How to use an image for the background in tkinter?

Question

#import statements
from Tkinter import *
import tkMessageBox
import tkFont
from PIL import ImageTk,Image

Code to import image:

app = Tk()
app.title("Welcome")
image2 =Image.open('C:\\Users\\adminp\\Desktop\\titlepage\\front.gif')
image1 = ImageTk.PhotoImage(image2)
w = image1.width()
h = image1.height()
app.geometry('%dx%d+0+0' % (w,h))
#app.configure(background='C:\\Usfront.png')
#app.configure(background = image1)

labelText = StringVar()
labelText.set("Welcome !!!!")
#labelText.fontsize('10')

label1 = Label(app, image=image1, textvariable=labelText,
               font=("Times New Roman", 24),
               justify=CENTER, height=4, fg="blue")
label1.pack()

app.mainloop()

This code doesn't work. I want to import a background image.

Answer 1

One simple method is to use place to use an image as a background image. This is the type of thing that place is really good at doing.

For example:

background_image=tk.PhotoImage(...)
background_label = tk.Label(parent, image=background_image)
background_label.place(x=0, y=0, relwidth=1, relheight=1)

You can then grid or pack other widgets in the parent as normal. Just make sure you create the background label first so it has a lower stacking order.

Note: if you are doing this inside a function, make sure you keep a reference to the image, otherwise the image will be destroyed by the garbage collector when the function returns. A common technique is to add a reference as an attribute of the label object:

background_label.image = background_image