Set tkinter icon on Mac OS
Asked Answered
F

7

9

I am trying to change the icon that appears on my tk application for Mac OS. The last time I checked this code worked for windows. The goal is for this solution to work across all platforms.

root = tk.Tk()
app = Application(master=root)

app.master.iconbitmap("my_icon.ico")

app.mainloop()

The code is adding the default icon for a .pdf file which is not what I intended. The path to the my_icon.ico is correct. Why won't this work for Mac OS? Is there an ultimate solution that will work cross-platform?

Fania answered 16/10, 2018 at 1:23 Comment(0)
A
7

According to the tk tcl documentation you may want to try wm iconphoto. It appears it may support OSX and it also mentions to set the file to around a 512x512 for smooth rendering in MAC.

I do not have MAC so I cannot test this but give this a shot and let me know if it helped.

Update:

As @l'L'l pointed out you may want to try root.iconphoto(True, img). I am unable to test it myself due to not having Mac.

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()
img = tk.Image("photo", file="icon.gif")
# root.iconphoto(True, img) # you may also want to try this.
root.tk.call('wm','iconphoto', root._w, img)

root.mainloop()

Here is the relevant text from the documentation here:

wm iconphoto window ?-default? image1 ?image2 ...? Sets the titlebar icon for window based on the named photo images. If -default is specified, this is applied to all future created toplevels as well. The data in the images is taken as a snapshot at the time of invocation. If the images are later changed, this is not reflected to the titlebar icons. Multiple images are accepted to allow different images sizes (e.g., 16x16 and 32x32) to be provided. The window manager may scale provided icons to an appropriate size. On Windows, the images are packed into a Windows icon structure. This will override an ico specified to wm iconbitmap, and vice versa.

On X, the images are arranged into the _NET_WM_ICON X property, which most modern window managers support. A wm iconbitmap may exist simultaneously. It is recommended to use not more than 2 icons, placing the larger icon first.

On Macintosh, the first image called is loaded into an OSX-native icon format, and becomes the application icon in dialogs, the Dock, and other contexts. At the script level the command will accept only the first image passed in the parameters as support for multiple sizes/resolutions on macOS is outside Tk's scope. Developers should use the largest icon they can support (preferably 512 pixels) to ensure smooth rendering on the Mac.

I did test this on windows to make sure it at least works there. I used a blue square image to test.

If the above documentations is accurate it should also work on MAC.

enter image description here

Alabama answered 22/10, 2018 at 13:40 Comment(9)
_tkinter.TclError: couldn't recognize data in image file "icon.ico" I think the issue lies with with the file type .ico and not the method for adding the file to tkinter.Fania
@Fania I am not using an .ico file. ico is only for windows. Linux has its own file type as well. Try a gif file and see how that goes.Alabama
Is there a file type that would work cross platform? I would like to avoid doing something like if platform == windows: .ico if platform == mac: .gif ....Fania
@Fania For this kind of method you are not actually using an ICON file. That is why gif works here. So gif would or should work on all systems.Alabama
Actually this (ancient) technique doesn't seem to work for macOS (which uses X11 as it's window manager). It's simple enough to change the title attribute on such windows, however, on Mac the window always uses the default X11 icon regardless of having tkinter point to an icon. As a side note, instead of calling tk for the icon you should just do root.iconphoto(True, img)...Timberland
@l'L'l So for x11 is it just not possible (pre-exe) to change the tkinter icon?Alabama
@Mike-SMT So the method you described worked to a certain degree. The icon showed up on the dock and looked fine. However, there was no icon that showed up in the window near the title. I will try @l'L'l suggestion tonight. Is there a certain extension for an x11 icon, or just icon.x11?Fania
@Fania I am not sure you can get the Icon to work near the title. I think l'L'l was saying you cannot make macOS do this but the part that shows up on the dock can be managed with this method.Alabama
Yes this is correct; I believe the only way to get a custom icon in the window itself would be to put the script within an .app bundle, which somewhat defeats the purpose of using a single file.Timberland
B
3

If you are using Mac OS you have to use a .icns image instead a .ico image.

you can use:

from tkinter import Tk
from platform import system

platformD = system()
if platformD == 'Darwin':

    logo_image = 'images/logo.icns'

elif platformD == 'Windows':

    logo_image = 'images/logo.ico'

else:

    logo_image = 'images/logo.xbm'

root = Tk()
root.title("My App")
root.iconbitmap(logo_image)
root.resizable(0, 0)
root.mainloop()

Bisexual answered 6/3, 2019 at 18:9 Comment(0)
E
2

I found a solution that worked for me, changing the application icon rather than the window icon using the pyobjc module.

import tkinter as tk
import sys

root = tk.Tk()

if sys.platform.startswith('darwin'):
    try:
        from Cocoa import NSApplication, NSImage
    except ImportError:
        print('Unable to import pyobjc modules')
    else:
        ns_application = NSApplication.sharedApplication()
        logo_ns_image = NSImage.alloc().initByReferencingFile_('/path/to/icon.icns')
        ns_application.setApplicationIconImage_(logo_ns_image)
else:
    pass # handle other platforms

root.mainloop()
Erlineerlinna answered 22/2, 2022 at 19:30 Comment(1)
Also works for other GUI's besides tkinter. Like pywebview.Supervision
O
1

Important Note: This method is long and a lot of work for the task at hand. However, it does come with some unrelated benefits. Note that there might be a better way, but this will work.
Anyway, moving on....

