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QPalette Class Reference
[QtGui module]

The QPalette class contains color groups for each widget state. More...

Types

Methods

Special Methods

Detailed Description

The QPalette class contains color groups for each widget state.

A palette consists of three color groups: Active, Disabled, and Inactive. All widgets in Qt contain a palette and use their palette to draw themselves. This makes the user interface easily configurable and easier to keep consistent.

If you create a new widget we strongly recommend that you use the colors in the palette rather than hard-coding specific colors.

The color groups:

Both active and inactive windows can contain disabled widgets. (Disabled widgets are often called inaccessible or grayed out.)

In most styles, Active and Inactive look the same.

Colors and brushes can be set for particular roles in any of a palette's color groups with setColor() and setBrush(). A color group contains a group of colors used by widgets for drawing themselves. We recommend that widgets use color group roles from the palette such as "foreground" and "base" rather than literal colors like "red" or "turquoise". The color roles are enumerated and defined in the ColorRole documentation.

We strongly recommend that you use the default palette of the current style (returned by QApplication.palette()) and modify that as necessary. This is done by Qt's widgets when they are drawn.

To modify a color group you call the functions setColor() and setBrush(), depending on whether you want a pure color or a pixmap pattern.

There are also corresponding color() and brush() getters, and a commonly used convenience function to get the ColorRole for the current ColorGroup: window(), windowText(), base(), etc.

You can copy a palette using the copy constructor and test to see if two palettes are identical using isCopyOf().

QPalette is optimized by the use of implicit sharing, so it is very efficient to pass QPalette objects as arguments.

Warning: Some styles do not use the palette for all drawing, for instance, if they make use of native theme engines. This is the case for both the Windows XP, Windows Vista, and the Mac OS X styles.

Type Documentation

QPalette.ColorGroup

Constant Value Description
QPalette.Disabled 1  
QPalette.Active 0  
QPalette.Inactive 2  
QPalette.Normal Active synonym for Active

QPalette.ColorRole

Color Roles

The ColorRole enum defines the different symbolic color roles used in current GUIs.

The central roles are:

Constant Value Description
QPalette.Window 10 A general background color.
QPalette.Background Window This value is obsolete. Use Window instead.
QPalette.WindowText 0 A general foreground color.
QPalette.Foreground WindowText This value is obsolete. Use WindowText instead.
QPalette.Base 9 Used mostly as the background color for text entry widgets, but can also be used for other painting - such as the background of combobox drop down lists and toolbar handles. It is usually white or another light color.
QPalette.AlternateBase 16 Used as the alternate background color in views with alternating row colors (see QAbstractItemView.setAlternatingRowColors()).
QPalette.ToolTipBase 18 Used as the background color for QToolTip and QWhatsThis. Tool tips use the Inactive color group of QPalette, because tool tips are not active windows.
QPalette.ToolTipText 19 Used as the foreground color for QToolTip and QWhatsThis. Tool tips use the Inactive color group of QPalette, because tool tips are not active windows.
QPalette.Text 6 The foreground color used with Base. This is usually the same as the WindowText, in which case it must provide good contrast with Window and Base.
QPalette.Button 1 The general button background color. This background can be different from Window as some styles require a different background color for buttons.
QPalette.ButtonText 8 A foreground color used with the Button color.
QPalette.BrightText 7 A text color that is very different from WindowText, and contrasts well with e.g. Dark. Typically used for text that needs to be drawn where Text or WindowText would give poor contrast, such as on pressed push buttons. Note that text colors can be used for things other than just words; text colors are usually used for text, but it's quite common to use the text color roles for lines, icons, etc.

There are some color roles used mostly for 3D bevel and shadow effects. All of these are normally derived from Window, and used in ways that depend on that relationship. For example, buttons depend on it to make the bevels look attractive, and Motif scroll bars depend on Mid to be slightly different from Window.

Constant Value Description
QPalette.Light 2 Lighter than Button color.
QPalette.Midlight 3 Between Button and Light.
QPalette.Dark 4 Darker than Button.
QPalette.Mid 5 Between Button and Dark.
QPalette.Shadow 11 A very dark color. By default, the shadow color is Qt.black.

Selected (marked) items have two roles:

Constant Value Description
QPalette.Highlight 12 A color to indicate a selected item or the current item. By default, the highlight color is Qt.darkBlue.
QPalette.HighlightedText 13 A text color that contrasts with Highlight. By default, the highlighted text color is Qt.white.

There are two color roles related to hyperlinks:

Constant Value Description
QPalette.Link 14 A text color used for unvisited hyperlinks. By default, the link color is Qt.blue.
QPalette.LinkVisited 15 A text color used for already visited hyperlinks. By default, the linkvisited color is Qt.magenta.

Note that we do not use the Link and LinkVisited roles when rendering rich text in Qt, and that we recommend that you use CSS and the QTextDocument.setDefaultStyleSheet() function to alter the appearance of links. For example:

     QTextBrowser browser;
     QColor linkColor(Qt.red);
     QString sheet = QString.fromLatin1("a { text-decoration: underline; color: %1 }").arg(linkColor.name());
     browser.document()->setDefaultStyleSheet(sheet);
Constant Value Description
QPalette.NoRole 17 No role; this special role is often used to indicate that a role has not been assigned.

Method Documentation

QPalette.__init__ (self)

Constructs a palette object that uses the application's default palette.

See also QApplication.setPalette() and QApplication.palette().

QPalette.__init__ (self, QColor button)

Constructs a palette from the button color. The other colors are automatically calculated, based on this color. Window will be the button color as well.

QPalette.__init__ (self, Qt.GlobalColor button)

Constructs a palette from the button color. The other colors are automatically calculated, based on this color. Window will be the button color as well.

