Author:         Eric Taylor <et2@rocketship1.com>
Author:         Donal K. Fellows <donal.k.fellows@manchester.ac.uk>
State:          Final
Type:           Project
Vote:           Done
Created:        18-Mar-2006
Post-History:   
Keywords:       Tk,option
Tcl-Version:    8.7
Tk-Branch:      tip-262
Votes-For:      DKF, FV, KBK, JN, SL
Votes-Against:  none
Votes-Present:  none

Abstract

This TIP proposes an option for frames and toplevels (on the grounds that they're virtually the same thing internally) that allows users to set the background of the window to be an image.

Rationale

Just a there is an -image option for button widgets, this TIP suggests that a -backgroundimage option for frames be implemented. The image should be either an entire single image, or a smaller image that would be tiled, with a -tile option. Tiling would repeat, as needed, a smaller image to fit the visible area of the frame.

If the image was tiled, then it should be re-tiled as needed during a resize. The image would reside behind any other decoration or other widgets that resided in the frame. The image should be re-configurable to replace the image and/or remove it, as with a button image.

This TIP should allow some rather classy looking Tcl/Tk programs to be created with much ease.

Proposed Change

Two new options are proposed for frame and toplevel widgets, to be manipulated using the normal configure and cget methods:

• -backgroundimage imageName - This gives the name of an image (as created by image create) that is to be painted onto the widget immediately after the painting of the solid background colour. If imageName is the empty string (the default) no image will be painted. The painting of the image will be controlled by the -tile option.

• -tile boolean - If this option gives boolean as true, the image will be painted such that the top-left corner corresponds to the top-left corner of the frame (inside any border), and then subsequently repeatedly painted (with no gaps between the areas painted) to the right and below that initial painting until such time as the entire widget is covered by copies of the image. If this option gives boolean as false, the image will only be painted once, such that the center of the image painted is coincident with the center of the frame widget. The default will be false.

For convenience, an alias for -backgroundimage will also be provided: -bgimg

Implementation

See the tip-262 branch.

Copyright

This document has been placed in the public domain.