "Light", "System"

button = customtkinter.CTkButton(master=root_tk,
                                 fg_color=("black", "lightgray"),  # <- tuple color for light and dark theme
                                 text="CTkButton",
                                 command=button_event)
button.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=tkinter.CENTER)

How to use macOS dark mode?

If you have a python version with Tcl/Tk >= 8.6.9, then you can enable the macOS darkmode. Currently only the anaconda python versions have Tcl/Tk >= 8.6.9. So if you want a dark window titlebar, you have to install anaconda python version or miniconda.

import tkinter
import customtkinter

customtkinter.enable_macos_darkmode()
customtkinter.set_appearance_mode("System")

... the program ...

customtkinter.disable_macos_darkmode()

which gives the following with the above simple button program:

If you set the appearance mode to "System", it should change with the System mode:

Advanced example with multiple CTkFrames

Here I used the customtkinter.enable_macos_darkmode() command to enable the macOS darkmode, and used multpiple CTkFrames. It has some kind of a menu on the left side, and I used all CustomTkinter elements there are at the moment.Maybe this is a good reference if you want to create your own application with this library. (Code: /complex_example.py)

With macOS darkmode turned on, it looks like this:

Otherwise it looks like this:

But can also customize it by yourself. Here I changed the main colors and removed the round corners, and added a border to the buttons:

Customtkinter on Windows/Linux

All elements of Customtkinter are drawn on the tkinter.Canvas. But the Tkinter canvas supports antialiasing only on macOS, so on Windows and Linux the elements are rendered in a much worse quality. So you have to experiment with the corner_radius and look when the rounded corners look best. I tried to design the too complex example programs so that they also look acceptable on Windows. Maybe you can use the parameters for corner_radius and width for your program as well.

Example 1:examples/complex_example.py

Example 2: examples/complex_example_other_style.py

CTkButton with images

It's also possible to put an image on a CTkButton. You just have to pass a PhotoImage object to the CTkButton with the argument image. If you want no text at all you have to set text="" or with the compound option you can specify how to position both the text and image at once. You can find an example program ( /simple_test_images.py ), where I created two buttons with a bell and a settings image on them:

Documentation - CustomTkinter Elements

CTkButton

Examle Code:

def button_event():
    print("button pressed")

button = customtkinter.CTkButton(master=root_tk,
                                 text="CTkButton",
                                 command=button_event,
                                 width=120,
                                 height=32,
                                 border_width=0,
                                 corner_radius=8)
button.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=tkinter.CENTER)

Show all arguments:

argument	value
master	root, tkinter.Frame or CTkFrame
text	string
command	callback function
width	button width in px
height	button height in px
corner_radius	corner radius in px
border_width	button border width in px
fg_color	forground color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
bg_color	background color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
border_color	border color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
hover_color	hover color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
text_color	text color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
text_font	button text font, tuple: (font_name, size)
hover	enable/disable hover effect: True, False
image	put an image on the button, removes the text, must be class PhotoImage
compound	set image orientation if image and text are given ("top", "left", "bottom", "right")
state	tkinter.NORMAL (standard) or tkinter.DISABLED (not clickable, darker color)

CTkButton Methods:

CTkButton.set_text(new_text)
CTkButton.set_image(new_image)
CTkButton.configure(text=new_text)
CTkButton.configure(bg_color=new_bg_color,
                    fg_color=new_fg_color,
                    hover_color=new_hover_color,
                    text_color=new_text_color)
CTkButton.configure(state=tkinter.DISABLED)
CTkButton.configure(state=tkinter.NORMAL)
button_state = CTkButton.state

CTkLabel

Example Code:

label = customtkinter.CTkLabel(master=root_tk,
                               text="CTkLabel",
                               width=120,
                               height=25,
                               corner_radius=8)
label.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=tkinter.CENTER)

Show all arguments:

argument	value
master	root, tkinter.Frame or CTkFrame
text	string
width	label width in px
height	label height in px
corner_radius	corner radius in px
fg_color	forground color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
bg_color	background color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color, None for transparent bg
text_color	label text color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
text_font	label text font, tuple: (font_name, size)