QPalette.__init__ (self, QColor button, QColor background)

Constructs a palette from a button color and a window. The other colors are automatically calculated, based on these colors.

QPalette.__init__ (self, QBrush foreground, QBrush button, QBrush light, QBrush dark, QBrush mid, QBrush text, QBrush bright_text, QBrush base, QBrush background)

Constructs a palette. You can pass either brushes, pixmaps or plain colors for windowText, button, light, dark, mid, text, bright_text, base and window.

See also QBrush.

QPalette.__init__ (self, QColor foreground, QColor background, QColor light, QColor dark, QColor mid, QColor text, QColor base)

QPalette.__init__ (self, QPalette palette)

QPalette.__init__ (self, QVariant variant)

Constructs a copy of p.

This constructor is fast thanks to implicit sharing.

QBrush QPalette.alternateBase (self)

Returns the alternate base brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.background (self)

QBrush QPalette.base (self)

Returns the base brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.brightText (self)

Returns the bright text foreground brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.brush (self, ColorGroup cg, ColorRole cr)

Returns the brush in the specified color group, used for the given color role.

See also color(), setBrush(), and ColorRole.

QBrush QPalette.brush (self, ColorRole cr)

This is an overloaded function.

Returns the brush that has been set for the given color role in the current ColorGroup.

See also color(), setBrush(), and ColorRole.

QBrush QPalette.button (self)

Returns the button brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.buttonText (self)

Returns the button text foreground brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

int QPalette.cacheKey (self)

Returns a number that identifies the contents of this QPalette object. Distinct QPalette objects can have the same key if they refer to the same contents.

The cacheKey() will change when the palette is altered.

QColor QPalette.color (self, ColorGroup cg, ColorRole cr)

Returns the color in the specified color group, used for the given color role.

See also brush(), setColor(), and ColorRole.

QColor QPalette.color (self, ColorRole cr)

This is an overloaded function.

Returns the color that has been set for the given color role in the current ColorGroup.

See also brush() and ColorRole.

ColorGroup QPalette.currentColorGroup (self)

Returns the palette's current color group.

See also setCurrentColorGroup().

QBrush QPalette.dark (self)

Returns the dark brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.foreground (self)

QBrush QPalette.highlight (self)

Returns the highlight brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.highlightedText (self)

Returns the highlighted text brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

bool QPalette.isBrushSet (self, ColorGroup cg, ColorRole cr)

Returns true if the ColorGroup cg and ColorRole cr has been set previously on this palette; otherwise returns false.

This function was introduced in Qt 4.2.

See also setBrush().

bool QPalette.isCopyOf (self, QPalette p)

Returns true if this palette and p are copies of each other, i.e. one of them was created as a copy of the other and neither was subsequently modified; otherwise returns false. This is much stricter than equality.

See also operator=() and operator==().

bool QPalette.isEqual (self, ColorGroup cr1, ColorGroup cr2)

Returns true (usually quickly) if color group cg1 is equal to cg2; otherwise returns false.

QBrush QPalette.light (self)

Returns the light brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.link (self)

Returns the unvisited link text brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.linkVisited (self)

Returns the visited link text brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.mid (self)

Returns the mid brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.midlight (self)

Returns the midlight brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QPalette QPalette.resolve (self, QPalette)

Returns a new QPalette that has attributes copied from other.

int QPalette.resolve (self)

QPalette.resolve (self, int mask)

int QPalette.serialNumber (self)

QPalette.setBrush (self, ColorGroup cg, ColorRole cr, QBrush brush)

Sets the brush for the given color role to the specified brush for all groups in the palette.

See also brush(), setColor(), and ColorRole.

QPalette.setBrush (self, ColorRole acr, QBrush abrush)

This is an overloaded function.

Sets the brush in the specified color group, used for the given color role, to brush.

See also brush(), setColor(), and ColorRole.

QPalette.setColor (self, ColorGroup acg, ColorRole acr, QColor acolor)

Sets the color in the specified color group, used for the given color role, to the specified solid color.

See also setBrush(), color(), and ColorRole.

QPalette.setColor (self, ColorRole acr, QColor acolor)

This is an overloaded function.

Sets the color used for the given color role, in all color groups, to the specified solid color.

See also brush(), setColor(), and ColorRole.

QPalette.setColorGroup (self, ColorGroup cr, QBrush foreground, QBrush button, QBrush light, QBrush dark, QBrush mid, QBrush text, QBrush bright_text, QBrush base, QBrush background)

Sets a the group at cg. You can pass either brushes, pixmaps or plain colors for windowText, button, light, dark, mid, text, bright_text, base and window.

See also QBrush.

QPalette.setCurrentColorGroup (self, ColorGroup cg)

Set the palette's current color group to cg.

See also currentColorGroup().

QBrush QPalette.shadow (self)

Returns the shadow brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.text (self)

Returns the text foreground brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.toolTipBase (self)

Returns the tool tip base brush of the current color group. This brush is used by QToolTip and QWhatsThis.

Note: Tool tips use the Inactive color group of QPalette, because tool tips are not active windows.

This function was introduced in Qt 4.4.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.toolTipText (self)

Returns the tool tip text brush of the current color group. This brush is used by QToolTip and QWhatsThis.

Note: Tool tips use the Inactive color group of QPalette, because tool tips are not active windows.

This function was introduced in Qt 4.4.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.window (self)

Returns the window (general background) brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

QBrush QPalette.windowText (self)

Returns the window text (general foreground) brush of the current color group.

See also ColorRole and brush().

bool QPalette.__eq__ (self, QPalette p)

bool QPalette.__ne__ (self, QPalette p)

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