wxPython - Drawing API

GDI+ (Graphics Drawing Interface), CoreGraphics and Cairo libraries form the framework of drawing API in wxPython. wx.GraphicsContext is the primary drawable object, using which various Device Context objects are created.
wx.DC is an abstract class. Its derived classes are used to render graphics and text on different devices. The Device Context classes are −

• wx.ScreenDC − Use this to paint on the screen, as opposed to an individual window.
• wx.ClientDC − Use this to paint on the client area of the window (the part without borders and other decorations), but do not use it from within an wxPaintEvent.
• wx.PaintDC − Use this to paint on the client area of the window, but only from within a wxPaintEvent.
• wx.WindowDC − Use this to paint on the whole area of the window, including decorations. This may not be available on non-Windows platforms.

Drawing API of wxPython offers different functions for drawing shape, text and image. Objects required for drawing purpose, like Colour, Pen, Brush and Font can also be constructed using GDI classes.

wx.Colour Class

Colour object represents combination of RGB (RED, Green and Blue) intensity values, each on the scale of 0-255. There are a few predefined colour objects like −

• wxBLACK
• wxBLUE
• wxCYAN
• wxGREEN
• wxYELLOW
• wxLIGHT_GREY
• wxRED
• wxWHITE

Color with custom combination of RGB values is formed as wx.Colour object.

wx.Colour(r,g,b)

wx.Pen Class

Pen object determines the colour, width and style of the shape of graphics like line, rectangle, circle etc.
Predefined Pen objects are −

wxBLACK_DASHED_PEN

wxBLACK_PEN

wxBLUE_PEN

wxCYAN_PEN

wxGREEN_PEN

wxYELLOW_PEN

wxGREY_PEN

wxLIGHT_GREY_PEN

wxMEDIUM_GREY_PEN

wxRED_PEN

wxTRANSPARENT_PEN

wxWHITE_PEN

Predefined Pen styles are −

wx.SOLID

wx.DOT

wx.LONG_DASH

wx.SHORT_DASH

wx.DOT_DASH

wx.TRANSPARENT

wx.Brush Class

Brush is another elementary graphics object required to fill the backgrounds of shapes such as rectangle, ellipse, circle etc.
A custom Brush object requires wx.Colour and Brush style parameters. The following is a list of predefined brush styles −

wx.SOLID

wx.STIPPLE

wx.BDIAGONAL_HATCH

wx.CROSSDIAG_HATCH

wx.FDIAGONAL_HATCH

wx.CROSS_HATCH

wx.HORIZONTAL_HATCH

wx.VERTICAL_HATCH

wx.TRANSPARENT

wxPython has a number of functions that facilitate drawing different shapes, text and image.

S.N.	Functions & Description
1	DrawRectangle() Draws a rectangle of given dimensions
2	DrawCircle() Draws a circle at the given point as center and radius
3	DrawEllipse() Draws an ellipse with the given x and y radius
4	DrawLine() Draws a line beween two wx.Point objects
5	DrawBitmap() Draw an image at the given position
6	DrawText() Displays the given text at the specified position

Example

The above functions are implemented in the following example, making use of Pen, Brush, Colour and Font objects.
The complete code is as follows −

import wx 
 
class Mywin(wx.Frame): 
            
   def __init__(self, parent, title): 
      super(Mywin, self).__init__(parent, title = title,size = (500,300))  
      self.InitUI() 
         
   def InitUI(self): 
      self.Bind(wx.EVT_PAINT, self.OnPaint) 
      self.Centre() 
      self.Show(True)
  
   def OnPaint(self, e): 
      dc = wx.PaintDC(self) 
      brush = wx.Brush("white")  
      dc.SetBackground(brush)  
      dc.Clear() 
        
      dc.DrawBitmap(wx.Bitmap("python.jpg"),10,10,True) 
      color = wx.Colour(255,0,0)
      b = wx.Brush(color) 
  
      dc.SetBrush(b) 
      dc.DrawCircle(300,125,50) 
      dc.SetBrush(wx.Brush(wx.Colour(255,255,255))) 
      dc.DrawCircle(300,125,30) 
  
      font = wx.Font(18, wx.ROMAN, wx.ITALIC, wx.NORMAL) 
      dc.SetFont(font) 
      dc.DrawText("Hello wxPython",200,10) 
  
      pen = wx.Pen(wx.Colour(0,0,255)) 
      dc.SetPen(pen) 
      dc.DrawLine(200,50,350,50) 
      dc.SetBrush(wx.Brush(wx.Colour(0,255,0), wx.CROSS_HATCH)) 
      dc.DrawRectangle(380, 15, 90, 60) 
  
ex = wx.App() 
Mywin(None,'Drawing demo') 
ex.MainLoop()

The above code produces the following output −