How to Create Desktop Application Using Python

To make any project user-friendly you must have an Application whether it is a Web app or a PC App. In this tutorial, we will learn how to create desktop application using python.

Can python be used for desktop applications? Yes, there are various libraries in Python, but Tkinter is one of the simplest. So, we will be using this library to develop a simple desktop application in python.

Before we start building a desktop application I am assuming you have some basic knowledge of Python. Because in this tutorial I am not going to cover the basics of Python.

Why Tkinter?

In this tutorial, I am going to use Tkinter library to create a desktop application using Python. But Tkinter is not the only library. Other GUI frameworks are available in Python to create applications like:

• Kivy
• PyGUI
• PyQT
• PySimpleGUI
• etc.

Tkinter is my preferred framework because it is simple and lightweight. It is a simple framework that is best suited for beginners. However, if you want to explore more, you can learn about other frameworks.

A Simple Desktop Application in Python

Okay now, let’s try to develop a simple desktop application using the Tkinter library of Python.

What do we want to achieve with this PC App?

Before starting coding let’s understand what we want to achieve from this windows App. I mean what kind of functionality our App should handle?

• I want the Application to handle two buttons
• If we click a button it should show which button we clicked in text format

Why Buttons?

I believe, to learn any framework to build an application (whether it is a web app or desktop app), if you know how to handle button activity, you almost learned 90% basics of that framework.

With that being said let’s now make a simple Windows software using Python. Let me break the entire code into some steps to explain better.

Step1: Import Library

In order to use a library in Python, we must import it into our code. So, let’s import Tkinter as tk. Why do we import tkinter as tk? It is for your convenience so that we can use tk instead of Tkinter whenever it is required.

import tkinter as tk

Step2: Create Software Window

Next, we need to create a window for our App. This can be done by using the Tk() method of Tkinter object. Let’s do that.

# Create window Tkinter
window = tk.Tk()

Step3: Naming title to the window

We now have a window for our desktop app. Let’s give this window a name. We can accomplish this by using the title() method of Tkinter. I am giving the title of my demo application as “Simple Windows App”.

window.title(" Simple Windows App ")

Step4: Define Window size in Tkinter

Let’s now define the geometry of our application window. This is the screen size of our app window. We can define our app window size using geometry() method of Tkinter.

Now there are four ways to define screen window size in Tkinter.

Method 1: Default Window size

If you are going with the default configuration, you no need to specify geometry. In that case, when you run the application, you’ll notice that the Tkinter window appears in the top-left position of the screen and its size is small.

Method 2: Fixed Window Size

In this configuration, you can define a fixed size of your app window. To do this you just need to pass desired pixel values into the geometry() function. In this case, I am using width as 700 and height as 500 pixels.

window.geometry("700x500")

Method 3: Full-Screen Window using attributes() function

This type of configuration will allow you to create a full-screen window in Tkinter for creating GUI applications in Python. To do that we need to use the attributes() method of Tkinter and set the parameter ‘-fullscreen’ and True for setting the size of our window to fullscreen and to False otherwise.

window.attributes('-fullscreen', True)

Output Screen

Disadvantage: It will show an output Tkinter WINDOW with no toolbar. Thus you can not select any other software. This disadvantage can be solved by the next method.

Method 4: Tkinter Window Screen above the Toolbar

By this technique, we can get a Tkinter output window with the toolbar above.

width = window.winfo_screenwidth()               
height = window.winfo_screenheight()               
window.geometry("%dx%d" % (width, height))

Output Window

Method 5: Maximized Window using state() function

By this method, you can maximize the window and make it fullscreen. To do that, we need to use state() function of Tkinter python and pass 'zoomed' parameter string into it.

window.state('zoomed')

Both method 4 and method 5 are almost same. In method 4 you can observe the window is not completely fullscreen, there is some gap. On the other hand, using state() method you will get a truly fullscreen window above the toolbar.

I hope at this point you are clear about which one to choose for your application. For this tutorial, I am going to use fixed window using geometry() the method. Okay, now let’s move on to the next step to build a desktop application in python.

Step5: Create a Label in Tkinter

As I said our application should display which button is clicked. To display text we need to add a label widget in our application. The below code is to do that.

