RuntimeError: Too early to create image [duplicate]

Question

I am trying to create an image library and to call an image from that image library in tkinter. But this code gives me an error:

This is the image library file img.py:

from tkinter import *
food_0001 = PhotoImage(file='food_0001.gif')
food_0002 = PhotoImage(file='bg.gif')

This is the file intended to open images stored in img.py:

from tkinter import *
import img

window = Tk()
window.title('image')
canvas = Canvas(window, width = 800, height = 800)
canvas.pack()
canvas.create_image(0,0, anchor=NW, image=food_0001)

window.mainloop()

Answer 1

It is because PhotoImage() can only be called after creation of Tk().

Suggest to rewrite img.py to create PhotoImage() only when it is needed. Below is a sample way to do it:

from tkinter import *

imagelist = {
  'food_0001': ['food_0001.png', None],
  'food_0002': ['bg.png', None],
}

def get(name):
  if name in imagelist:
    if imagelist[name][1] is None:
      print('loading image:', name)
      imagelist[name][1] = PhotoImage(file=imagelist[name][0])
    return imagelist[name][1]
  return None

Then modify your main program to cater the change:

from tkinter import *
import img

window = Tk()
window.title('image')
canvas = Canvas(window, width=800, height=800)
canvas.pack()
canvas.create_image(0, 0, anchor='nw', image=img.get('food_0001'))

window.mainloop()

Of cause there are many other ways to do it and it depends on your imagination.