Python - How to show a transparent image in a window?

Question

I'm trying to display an image that already has a transparent background into a window. Currently I'm using OpenCV cv2.imshow which doesn't show the alpha channel and that results in the pixels being black. Are there any other library or different kinds of approach that shows an image with a transparent background in a window with the background desktop screen showing?

Original Image:

Current result:

Desired result:

cv2.imshow ignores transparency. You can use matplotlib's imshow. https://matplotlib.org/stable/api/_as_gen/matplotlib.pyplot.imshow.html — Farhood ET, Apr 10 '21 at 12:38
@FarhoodET Matplotlib's imshow could be used if we want to make the image transparent by having a four channel image or by using the `alpha` argument. But I don't think that we could make the window or the canvas transparent. — Kishore Sampath, Apr 10 '21 at 12:56
Try Python Wand, which uses Imagemagick. Imagemagick can display transparent images. — fmw42, Apr 20 '23 at 15:51

Kishore Sampath · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-10T13:08:01.593

2

You can use the python standard library Tkinter to show an image in a transparent window.

Code Snippet:

from tkinter import Tk, Canvas, PhotoImage, NW

root = Tk()

root.attributes('-transparentcolor','#f0f0f0')

# Canvas
canvas = Canvas(root, width=450, height=600)
canvas.pack()

# Image
img = PhotoImage(file="./images/panda.png")

# Positioning the Image inside the canvas
canvas.create_image(0, 0, anchor=NW, image=img)

# Starts the GUI
root.mainloop()

edited Apr 10 '21 at 13:08

answered Apr 10 '21 at 12:47

Kishore Sampath

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Unfortunately this makes the whole window transparent including my panda friend, I would like to display the original png as shown in the 'desired result' image. – Vamsi Apr 10 '21 at 12:56
2

@Vamsi Well, try adding `root.attributes('-transparentcolor','#f0f0f0')`. – Delrius Euphoria Apr 10 '21 at 13:03
@CoolCloud Thanks, that seems to work, I'll edit the answer. – Kishore Sampath Apr 10 '21 at 13:07
1

@CoolCloud Thank you, works like a charm. I just want to ask if there's any other library that's able to do this other than tkinter? – Vamsi Apr 10 '21 at 13:10
@Vamsi I am not sure about other libraries. – Delrius Euphoria Apr 10 '21 at 13:29

Flinck Clissan · Answer 2 · 2023-04-23T14:23:12.670

Seems it works with qt on linux source
It's looks like u don't really need Qt.WA_NoSystemBackground
Use Qt.FramelessWindowHint to make frames disappear.

import sys

from PyQt5.QtCore import Qt
from PyQt5.QtGui import QPixmap
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QMainWindow, QApplication, QLabel

app = QApplication(sys.argv)

window = QMainWindow()

window.setAttribute(Qt.WA_TranslucentBackground, True)
# window.setAttribute(Qt.WA_NoSystemBackground, True)
# window.setWindowFlags(Qt.FramelessWindowHint)

label = QLabel(window)
pixmap = QPixmap('po.png')
label.setPixmap(pixmap)
label.setGeometry(10, 10, pixmap.width(), pixmap.height())

window.label = label

window.resize(pixmap.width(),pixmap.height())

window.show()
sys.exit(app.exec_())

Amazing! Thanks for the answer. None other than this solution was working on linux. — Tushar, May 06 '23 at 12:33

Python - How to show a transparent image in a window?

2 Answers2