# Create a label widget in Tkinter
label = tk.Label(window, text="Click the Button to update this Text",
font=('Calibri 15 bold'))
label.pack(pady=20)

Here in this code:

• paddy is nothing but padding. The number of pixels to pad (distance) widget, horizontally and vertically. Basically, this represents the position of label in our software window.

Now there are lots of other fonts available you can choose for text labels in Tkinter. To get the list of fonts in Tkinter run the below code.

# python font name list for Tkinter application
from tkinter import Tk, font
root = Tk()
font.families()

Sample output:

'System',
 '8514oem',
 'Fixedsys',
 'Terminal',
 'Modern',
 'Roman',
 'Script',
 'Courier',
 'MS Serif',
 'MS Sans Serif'

Step6: Create a function to update Lable text

In this step, we need to define two functions for two buttons. If we click the 1^st button it should display “You clicked first button” and same for the 2^nd button “You clicked second button“

# Function to update the label text for first button click in Tkinter
def on_click_btn1():
    label["text"] = "You clicked first button"
    
# Function to update the label text for second button click in Tkinter
def on_click_btn2():
    label["text"] = "You clicked second button"

Step6: Create Button Activity

In this step, we will add to buttons into our application window and define activity of each button.

# Create 1st button to update the label widget
btn1 = tk.Button(window, text="Button1", command=on_click_btn1)
btn1.pack(pady=20)

# Create 2nd button to update the label widget
btn2 = tk.Button(window, text="Button2", command=on_click_btn2)
btn2.pack(pady=40)

Here in this code, we are passing the corresponding onclick function (on_click_btn1, on_click_btn2) to each button as a command parameter.

Step7: Run mainloop()

At this point we are done with our application, we just need to run the mainloop() method to see the application live. It is the main program that will execute everything that we have written above. So let’s run it.

window.mainloop()

That’s it. You successfully created a Desktop Application Using Python which should be up and running in your windows system right now.

Note: In this tutorial, I covered the basics of desktop application development. If you’re serious about learning more, I recommend the Udemy course: GUI Development with Python and Tkinter.

Full Code

I spoke about lots of things to just make a simple desktop application in Python. Let me now consolidate everything and make a final code for you.

# ---------Full code to create a software application with python ---------------

# Import library
import tkinter as tk

# Create window Tkinter
window = tk.Tk()

# Name our Tkinter application title
window.title(" Simple Windows App ")

# Define window size in Tkinter python
window.geometry("700x500")

# Create a label widget in Tkinter
label = tk.Label(window, text="Click the Button to update this Text",
font=('Calibri 15 bold'))
label.pack(pady=20)

# Function to update the label text for first button click in Tkinter
def on_click_btn1():
    label["text"] = "You clicked first button"
    
# Function to update the label text for second button click in Tkinter
def on_click_btn2():
    label["text"] = "You clicked second button"
    
# Create 1st button to update the label widget
btn1 = tk.Button(window, text="Button1", command=on_click_btn1)
btn1.pack(pady=20)

# Create 2nd button to update the label widget
btn2 = tk.Button(window, text="Button2", command=on_click_btn2)
btn2.pack(pady=40)

# Run main loop
window.mainloop()

Take Away

Making desktop applications is simple, especially when you code in Python. Tkinter can also be used to create advanced pc apps that can be useful in real-world situations.

Some Simple Web App Python Projects You may also read:

• Build Sentiment Analysis Flask App
• Deploy Object detection model using Flask

In this tutorial, I covered the basics of desktop application development. If you’re serious about learning more, I recommend the Udemy course: GUI Development with Python and Tkinter.

I hope this article was helpful to learn how to create desktop applications using Python. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding this tutorial, let me know those in the comment section below.

Similar Read:

• Display Excel like Table using Tkinter – Python
• Make Desktop Notifier App using Python & Tkinter
• Build Digital & Analog Clock GUI with Python Tkinter
• How to make a Stopwatch GUI in Python Tkinter
• How to create a GUI calculator in Python using Tkinter

Anindya

Hi there, I’m Anindya Naskar, Data Science Engineer. I created this website to show you what I believe is the best possible way to get your start in the field of Data Science.