hPyT 1.4.0

Hack Python Titlebar - A package to manipulate windows and titlebar of GUI applications made using python.

hPyT - Hack Python Titlebar

A package to manipulate windows and titlebar of GUI applications made using python Supports Windows 7-11

https://github.com/Zingzy/hPyT/assets/90309290/f86df1c7-b75b-4477-974a-eb34cc117df3

You can download the above hPyT-preview-app from github releases to test out the package before using it in your projects

📖 Table of Contents

• hPyT - Hack Python Titlebar
  • 📚 Supported Libraries
  • 📦 Installing
  • 📥 Importing
  • NEW Features in v1.4.0 🎉
  • Hide/Unhide TitleBar - Understanding Window Geometry
    • Impact of Hiding the Title Bar
    • Potential Issues
    • Solution
    • Example Usage
    • Comparision of the dimensions with and without no_span=True:
    • Visual Example:
  • 🌈 Rainbow TitleBar
  • 🌈 Rainbow Border
    • 🔄 Synchronizing the Rainbow Effect with other elements
  • Hide/Unhide both Maximize and Minimize Buttons (Completely Hides both buttons)
  • Hide/Unhide All Buttons or Stuffs
  • Enable/Disable Maximize Button
  • Enable/Disable Minimize Button
  • 🎨 Custom TitleBar Color
    • Set TitleBar Color to windows Accent Color
  • 🖌️ Custom TitleBar Text Color
  • 🖌️ Custom Border Color
    • Set Border Color to windows Accent Color
  • Window Corner Radius
  • Window DWM Manipulation
    • Enable RTL Layout for the DWM Window
    • Disable DWM Transitions for the DWM Window
    • Window Cloaking
      • Example of window rendering with and without cloacking
  • Opacity
  • ⚡ Flashing Window
  • 💻 Window Management
    • Center a window on the screen
    • Center a secondary window relative to the primary window
    • Other basic window management functions
  • ✨ Window Animations
    • Circle Motion
    • Verical Shake
    • Horizontal Shake
  • ✏️ Stylize text
  • Workaround for other libraries
  • Miscellaneous
    • Get Windows Accent Color
    • Stylize text
  • 📜 hPyT Changelog
    • v1.4.0
    • v1.3.7
    • v1.3.6
    • v1.3.5
    • v1.3.4
    • v1.3.3
    • v1.3.2
    • v1.3.1
    • v1.3.0
    • v1.2.1
    • v1.2.0
    • v1.1.3
    • v1.1.2
    • v1.1.1
    • v1.1.0

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📚 Supported Libraries

• Tkinter & CustomTkinter
• PyQt
• PySide
• WxPython
• Kivy
• Almost all other UI libraries

[!IMPORTANT] follow this section to see how to use hPyT with other libraries

📦 Installing

pip install hPyT==1.4.0

📥 Importing

from hPyT import *
from customtkinter import * # you can use any other library from the above mentioned list

window = CTk() # creating a window using CustomTkinter

NEW Features in v1.4.0 🎉

• Function to change corner radius of the window with the hPyT.corner_radius module
• Functions to manipulate DWM window attributes with the hPyT.window_dwm module
  • Enable RTL layout
  • Disable DWM transitions
  • Cloak the window

Hide/Unhide TitleBar

title_bar.hide(window, no_span = False) # hides full titlebar
# optional parameter : no_span, more details in the note below
# title_bar.unhide(window)

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
no_span	bool	False	If True, the content area height will not be adjusted to accommodate the title bar.

❗Important Note when hiding the titlebar and using no_span parameter

When hiding a title bar, the application window's total geometry and its content area geometry behave differently, which may introduce ambiguities. Here's a detailed explanation of the issue:

Understanding Window Geometry

1. Full Window Dimensions:

   • Includes the content area, title bar, and borders.
   • When the user specifies dimensions (e.g., 400x400), it usually represents the content area dimensions. The total window height becomes content height + title bar height + border width.
   • The color of the top border and title bar is usually the same in windows 11 & 10, making it appear as a single entity. So when hiding the title bar, we also need to hide the top border.
   • However, in windows 7 & 8, the top border is a different color from the title bar, so we don't need to hide the top border when hiding the title bar. Moreover removing the top border will make the window behave abnormally in these versions.

2. Content Area Dimensions:

   • Represents only the usable area inside the window, excluding the title bar and borders.

Impact of Hiding the Title Bar

When the title bar is hidden:

• The content area height expands to occupy the height previously used by the title bar. For example, a 400x400 content area might expand to 400x438 (assuming the visual title bar height is 38px).

