A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is an interface that allows the user to interact with an electronic device using graphical icons and sound indicators instead of text interfaces.
The GUI appeared in response to the seemingly steep learning curve of the command-line interface (CLI), which requires entering commands from the keyboard.
GUI frameworks are easily accessible – they are free and open source. Python has a wide range of features, from cross-platform to platform-specific.
As a Python developer, you should know the top frameworks that will help you add a GUI to your application. But if you are looking for professional support with your project, do not hesitate to contact the expert ML team at serokell.io.
PyQT
PyQT is a set of tools for the graphical user interface. This is one of the most popular Python interfaces. It is a combination of the QT library (owned by Nokia) and the Python programming language, which allows the developer to decide whether to create a program by coding or create visual dialogues using QT Designer.
PyQT is a free and open-source software for developing QT widgets, implemented for a cross-platform application development environment. Some features are only available for premium users, but you can use it under a free license if the application is open-source.
PyQT is available for Windows, MacOSX, Linux, Android, iOS, Raspberry Pi, and various Python versions from v2 to QT 5.
Tkinter
Tkinter is the most popular software package for graphical user interface or desktop applications. Tkinter is a combination of the standard Tk GUI and Python.
Tkinter comes with an abundance of code and reference resources, which is the main merit of choosing it as a package. It provides a variety of widgets such as labels, buttons, and text boxes used in a GUI application. The button control also called a widget, is used to display buttons in the application during development, while the canvas widget is used to draw shapes (lines, ovals, polygons, etc.) in your application.
It is easy to get help when you encounter obstacles in the development process of your application because Tkinter has thousands of users. After all, it has been used for a very long time. Tkinter is open source and available under the Python license.
Kivy
Kivy, as an accelerated OpenGL ES 2 environment for creating new user interfaces, gives you the ability to quickly write your code once and run it on different platforms or operating systems.
Creating Kivy apps is fun, easy, and rewarding because Kivy is free and is an open-source Python library for developing application software with an included natural user interface. Kivy has twenty widgets in its toolkit.
Flask
Flask is essentially a microframework and therefore focuses on ease of use rather than features. It takes much less time to set up and install than with other frameworks, and there will be fewer layers of abstraction between you and the HTTP functions. It was inspired by the Sinatra Ruby framework. The basic idea behind Flask is to help build a solid foundation for web applications. It has several features: a built-in development server and fast debugger, Jinja2 templating, support for secure cookies, and the ability to plug in any ORM.
It is best for web developers who want to use best practices, achieve rapid prototyping, and create standalone applications.
WxPython
WxPython is a Python extension module. It is also an open-source shell for the widget cross-platform graphical user interface library.
You can develop traditional Windows, Unix, and Mac OS applications.
Django
This web framework is one of the most popular Python-based web frameworks. It makes development easy, the code clean, and the learning curve fast. Django supports the major databases – MySQL, SQLite, PostgreSQL, and Oracle, but third-party drivers allow you to use others. It provides an abstraction that eliminates writing SQL queries to retrieve/save data to the database. Features of Django are its authentication, URL routing, pattern engine, an object-relational mapper (ORM), and database schema migration (Django v.3.0+).
If you choose Django, you won’t have to worry about a lack of features. You’ll get everything you’d expect from this framework, from a template engine to object-relational mapping. Best of all, it’s free and open source.
PyGUI
PyGUI is the simplest of all GUIs because it is synchronized with Python. It is a cross-platform graphical application environment for Windows, Mac OS, and Unix. The PyGUI developer inserts very little code between the GUI platform and the Python application, displaying the platform’s natural graphical interface.
Pyramid
Pyramid is an “open-source” framework for building Python applications. Its main goal is to do as much as possible with as little complexity as possible. The pyramid’s most striking feature is its ability to work well with both small and large applications. It’s excellent for single-file applications, and it’s also good at URLs, configuration extensions, testing, and data documentation. It’s simple and minimalist.
It’s best suited for those developing APIs, as well as prototyping and developing large web applications such as CMS. It’s also open-source and completely free.
Tornado
Not only is it a framework, but it’s also an asynchronous networking library that was initially developed for the FriendFeed aggregator. It uses non-blocking network I/O and solves the C10k problem (which means it can handle 10,000+ simultaneous connections if configured correctly). All this makes it an excellent tool for building applications that require high performance for tens of thousands of simultaneous users. In Tornado, you will find built-in support for user authentication, non-blocking HTTP client, and third-party authentication and authorization implementation.
CherryPy
And our cherry on top is the object-oriented HTTP framework – CherryPy. It makes developing web applications no different from building any other object-oriented program. CherryPy applications run on any operating system that supports Python (Windows, macOS, Linux, etc.) With CherryPy, you can efficiently run multiple HTTP servers at once, and the framework also has a powerful configuration system and a flexible system of plugins. In a workflow package, you also get tools for caching, coding, sessions, authentication, and static content, making it very easy and time-saving. Enjoy!
Conclusion
More information about AI techniques is represented in this blog. The above are the most widely used and best available Python GUI frameworks, in my personal opinion. All developers and ML experts have their own set of tools, if you wish to add your favorites, do in the comments below.