Creating custom buttons with Python Tkinter

Last update on August 19 2025 11:23:03 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Write a Python program that creates a custom button widget with a distinct color and shape using Tkinter.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

import tkinter as tk

class CustomButton(tk.Button):
    def __init__(self, master=None, **kwargs):
        super().__init__(master, **kwargs)
        self.config(
            relief=tk.FLAT,  # Remove button relief
            bd=0,  # Remove border
            highlightthickness=0,  # Remove highlight
            padx=10,  # Add horizontal padding
            pady=5,  # Add vertical padding
            font=("Arial", 12),  # Set font
            foreground="white",  # Text color
            background="orange",  # Background color
        )
        # Bind events
        self.bind("<Enter>", self.on_hover)
        self.bind("<Leave>", self.on_leave)

    def on_hover(self, event):
        self.config(background="lightblue")  # Change color on hover

    def on_leave(self, event):
        self.config(background="green")  # Restore original color

# Create the main window
root = tk.Tk()
root.title("Custom Button Example")

# Create a custom button
custom_button = CustomButton(root, text="Custom Button")
custom_button.pack(pady=20)

# Start the Tkinter main loop
root.mainloop()

Explanation:

In the exercise above -

Import the "tkinter" library.
Create a custom button class, "CustomButton", which subclasses "tk.Button".
Inside the "CustomButton" class's constructor (__init__ method):

Call the superclass's constructor using super().__init__(master, **kwargs) to initialize the button.
Use the self.config() method to customize the appearance of the button:

relief=tk.FLAT: Removes the button's relief (border).
bd=0: Sets the border width to 0, effectively removing the border.
highlightthickness=0: Removes the highlight when the button is clicked.
padx=10 and pady=5: Adds horizontal and vertical padding to the button.
font=("Arial", 12): Sets the font for the button text.
foreground="white": Sets the text color to white.
background="orange": Sets the background color to orange.

We bind two events to the button:

<Enter>: When the mouse enters the button, it calls the on_hover method.
<Leave>: When the mouse leaves the button, it calls the on_leave method.

The "on_hover()" method changes the button's background color to "lightblue" when the mouse hovers over it.
The "on_leave()" method restores the button's background color to "green" when the mouse leaves it.
Create the main application window using 'tk.Tk()' and set its title to "Custom Button Example."
Create an instance of the "CustomButton" class named "custom_button" and place it in the window using "custom_button.pack(pady=20)".
Finally, start the Tkinter main loop with "root.mainloop()".