Better illustrated in the following example:

...

def show_window_dimensions():
    hwnd: int = ctypes.windll.user32.GetForegroundWindow()

    x_with_decorations: int = root.winfo_rootx()  # X position of the full window
    y_with_decorations: int = root.winfo_rooty()  # Y position of the full window

    x_without_decorations: int = root.winfo_x()  # X position of the content area
    y_without_decorations: int = root.winfo_y()  # Y position of the content area

    titlebar_height: int = y_with_decorations - y_without_decorations
    border_width: int = x_with_decorations - x_without_decorations

    window_rect: RECT = get_window_rect(hwnd)

    width: int = window_rect.right - window_rect.left
    height: int = window_rect.bottom - window_rect.top

    print(f"Title bar height: {titlebar_height}")
    print(f"Border width: {border_width}")
    print(f"Main window dimensions: {width}x{height}")
    print(
        f"Content window dimensions: {root.winfo_geometry()}"
    )  # This will return the dimensions of the content area only

...

def click(e=None):
    root.update_idletasks()

    print("------ Before hiding title bar ------")
    show_window_dimensions()

	title_bar.hide(root)
	is_hidden = True

    print("------ After hiding title bar ------")
    show_window_dimensions()


button = CTkButton(root, text="Click Me", command=click)
button.place(relx=0.5, rely=0.5, anchor="center")

root.mainloop()

Output:

------ Before hiding title bar ------
Title bar height: 38
Border width: 9
Main window dimensions: 468x497
Content window dimensions: 450x450
------ After hiding title bar ------
Title bar height: 0
Border width: 9
Main window dimensions: 468x497
Content window dimensions: 450x488

By the above example, you can see that the content area height has increased from 450px to 488px after hiding the title bar.

Potential Issues

This automatic resizing may cause layout problems or unintended behavior in some applications. For instance:

• UI elements might overlap or stretch.
• Custom layouts may require recalibration.

Solution

To address this, a no_span parameter is introduced in the hide method. This parameter allows users to control whether the content area height should be adjusted dynamically to maintain its original size.

• Default Behavior (no_span=False): The content area height will expand to occupy the title bar's space.
• With no_span=True: The content area will be resized dynamically to maintain its original dimensions.

Example Usage

title_bar.hide(root, no_span=True)

Comparision of the dimensions with and without no_span=True:

- Content window dimensions: 450x488
+ Content window dimensions: 450x450

- Main window dimensions: 468x497
+ Main window dimensions: 468x459

Visual Example:

no_span = False	no_span = True

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🌈 Rainbow TitleBar

This feature is only supported on Windows 11.

rainbow_title_bar.start(window, interval=5) # starts the rainbow titlebar
# rainbow_title_bar.stop(window) # stops the rainbow titlebar

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
interval	int	5	The time in milliseconds in which the color would change.
color_stops	int	5	The number of color stops between each RGB value.

🌈 Rainbow Border

This feature is only supported on Windows 11.

rainbow_border.start(window, interval=4) # starts the rainbow border
# rainbow_border.stop(window) # stops the rainbow border

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
interval	int	5	The time in milliseconds in which the color would change.
color_stops	int	5	The number of color stops between each RGB value.

🔄 Synchronizing the Rainbow Effect with other elements

from hPyT import *

...

rainbow_title_bar.start(window, interval=30) # starts the rainbow titlebar
# rainbow_border.start(window, interval=30) # also works with rainbow border

current_color = rainbow_title_bar.get_current_color() # or rainbow_border.get_current_color()
# you can use this color to synchronize the color of other elements with the titlebar

Code for the above illustration available in /examples/rainbow-synchronization-example.py

Hide/Unhide both Maximize and Minimize Buttons (Completely Hides both buttons)

maximize_minimize_button.hide(window) # hides both maximize and minimize button
# maximize_minimize_button.unhide(window)

Hide/Unhide All Buttons or Stuffs

all_stuffs.hide(window) # hides close button
# all_stuffs.unhide(window)

[!TIP] To hide the text set the window title to ''

Enable/Disable Maximize Button

maximize_button.disable(window) # hides maximize button
# MaximizeButton.enable(window)

Enable/Disable Minimize Button

minimize_button.disable(window) # hides minimize button
# MinimizeButton.enable(window)

🎨 Custom TitleBar Color

This feature is only supported on Windows 11.

title_bar_color.set(window, color='#ff00ff') # sets the titlebar color to magenta
# title_bar_color.reset(window) # resets the titlebar color to default

