How to center a window on the screen in Tkinter?

centering, python, tkinter

Solution

You can try to use the methods `winfo_screenwidth` and `winfo_screenheight`, which return respectively the width and height (in pixels) of your `Tk` instance (window), and with some basic math you can center your window:

import tkinter as tk
from PyQt4 import QtGui    # or PySide

def center(toplevel):
    toplevel.update_idletasks()

    # Tkinter way to find the screen resolution
    # screen_width = toplevel.winfo_screenwidth()
    # screen_height = toplevel.winfo_screenheight()

    # PyQt way to find the screen resolution
    app = QtGui.QApplication([])
    screen_width = app.desktop().screenGeometry().width()
    screen_height = app.desktop().screenGeometry().height()

    size = tuple(int(_) for _ in toplevel.geometry().split('+')[0].split('x'))
    x = screen_width/2 - size[0]/2
    y = screen_height/2 - size[1]/2

    toplevel.geometry("+%d+%d" % (x, y))
    toplevel.title("Centered!")    

if __name__ == '__main__':
    root = tk.Tk()
    root.title("Not centered")

    win = tk.Toplevel(root)
    center(win)

    root.mainloop()

I am calling `update_idletasks` method before retrieving the width and the height of the window in order to ensure that the values returned are accurate.

Tkinter doesn't see if there are 2 or more monitors extended horizontal or vertical. So, you 'll get the total resolution of all screens together and your window will end-up somewhere in the middle of the screens.

PyQt from the other hand, doesn't see multi-monitors environment either, but it will get only the resolution of the Top-Left monitor (Imagine 4 monitors, 2 up and 2 down making a square). So, it does the work by putting the window on center of that screen. If you don't want to use both, PyQt and Tkinter, maybe it would be better to go with PyQt from start.

Problem

I'm trying to center a tkinter window. I know I can programatically get the size of the window and the size of the screen and use that to set the geometry, but I'm wondering if there's a simpler way to center the window on the screen.

Original source

Related problems