You can use py2app.

Py2app will turn your program into a .app, meaning it runs as an application (because it is). When using tkinter this is usually what you want in the end because GUIs are usually turned into apps for ease of use. You can read the py2app documentation here, or read a non-official but easier to understand (in my opinion) tutorial here. I will also sum up how to do the process.

First install py2app: Enter this into the command prompt:

sudo pip install -U py2app

If successful, you should get py2app. If not, one problem might be you don’t have pip. You can download it with another command:

sudo easy_install pip

Step one: Create a file called setup.py in the same dictionary as the program.

Step two: Put this into the file.

from setuptools import setup

#APP would be the name of the file your code is in.
APP = ['example.py']
DATA_FILES = []
#The Magic is in OPTIONS.
OPTIONS = {
    'argv_emulation': False,
    'iconfile': 'app.icns', #change app.icns to the image file name!!!
    }

setup(
    app=APP,
    name='Your app’s name', #change to anything
    data_files=DATA_FILES,
    options={'py2app': OPTIONS},
    setup_requires=['py2app'],
)

Step 3: Then open the bash terminal in the dictionary the file is in and type this command:

python setup.py py2app -A

The -A makes the app respond to updates in the code, but makes the app unsharable. When you are done developing, rerun the command, this time without the -A, like so:

python setup.py py2app

Note: You may need to use the command python3 setup.py py2... instead of python setup.py py2... for a python 3 py2app.

Step 4: Navigate to the dictionary your code is in/dist. In that folder will be your app. (The dist folder should have been created in step three when you ran the command)

For windows users: py2app is not what should be used, instead use py2exe.

Omen answered 16/10, 2018 at 20:51 Comment(6)
I don't see how this would solve the original problem of the icon not appearing.Fania
This will create its own icon, removing the tkinter default. I forgot to specify how to change the py2app default image, editing that now...Omen
Please see edited answer. Sorry I forgot to include image changing. ;) The change is in Step 2, that part with 'iconfile': 'app.icns'Omen
This is a solution for a stand alone app. The OP just wants to change the ICON on the top left of the window during execution of code from IDE.Alabama
@Mike - SMT True, but a stand alone app, which most tkinter programs turn into anyway, has its own logo. This will create a stand alone app, but it also will solve his problem, which was to set the icon. It may not be the best answer with its side effects, but the side effects are probably helpful anyway. And the answer works just the same.Omen
Well after some digging I may have found something that will work without converting to EXE. Sadly I do not have the ability to test on Mac first.Alabama
C
1

None of the answers above worked for me for

  • macOS Ventura
  • Python 3.11.4

The only way that works for me was given by ChatGPT 4

import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import PhotoImage


# Create the main window
root = tk.Tk()

# Set the window title
root.title("My Application")

# Load the image: png/gif tested
icon = PhotoImage(file='path/to/icon.png')

# Set the window icon
root.iconphoto(True, icon)

# Run the application
root.mainloop()
Claudineclaudio answered 5/12, 2023 at 8:12 Comment(0)
A
1

In case this is relevant to anyone browsing for the solution: Currently running Sonoma 14.4.1 and Python 3.11.7

For some reason, when using the following chunk of code, the image that is being displayed in the pop-up window is the default icon image for Preview app.

from tkinter import *

root = Tk()
root.title('Images')

root.iconbitmap('path/to/icon.png')

root.mainloop()

To fix the issue, I went to the location of the image, copied the image, right-click to get info, and paste into the image icon to the left of the name, like in the screenshot. Surprisingly and very annoyingly that fixed the issue. Check for help

Appellee answered 10/5, 2024 at 22:47 Comment(1)
Thanks! It's the only thing that fixed it for me. In order to also show it in the apps dock I had to use this: icon = tk.PhotoImage(file=PNG_FULL_PATH) window.iconphoto(True, icon) window.iconbitmap(PNG_FULL_PATH)Remnant
P
0

tkinter.iconbitmap creates a proxy icon on mac which is a shortcut to that file. If you right click a file and select get info, the window that popes up has an icon. It is the icon of the file. You can drag the icon, and that will move the file. That is a proxy icon. If you set the iconbitmap, with an .app file the proxy icon will be that app. Since files dragged from the applications folder create shortcuts, if the .app you set iconbitmap to be, it will make a short cut if you drag the icon of the title bar. This is helpful because you don't want the user to be able to just drag your icon file out of it's directory, so it doesn't work next time your tkinter program loads that .app file.enter image description here Before you convert your tkinter program to an app add root.iconbitmap("/Applications/<appname>.app"). Then move your app to the applications folder. When you open your app your tkinter window will have the icon of your app.If you drag the icon into a different folder it will create a short cut to your app.

Phenocryst answered 31/12, 2022 at 16:3 Comment(0)

© 2022 - 2025 — McMap. All rights reserved.