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
color	Union[str, Tuple[int]]	❌	The color to set the titlebar to in either Hex (string) or RGB (tuple of integers) format

Set TitleBar Color to windows Accent Color

title_bar_color.set_accent(window) # sets the titlebar color to the current windows accent color

[!NOTE] The titlebar color will automatically change when the windows accent color changes

🖌️ Custom TitleBar Text Color

This feature is only supported on Windows 11.

title_bar_text_color.set(window, color='#ff00ff') # sets the titlebar text color to magenta
# title_bar_text_color.reset(window) # resets the titlebar text color to default

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
color	Union[str, Tuple[int]]	❌	The color to set the titlebar text to in either Hex (string) or RGB (tuple of integers) format

🖌️ Custom Border Color

This feature is only supported on Windows 11.

border_color.set(window, color='#ff00ff') # sets the border color to magenta
# border_color.reset(window) # resets the border color to default

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
color	Union[str, Tuple[int]]	❌	The color to set the border to in either Hex (string) or RGB (tuple of integers) format

Set Border Color to windows Accent Color

border_color.set_accent(window) # sets the border color to the current windows accent color

[!NOTE] The border color will automatically change when the windows accent color changes

Window Corner Radius

This feature is only supported on Windows 11.

corner_radius.set(window, style="round-small") # sets the window border radius to round-small
# corner_radius.reset(window) # resets the window border radius to default

List of available styles:

Style	Preview
round-small
square
round

Window DWM Manipulation

DWM - Desktop Window Manager is the component of a window which controls non-client area of the window. The features below are generally used to improve the accessibility of a window.

Enable RTL Layout for the DWM Window

window_dwm.toggle_rtl_layout(window, enabled=True) # enables RTL layout for the window
# window_dwm.toggle_rtl_layout(window, enabled=False) # disables RTL layout for the window

[!NOTE] This feature enables the RTL layout for the non-client area of the window which includes the titlebar, border, etc.

Disable DWM Transitions for the DWM Window

Disabling DWM Transitions will make the animations for minimize, maximize, restore, etc. more snappy and faster.

window_dwm.toggle_dwm_transitions(window, enabled=False) # disables DWM transitions for the window
# window_dwm.toggle_dwm_transitions(window, enabled=True) # enables DWM transitions for the window

DWM Transitions Disabled	DWM Transitions Enabled

[!NOTE] This will only affect the minimize, maximize, restore, etc. animations. It will not affect custom animations.

[!IMPORTANT] This feature won't work if the global animations are disabled by the user in the windows settings.

Window Cloaking

If window cloaking is enabled, the window will be hidden while still being composed by DWM i.e the window will be rendered but it will not be visible to the user.

window_dwm.toggle_cloak(window, enabled=True) # hides the window

# Do complex taks like rendering window widgets

window_dwm.toggle_cloak(window, enabled=False) # shows the window

[!TIP] By cloaking a window, DWM can optimize the rendering process since it doesn't have to display the window's content on the screen. This can help improve the performance of applications, especially those with complex UI elements or animations.

Example of window rendering with and without cloacking

Cloacking Used	Cloacking Not Used

Opacity

opacity.set(window, opacity=0.5) # sets the window opacity to 50%
# opacity.set(window, opacity=1.0) # resets the window opacity to 100%

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
opacity	float	❌	The opacity to set the window to. It should be a value between 0 (transparent) and 1.0 (opaque).

⚡ Flashing Window

window_flash.flash(window, count=10, interval=100) # flashes the window 10 times with 100ms interval
# window_flash.stop(window) # stops the flashing immediately

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
count	int	5	The number of times the window will flash.
interval	int	1000	The time in milliseconds in which the window will flash.

💻 Window Management

Center a window on the screen

window_frame.center(window)

Center a secondary window relative to the primary window

window_frame.center_relative(window, child_window)

Example Usecase

window = CTk()
window.title("Primary Window")
window.geometry('600x300')
window_frame.center(window)

child_window = CTkToplevel()

window_frame.center_relative(window, child_window)

window.bind("<Configure>", lambda event: window_frame.center_relative(window, child_window))

def on_close():  # this is required to stop the window from centering the child window after the parent window is closed
	window.unbind("<Configure>")
	child_window.destroy()

child_window.protocol("WM_DELETE_WINDOW", on_close)

window.mainloop()

Other basic window management functions

window_frame.move(window, 100, 100) # moves the window to (100, 100)
window_frame.resize(window, 500, 500) # resizes the window to 500x500
window_frame.maximize(window) # maximizes the window
window_frame.minimize(window) # minimizes the window
window_frame.restore(window) # restores the window

✨ Window Animations

Circle Motion

window_animation.circle_motion(window, count=5, interval=5, radius=30)
# moves the window in a circular motion 5 times with 5ms interval and 30px radius

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
count	int	5	The number of times the window will move in a circular motion.
interval	int	5	The time in milliseconds in which the window will move in a circular motion.
radius	int	20	The radius of the circular motion.

