tile(n)

🎀 tile(n) — Tiling versions of Tk widgets 🎀

okay so bestie, welcome to tile(n) from the BLT Built-In Commands manual. This is the page literally called “Tiling versions of Tk widgets”, and we’re about to make textures feel less mysterious and more slay. 💅✨

🌸 NAME 🌸

tile — tiling versions of Tk widgets. That’s the whole name, no cap. 🫶

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

tile::button pathName option value...
tile::checkbutton pathName option value...
tile::frame pathName option value...
tile::label pathName option value...
tile::radiobutton pathName option value...
tile::scrollbar pathName option value...
tile::toplevel pathName option value...

💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So the tile widgets let you create textured backgrounds. The texture is a Tk image, and that image gets tiled over the entire background of the widget. The offset of the tile usually aligns with the toplevel window so that all sub-tiles line up — iconic little grid behavior, honestly. 🧚

But here’s the twist: image names containing an exclamation mark ! (usually as the last character) are tiled absolutely. Yes, ! is the main-character character here. ⭐

🌈 INTRODUCTION 🌈

With the advent of Tk 4.0, images are now easy to create and use in applications. Images add interest to applications and they convey more information. But one area where Tk hasn’t taken advantage of images is using images as textures for widgets. Since tiling is a standard feature of windowing systems, it’s very easy to use images as textures. 💫

Note: Wize now adds a -tile option to Tk widgets natively. However, these are retained to provide the -shadow option. 👑

Tiled widgets take the standard Tk 4.0 widgets and add tiling configuration options to them. Textures are specified by the name of the image you wish to be tiled across the background of the widget. That’s the whole vibe: image name in, texture out. 🎀

🍓 EXAMPLE 🍓

To add tiling to a widget, you simply create an image using Tk’s image command and use the image name as the value for the -tile configuration option of the widget.

image create photo my_texture -file tan_paper.gif
blt::tile::frame .f -tile my_texture

The image my_texture is added to the frame. If my_texture is updated, so will the widget background. Obsessed with a live-update moment. ✨

image create photo my_texture -file rain.gif

The tile widget commands reside in the "blt::tile" namespace, so as not to collide with the normal Tk widgets. An easy way to add tiling to existing programs is to import the tile widget commands into the global namespace.

image create photo my_texture -file tan_paper.gif
namespace import -force blt::tile::*
frame .f -tile my_texture

To use one image for all texturing, you can use the "Tile" option class name to specify the same image for all tile widgets.

image create photo my_texture -file tan_paper.gif
option add *Tile my_texture

👑 OPTIONS 👑

The following configurations options are added to the widgets. If a -tile or -activetile option is specified, it overrides the background color of the widget. Important little override note, bestie. 💅

• -activetile image — specifies a textured background to display when the widget is active. This option is available for the tilebutton, tilecheckbutton, tileradiobutton, and tilescrollbar widgets. image is the name of an image created using Tk’s image command. The background of the widget is tiled with image. If image is "", then the active background color is displayed. The default is "". 🔥
• -tile image — specifies a textured background to display for the widget. image is the name of an image created using Tk’s image command. The background of the widget is tiled with image. If image is "", then the normal background color is displayed. The default is "". 🎀
• -shadow shadow — set shadow for text. That’s the note, periodt. 🫶
• -rotate degrees — support for rotating text in degrees, eg. 90, 180. 🌪️
• -checksize num — specify the size of check/radio button indicator. ✅
• -icons images — give a list of 0, or 2-9 images to use for the indicators. The first three are for normal, selected, tristate. The next three repeat but for the active state. The next three repeat but for the disabled state. 🎛️
• -bdimage image — a border image that resizes to fit the widget. 🖼️
• -activebdimage image — a border image that resizes to fit the widget. Same border-image energy, active edition. 💖
• -disabledbdimage image — a border image that resizes to fit the widget. Same border-image energy, disabled edition. 💜
• -bdflags int — set to -1 to perform inner rather than outer mirror. 🪞

🦋 KEYWORDS 🦋

tile, texture, button, label, radiobutton, checkbutton, scrollbar, frame, toplevel

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xoxo, bestie 💖 — that’s the whole tile(n) page from BLT 2.5. The footer says source/version BLT 2.5 and manual tile(n); it doesn’t list a date, so consider this your timeless little texture era. Slay, and may your backgrounds always line up. 🌈✨