Creating custom tooltips in Python with Tkinter

Last update on April 25 2025 12:57:21 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

Write a Python program that implements custom tooltips for widgets like buttons or labels that display additional information when hovered over using Tkinter.

Sample Solution:

Python Code:

import tkinter as tk

class CustomTooltip:
    def __init__(self, widget, text):
        self.widget = widget
        self.text = text
        self.tooltip_visible = False

        # Bind events to show/hide the tooltip
        widget.bind("<Enter>", self.show_tooltip)
        widget.bind("<Leave>", self.hide_tooltip)

    def show_tooltip(self, event):
        if not self.tooltip_visible:
            x, y, _, _ = self.widget.bbox("insert")
            x += self.widget.winfo_rootx() + 25
            y += self.widget.winfo_rooty() + 25
            self.tooltip_label = tk.Label(text=self.text, background="lightyellow", relief="solid", borderwidth=1)
            self.tooltip_label.place(x=x, y=y)
            self.tooltip_visible = True

    def hide_tooltip(self, event):
        if self.tooltip_visible:
            self.tooltip_label.place_forget()
            self.tooltip_visible = False

if __name__ == "__main__":
    root = tk.Tk()
    root.title("Custom Tooltip Example")
    button = tk.Button(root, text="Hover Me")
    button.pack(padx=20, pady=20)
    tooltip = CustomTooltip(button, "This is a custom tooltip")
    root.mainloop()

Explanation:

In the exercise above -

Define a "CustomTooltip" class to manage and display tooltips for a given widget.
The constructor init takes two arguments: the 'widget' for which the tooltip is intended (widget) and the 'text' to be displayed in the tooltip (text).
With the "show_tooltip()" method, we calculate the position (x, y) of the tooltip relative to the widget, and then create a label (tooltip_label) to display the tooltip text with a light yellow background, solid relief, and a border width of 1. This label is placed at the calculated position, making it visible.
The "hide_tooltip()" method hides the tooltip label using the place_forget method.
Create a main Tkinter window (root) and a button widget (button) with the text "Hover Me."
A CustomTooltip instance is created, assigning the tooltip text to the button and associating it with the tooltip.
Finally, start the Tkinter main loop with "root.mainloop()" and when you hover over the button, a custom tooltip appears with the specified text.

Output:

Flowchart:

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