CTkEntry

Example Code:

entry = customtkinter.CTkEntry(master=root_tk,
                               width=120,
                               height=25,
                               corner_radius=10)
entry.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=tkinter.CENTER)

text = entry.get()

Show all arguments:

argument	value
master	root, tkinter.Frame or CTkFrame
width	entry width in px
height	entry height in px
corner_radius	corner radius in px
fg_color	forground color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
bg_color	background color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
text_color	entry text color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
text_font	entry text font, tuple: (font_name, size)

CTkCheckBox

Examle Code:

checkbox = customtkinter.CTkCheckBox(master=root_tk,
                                     text="CTkCheckBox")
checkbox.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=tkinter.CENTER)

Show all arguments:

argument	value
master	root, tkinter.Frame or CTkFrame
text	string
width	box width in px
height	box height in px
corner_radius	corner radius in px
border_width	box border width in px
fg_color	forground (inside) color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
bg_color	background color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
border_color	border color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
hover_color	hover color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
text_color	text color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
text_font	button text font, tuple: (font_name, size)
hover	enable/disable hover effect: True, False
state	tkinter.NORMAL (standard) or tkinter.DISABLED (not clickable, darker color)

CTkCheckBox Methods:

CTkCheckBox.get()  # 1 or 0 (checked or not checked)
CTkCheckBox.select()  # turns on checkbox
CTkCheckBox.deselect()  # turns off checkbox
CTkCheckBox.toggle()  # change check state of checkbox
CTkCheckBox.configure(text=new_text)
CTkCheckBox.configure(bg_color=new_bg_color,
                      fg_color=new_fg_color,
                      hover_color=new_hover_color,
                      text_color=new_text_color)
CTkCheckBox.configure(state=tkinter.DISABLED)
CTkCheckBox.configure(state=tkinter.NORMAL)
checkbox_state = CTkCheckBox.state

CTkSlider

Example Code:

def slider_event(value):
    print(value)

slider = customtkinter.CTkSlider(master=root_tk,
                                 width=160,
                                 height=16,
                                 border_width=5.5,
                                 from_=0,
                                 to=100,
                                 command=slider_event)
slider.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=tkinter.CENTER)

Show all arguments:

argument	value
master	root, tkinter.Frame or CTkFrame
command	callback function, gest called when slider gets changed
width	slider width in px
height	slider height in px
from_	lower slider value
to	upper slider value
border_width	space around the slider rail in px
fg_color	forground color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
bg_color	background color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
border_color	slider border color, normally transparent (None)
button_color	color of the slider button, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
button_hover_color	hover color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color

CTkProgressBar

Example Code:

progressbar = customtkinter.CTkProgressBar(master=root_tk,
                                           width=160,
                                           height=20,
                                           border_width=5)
progressbar.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=tkinter.CENTER)

progressbar.set(value)

Show all arguments:

argument	value
master	root, tkinter.Frame or CTkFrame
width	slider width in px
height	slider height in px
border_width	border width in px
fg_color	forground color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
bg_color	background color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
border_color	slider border color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
progress_color	progress color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color

CTkFrame

Example Code:

frame = customtkinter.CTkFrame(master=root_tk,
                               width=200,
                               height=200,
                               corner_radius=10)
frame.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor=tkinter.CENTER)

Show all arguments:

argument	value
master	root, tkinter.Frame or CTkFrame
width	slider width in px
height	slider height in px
fg_color	forground color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color
bg_color	background color, tuple: (light_color, dark_color) or single color

Special commands

Change appearance mode:

customtkinter.set_appearance_mode("Light")
customtkinter.set_appearance_mode("Dark")
customtkinter.set_appearance_mode("System")

print(customtkinter.get_appearance_mode())

Use macOS darkmode window style:

customtkinter.enable_macos_darkmode()  # get darkmode window style
customtkinter.disable_macos_darkmode()  # disable darkmode (important!)

If you dont use root_tk.mainloop(), then you have to deactivate the threaded search for a change of the system appearance mode, and do it yourself in your main loop where you call root_tk.update().

customtkinter.deactivate_threading()  # call this at the beginning
customtkinter.update_appearance_mode()  # then call this in the loop