5

I'm trying to display an image on the screen, without any window/application popping up/containing it. I'm pretty close with TKinter, but the method for removing the background color of the canvas is hacky and has some undesired effects.

import tkinter as tk
import ctypes
user32 = ctypes.windll.user32
screen_size = user32.GetSystemMetrics(0), user32.GetSystemMetrics(1)

root = tk.Tk()

root.overrideredirect(True)
root.config(bg="blue", bd=0, highlightthickness=0)
root.attributes("-transparentcolor", "#FEFCFD")
root.attributes("-topmost", True)

tk_img = tk.PhotoImage(file="image.png")

canvas = tk.Canvas(root, bg="#FEFCFD", bd=0, highlightthickness=0, width=screen_size[0], height=screen_size[1])
canvas.pack()

img = canvas.create_image(0, 0, image=tk_img, anchor="nw")

root.mainloop()

The -transparentcolor flag mostly removes the background, but if an image has any partially transparent pixels it will tint them. Plus, if that color exists in the image, it will be removed; that choice of color was in hopes of minimizing exact matches in an image while also being mostly white, to hopefully have the least noticeable affect on the images. Here's an image of what it looks like currently; very close to what I want, but you can see some missing pixels in the white areas of the dice, and they all seem to have a white border around them due to their edges being partially transparent. This is what the image should look like.

I've also tried to achieve this effect using wxPython, but I can't remove the background of the window, leading to transparent images always being backed by some color. I used this answer; I've modified it slightly but nothing I've done has improved it.

So, is there a way to draw an image on the screen without any background at all with Python?

John
  • 91
  • 1
  • 5

2 Answers2

4

Thanks to the suggestion from Kartikeya, I was able to solve my own question.

Using PyQt5, this code will display an image with transparency and no border or background at all

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('image.png')
label.setPixmap(pixmap)
label.setGeometry(0, 0, pixmap.width(), pixmap.height())

window.label = label

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

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

Once I was looking for PyQt5, I found this question and only needed to modify the code slightly. Here is what it looks like now.

John
  • 91
  • 1
  • 5
1

So, is there a way to draw an image on the screen without any background at all with Python?

Using Tkinter, for this image, no, you cannot achieve the desired result. (You can look for other modules like 'PyQT5', 'Kivy', 'wxPython', or 'turtle' maybe.)

See, transparentcolor Specifies the transparent color index of the toplevel.

If you want to do the best in Tkinter, here are some changes to your code:

root.attributes('-transparentcolor', '#d4d4e2')
root.attributes("-topmost", True)
tk_img = tk.PhotoImage(file="image.png")       
canvas = tk.Canvas(root, bg="#d4d4e2", bd=0, highlightthickness=0, width=screen_size[0], height=screen_size[1])

So, this will display a window that contains a canvas with transparent background. Very close to what you wanted, you can see very less missing pixels in the white areas of the dice, but still, this isn't the solution.

but if an image has any partially transparent pixels it will tint them

Yes, it's true, if that color exists in the image, it will be removed, as that color is being used to mark what needs to be used as transparent color.

that choice of color was in hopes of minimizing exact matches in an image while also being mostly white, to hopefully have the least noticeable effect on the images.

For the edges/borders of this image to retain the partially 'white' transparent background, the choice of color needs to be some shade of 'white'. So, the color used to make it transparent is #d4d4e2 (For this image, there was only one place where this color pixel was used, so it goes unnoticable.) Still, the edges will have sharp corners and cuts.

Kartikeya
  • 818
  • 2
  • 6
  • 11
  • Thanks! Using your suggestions, I looked into PyQt5 and was able to achieve the desired effect. I added answer with with my solution. I upvoted your answer. but because my reputation is too low it isn't reflected in the score. – John Mar 10 '22 at 16:39
  • This answer was to explain what was going wrong with `transparentcolor` in Tkinter. Thanks. Glad that the suggestion helped. You can mark your answer as the correct answer – Kartikeya Mar 11 '22 at 01:41
  • I tried but it told me I have to wait 24 hours before accepting my own answer. I'll accept it tomorrow – John Mar 11 '22 at 04:36