label(3tk)

💖 label — the manual page, but make it cute 💖

okay bestie, gather round 🫶 this is the label page from the Tk Built-In Commands manual (it lives in section 3tk, iykyk). it's giving "static text but make it a whole widget." no cap.

---

✨ NAME ✨

label — create and manipulate label non-interactive text or image widgets 🎀

---

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

label pathName ?options?

---

💅 STANDARD OPTIONS 💅

these are the glow-up knobs it shares with the other widgets, fr fr:

• -activebackground
• -activeforeground
• -anchor
• -background
• -bitmap
• -borderwidth
• -compound
• -cursor
• -disabledforeground
• -font
• -foreground
• -highlightbackground
• -highlightcolor
• -highlightthickness
• -image
• -justify
• -padx
• -pady
• -relief
• -takefocus
• -text
• -textvariable
• -underline
• -wraplength

lowkey important: go read the options manual entry for the deets on all the standard options 👑

---

🦋 WIDGET-SPECIFIC OPTIONS 🦋

-height 🌈

• Command-Line Name: -height
• Database Name: height
• Database Class: Height

sets the desired height for the label, bestie. if an image or a bitmap is being displayed in the label, then the value is in screen units (i.e. any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels); for text it's in lines of text. and if you don't specify this option at all? the label's desired height gets computed from the size of the image or bitmap or text being displayed in it. it just knows. 💅

-state 💀

• Command-Line Name: -state
• Database Name: state
• Database Class: State

picks one of three states for the label: normal, active, or disabled.

• in normal state the button is displayed using the -foreground and -background options ✨
• in active state the label is displayed using the -activeforeground and -activebackground options 🔥
• in the disabled state the -disabledforeground and -background options determine how the button is displayed 🙈

-width 🎀

• Command-Line Name: -width
• Database Name: width
• Database Class: Width

sets a desired width for the label. if an image or a bitmap is being displayed in the label, the value is in screen units (i.e. any of the forms acceptable to Tk_GetPixels); for text it's in characters. if this option isn't specified, the label's desired width is computed from the size of the image or bitmap or text being displayed in it. main character energy, it measures itself. 👑

---

🌟 DESCRIPTION 🌟

the label command creates a new window (given by the pathName argument) and makes it into a label widget. extra options, described above, can be specified on the command line or in the option database to configure aspects of the label like its colors, font, text, and initial relief. the label command returns its pathName argument. and at the time this command is invoked, there must not exist a window named pathName, but pathName's parent must exist. rules are rules, bestie.

a label is a widget that displays a textual string, bitmap or image. if text is displayed, it must all be in a single font, but it can occupy multiple lines on the screen (if it contains newlines, or if wrapping occurs because of the -wraplength option) and one of the characters may optionally be underlined using the -underline option. the label can be manipulated in a few simple ways, such as changing its relief or text, using the commands described below. simple, chic, iconic. ✨

---

💖 WIDGET COMMAND 💖

the label command creates a new Tcl command whose name is pathName. this command can be used to invoke various operations on the widget. it has the following general form:

pathName option ?arg ...?

Option and the args determine the exact behavior of the command. the following commands are possible for label widgets:

• pathName cget option — returns the current value of the configuration option given by option. Option may have any of the values accepted by the label command. it's giving "tell me everything" 🫶
• pathName configure ?option? ?value option value ...? — query or modify the configuration options of the widget. if no option is specified, returns a list describing all of the available options for pathName (see Tk_ConfigureInfo for information on the format of this list). if option is specified with no value, then the command returns a list describing the one named option (this list will be identical to the corresponding sublist of the value returned if no option is specified). if one or more option-value pairs are specified, then the command modifies the given widget option(s) to have the given value(s); in this case the command returns an empty string. Option may have any of the values accepted by the label command. so much power in one command, periodt. 💅

---

🧚 BINDINGS 🧚

when a new label is created, it has no default event bindings: labels are not intended to be interactive. it's decorative, it's not here to be clicked, and honestly? relatable. 💀

---

🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

look at this layout slay:

# Make the widgets
label .t -text "This widget is at the top"    -bg red
label .b -text "This widget is at the bottom" -bg green
label .l -text "Left\nHand\nSide"
label .r -text "Right\nHand\nSide"
text .mid
.mid insert end "This layout is like Java's BorderLayout"
# Lay them out
pack .t   -side top    -fill x
pack .b   -side bottom -fill x
pack .l   -side left   -fill y
pack .r   -side right  -fill y
pack .mid -expand 1    -fill both

---

👑 SEE ALSO 👑

• labelframe(3tk)
• button(3tk)
• ttk::label(3tk)

---

⭐ KEYWORDS ⭐

label, widget

---

and that's the whole page, bestie — brought to you by Tk, version 4.0, dated with the classic label(3tk) tag from the Tk Built-In Commands manual. go forth and label things. 🫶💖✨