The animation might appear a bit fasterer and rougher in the above preview gif than it is

Verical Shake

window_animation.vertical_shake(window, count=5, interval=5, amplitude=20)
# shakes the window vertically 5 times with 5ms interval and 10px distance

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
count	int	5	The number of times the window will shake vertically.
interval	int	5	The time in milliseconds in which the window will shake vertically.
amplitude	int	20	The distance the window will shake vertically.

Horizontal Shake

window_animation.horizontal_shake(window, count=5, interval=5, amplitude=20)
# shakes the window horizontally 5 times with 5ms interval and 10px distance

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
count	int	5	The number of times the window will shake horizontally.
interval	int	5	The time in milliseconds in which the window will shake horizontally.
amplitude	int	20	The distance the window will shake horizontally.

✏️ Stylize text

title_text.stylize(window, style=1)

Choose any style from 1 to 10.

Below is a gif demonstrating all of the available styles

[!NOTE] It is recommended to use the title_text.set function to change the title of the window instead of directly setting the title of the window.

This is because the title_text.set function also caches the original title and the styled title so that it can be used to verify the consistency of the title before applying the style.

Workaround for other libraries

This menthod is applicable for any other UI library like pygame pySimpleGUI, etc. which are not mentioned in the supported libraries list. You just need to pass the hwnd of the window instead of the window object to the functions as demonstrated below.

import tkinter as tk
from hPyT import *
import ctypes

# make sure that the window has been created and is active

hwnd = ctypes.windll.user32.GetActiveWindow()
rainbow_border.start(hwnd, interval=4) # use the hwnd of the window instead of the window object

Back to top

Miscellaneous

Get Windows Accent Color

print(get_accent_color()) # prints the current windows accent color
>>> '#1b595a'

Stylize text

print(stylize_text("Your Custom Text", style=1)) # stylizes your text
# all of the styles shown on the above gif are available
>>> "𝔜𝔬𝔲𝔯 ℭ𝔲𝔰𝔱𝔬𝔪 𝔗𝔢𝔵𝔱"

📜 hPyT Changelog

v1.4.0

• Add new feature for customizing the corner radius of the window
• Add new feature for manipulating the non-client area of the window
• Fix the issue with stylize text not looking for changes made by the user
• Fix the issue with title text not being consistent on older versions of windows
• Add support for x86/x32 pythonarchitecture

v1.3.7

• Fix color conversion issue which returned the wrong color when the windows accent color was set to a custom color
• Add handling for WM_NCACTIVATE and WM_NCPAINT messages to improve title bar rendering
• Add dynamic height adjustment to hide_titlebar method using the no_span parameter

v1.3.6

• Minor Bug Fixes

v1.3.5

• Add feature for automatically changing the accent color of the titlebar and border
• Fix an issue which caused ImportError when used with a python version less than 3.9

v1.3.4

• Add method for applying the current windows accent color to the titlebar and border color
• Add method for getting the current windows accent color
• Add type annotations and docstrings to functions for better clarity and autocompletion

v1.3.3

• Fixed taskbar unhide/hide bug

v1.3.2

• Add support for synchronizing the rainbow effect with other ui elements.

v1.3.1

• Add support for UI libraries like Kivy, PySimpleGUI, PyGame, etc.
• Improve the rainbow titlebar & border effects.
• Improve the center_relative function & examples.

v1.3.0

• Add support for setting custom border color
• Add support for rainbow border color effect
• Add support for resetting the titleBar color and titleText color
• Fix an issue which caused the titleBar to appear black after the rainbow titleBar effect was stopped

v1.2.1

• Minor Bug Fixes

v1.2.0

• Add support for rainbow titlebar
• Add support for styling title text
• Add support for vertical, horizontal shake and circle motion window animations
• Add support for centering a window on the screen
• Add support for centering a window relative to another window
• Add support for moving/resizing/maximizing/minimizing/restoring a window
• Add support for setting custom titlebar color
• Add support for setting custom titlebar text color

v1.1.3

• Add flashing inverval support

v1.1.2

• Add window flashing support
• Add window opacity support
• Add support for PyGTK

v1.1.1

• Add support for WxPython, PyQt and PySide

v1.1.0

• Initial Release

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