Python Color Chooser

The tkinter library in Python comes with an askcolor function that will pull up the system’s color picker dialog. It’s really easy to use and it returns a tuple with a RGB value and a hexadecimal value. This makes it really easy for anyone who is working with colors to ask the user for a color.

from tkinter import *
from tkinter.colorchooser import askcolor


class Window(Frame):
    def __init__(self, master=None, cnf={}, **kw):
        super().__init__(master, cnf, **kw)
        self.open = Button(self, text='Pick a color', command=self.pick_a_color)
        self.exit = Button(self, text='Exit', command=self.quit)

        for b in (self.open, self.exit):
            b.pack(side=LEFT, expand=YES, fill=BOTH)
        self.pack()

    def pick_a_color(self):
        print(askcolor(parent=self, title='Pick a color'))


if __name__ == '__main__':
    win = Window(Tk())
    win.mainloop()

askcolor

The askcolor function simply shows the system’s ask color dialog window. Therefore, it will adjust to the user’s platform and look natural. You can add the parent and title arguments if you want but otherwise the defaults work just as well.

Calling the function only requires one line of code.

askcolor(parent=self, title='Pick a color')

When the user picks a color, a tuple is returned with the rgb values and the hexadecimal values.

((255.99609375, 170.6640625, 104.40625), '#ffaa68')

You will get this result if they click on cancel.

(None, None)

Notice that it is a tuple of None.

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