PNG images in PhotoImage labels

[Joal Heagney]

moonlite56 at yahoo.com wrote:
> 
> I am learning Python this summer, and kind of ran into a rut when I
> tried to display .png images in a simple label test. This is what I
> have so far:
> 
> from Tkinter import *
> 
> top = Tk()
> top.title("Kuti")
> top.geometry("200x100")
> 
> iKuti = PhotoImage(file = "gameboy.png")
> lHello = Label(top, image = iKuti)
> lHello.grid(row = 1, col = 1, sticky = W)
> bQuit = Button(top, text="Quit", command = top.quit)
> bQuit.grid(row = 1, col = 2, sticky = E)
> 
> top.mainloop()
> 
> This works with gameboy.gif, but gameboy.png displays an error:
> 
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "tkinter.py", line 9, in ?
>     iKuti = PhotoImage(file = "gameboy.png")
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.0/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 2974, in __init__
>     apply(Image.__init__, (self, 'photo', name, cnf, master), kw)
>   File "/usr/lib/python2.0/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 2930, in __init__
>     self.tk.call(('image', 'create', imgtype, name,) + options)
> TclError: couldn't recognize data in image file "gameboy.png"
> 
> How do I get this to work with PNG images?

This is because the underlying tcl/tk (if it is standard tk) only
recognises gifs, *hunts for reference book* pgm and ppm formats. You can
use png's if you install the python imaging library (PIL). With PIL
installed, do the following (After you've created a Tk instance or you
get a RuntimeError returned on the second line.):

import Image,ImageTk
iKuti = ImageTk.PhotoImage(Image.open("gameboy.png"))
# You're using Image.open("gameboy.png") instead of the file =
"gameboy.png" bit.

Isn't Tkinter cool?!!!
--
      Joal Heagney is: _____           _____
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