Can you make a functional invisible button in tkinter?

Question

Can I make a button that is functional yet isn't visible? I've looked into a bunch of Tkinter threads, but when I tested the codes, they all led to the button completely disappearing and being disabled. Here is what I've got so far:

import tkinter as tk
import time

app=tk.Tk()
app.minsize(500, 500)

#button function
def move():
    button.config(state='disabled')
    for i in range(50):
        frame.place(x=250+i)
        frame.update()
        time.sleep(0.01)
    frame.place(x=250, y=250)
    button.config(state='normal')


block=tk.Frame(app, height=50, width=50, bg='red')
frame=tk.Frame(app, height=400, width=400, bg='blue')

#button I wish to be invisible
button=tk.Button(app, text='clickme', command=move)

button.place(x=40, y=40)
frame.place(x=250, y=250, anchor='center')
block.place(x=50, y=50)



app.mainloop()

Why not make a frame that doesn't have a border? Then you can use `.bind("", frame_clicked)` — TheLizzard, Jun 17 '21 at 22:58
it would be great if You would show how You expect it to look and maybe some [mre] where YOu could show in code where You expect the button to be or sth like that — Matiiss, Jun 18 '21 at 10:07
@Matiiss Just made a quick window that shows a simplified way of how my program works — nickberredo, Jun 18 '21 at 13:10

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 17 '21 at 23:01

1

No, you cannot make an invisible button in tkinter. It must be on the screen for the user to be able to click it.

You can, however, react to clicks anywhere in the window without the need to create a button.

answered Jun 17 '21 at 23:01

Bryan Oakley

370,779
53
539
685

A reference on how to do just that would be great. – Amin Husni Dec 20 '22 at 19:21

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 18 '21 at 04:07

0

You can set buttons bg and fg same as the frame/root color and set borderwidth=0. This will create a invisible button. For example refer this

from tkinter import *
root = Tk()

masterFrame = Frame(root, bg='orange', height=300, width=600)
masterFrame.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky='nsew')
Button(masterFrame, text="Invisible button", bg='orange', fg='orange', borderwidth=0).pack()
root.mainloop()

answered Jun 18 '21 at 04:07

Abhishek Aggarwal

190
9

or just don't add text and then You also don't need to change fg – Matiiss Jun 18 '21 at 10:08
Yes, you can remove text also. – Abhishek Aggarwal Jun 19 '21 at 05:28

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jun 18 '21 at 05:43

There's a little more to it than just seting the fg and bg, but yeah it can be done.

#! /usr/bin/env python3
from tkinter import *

color = 'SlateGray4'
width, height = 300, 150
desiredX, desiredY = width *0.5, height *0.75
root = Tk() ; root .title( 'Snozberries' )

root .geometry( f'{width}x{height}' )
root .bind( '<Escape>',  lambda e: root .destroy() )
root .configure( bg = color )

def one():  ##  takes many parameters during construction
    print( 'Found a button!' )

def two( event ):
    ##  print( f'x: {event .x}, y: {event.y}' )
    if event .x >= desiredX -25 and event .x <= desiredX +25 \
    and event .y >= desiredY -25 and event .y <= desiredY +25:
        print( 'Found another button!' )

Label( root, bg=color, text='We are the musicmakers,' ) .pack()
Label( root, bg=color, text='and we are the dreamers of the dreams.' ) .pack()

Button( root, bg=color, fg=color, activebackground=color, activeforeground=color,
        highlightbackground=color, borderwidth=0, command=one ) .pack()

Label( root, bg=color, text='Button, button' ) .pack()
Label( root, bg=color, text="who's got the button?" ) .pack()

root .bind( '<Button-1>', two )
root .mainloop()

Can you make a functional invisible button in tkinter?

3 Answers3