Pack Layout Manager

Introduction to the Tkinter pack geometry manager

Tkinter uses the geometry manager to arrange widgets on a window. The pack()
method is one of three geometry managers in Tkinter. The other geometry managers
are grid() and place().

The pack arranges widgets around the edges of their container. The container can be
the root window or a frame.

Let’s start with a simple program to understand each option better.

Tkinter pack geometry manager example

The pack geometry manager has many configurations. The following are the most
commonly used options: fill, expand, side, anchor, ipadx, ipady, padx, and
pady.

1) Pack with default options

The following shows how to use the pack geometry manager to arrange two Label
widgets on the root window:

import tkinter as tk
root = tk.Tk()
root.title('Pack Demo')
root.geometry("350x200")

# box 1
box1 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 1", bg="green", fg="white")
box1.pack()

# box 2
box2 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 2", bg="red", fg="white")
box2.pack()
root.mainloop()

In this example, we have two boxes: green and red. The pack() places the boxes on top
of each other because it uses the default options.

Before diving into other options, you need to understand the x and y coordinates of the
window:
The top left corner of the window is the origin with the coordinate (0,0). The
x-coordinate increments from left to right and the y-coordinate increments from top to
bottom.

2) ipadx & ipady: setting internal paddings

To create internal paddings for widgets, you use the ipadx and ipady parameters:

● ipadx creates padding left and right, or padding along the x-axis.
● ipady creates padding top and bottom, or padding along the y-axis.

For example, the following program uses ipadx and ipady parameters to set the
internal paddings of each box:

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()

root.title('Pack Demo')

root.geometry("350x200")

# box 1

box1 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 1", bg="green", fg="white")

box1.pack(ipadx=10, ipady=10)

# box 2

box2 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 2", bg="red", fg="white")

box2.pack(ipadx=10, ipady=10)

root.mainloop()

Output:
3) Using the fill option

The fill option accepts one of three string constants defined in the tkinter module.

● tkinter.X – fill available space along the x-axis

● tkinter.Y – fill available space along the y-axis
● tkiniter.BOTH – fill available space long both axises

These string constants are equivalent to 'x', 'y', and 'both'.

Note that if you import the tkinter module as tk, you need to reference the constants
X, Y, and BOTH using the tk prefix e.g., tk.X, tk.Y, and tk.BOTH.

The following example uses the fill parameter to set the fill option for the first label:

box1.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, fill=tk.X)

… you’ll see that the widget fills all available space across the x-axis:

However, if you change to fill=tk.Y as follows:

box1.pack(ipadx=20,ipady=20,fill=tk.Y)

… you’ll see that the first widget doesn’t fill all spaces vertically:

This is because the pack allocates space to each widget as highlighted in the following
picture:
When you use the fill option, the area each widget can fill is constrained by their
allocated areas.

4) Using the expand option

The expand option allocates more available space to a widget. If you add the expand
option to the first widget:

box1.pack(ipadx=20,ipady=20,expand=True)

Code language: Python (python)

…you’ll get the following output:

In this example, the first widget takes all available space in the window except for the
space allocated to the second widget.
Since the first widget doesn’t have the fill option, it floats in the middle of the
allocated area.

If you set fill option of the first widget to tk.BOTH:

box1.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True)

…you’ll see that the first widget fills up all of its allocated space:

If you add the expand option to both widgets, the pack manager will allocate the space
to them evenly. For example:

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()

root.title('Pack Demo')

root.geometry("350x200")

# box 1

box1 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 1", bg="green", fg="white")

box1.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True)

# box 2

box2 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 2", bg="red", fg="white")

box2.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, expand=True)

root.mainloop()

Output:

Notice that the second widget doesn’t use all allocated space because it doesn’t have
the fill option.

When you set the expand to True for all widgets, the pack geometry manager will
allocate spaces to them evenly. However, this is only true when all the widgets share the
same side.

5) Using the anchor option

The anchor allows you to anchor the widget to the edge of the allocated space. It
accepts one of the following values:
Sticky Description

N North or Top Center

S South or Bottom Center

E East or Right Center

W West or Left Center

NW North West or Top Left

NE North East or Top Right

SE South East or Bottom Right

SW South West or Bottom Left

 CENTER Center

The following picture illustrates the anchor options:

For example, the following program shows widgets that use E and W anchors:

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()

root.title('Pack Demo')

root.geometry("350x200")

# box 1

box1 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 1", bg="green", fg="white")

box1.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, anchor=tk.E, expand=True)

# box 2

box2 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 2", bg="red", fg="white")

box2.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, anchor=tk.W, expand=True)

root.mainloop()

Output:

6) Using the side option

The side option specifies the alignment of the widget:

● tkinter.TOP
● tkinter.LEFT
● tkinter.RIGHT
● tkinter.BOTTOM

They are equivalent to 'left', 'top', 'right', and 'bottom'.

The side defaults to TOP. In other words, widgets are aligned to the top of their
container.
The following example sets the side for the first widget to tkinter.LEFT :

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()

root.title('Pack Demo')

root.geometry("350x200")

# box 1

box1 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 1", bg="green", fg="white")

box1.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True,

side=tk.LEFT)

# box 2

box2 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 2", bg="red", fg="white")

box2.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True)

root.mainloop()
Output:

In this example, the expand option may not work as you expected. The reason is that
widgets have different sides.

To make their space even again, you can:

● Set the side of both widgets to 'left'

● Or set the side of a widget to 'left' and the side of the other widget to
'right'.

For example:

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()

root.title('Pack Demo')

root.geometry("350x200")

# box 1

box1 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 1", bg="green", fg="white")

box1.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True,
side=tk.LEFT)

# box 2

box2 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 2", bg="red", fg="white")

box2.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True,

side=tk.RIGHT)

root.mainloop()

Output:

6) padx and pady: set the external paddings

To set the external paddings of widgets, you use the padx and pady parameters:

● padx – fill available space along the x-axis

● pady – fill available space along the y-axis

For example:
import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()

root.title('Pack Demo')

root.geometry("350x200")

# box 1

box1 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 1", bg="green", fg="white")

box1.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, padx=20, pady=20,

fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True)

# box 2

box2 = tk.Label(root, text="Box 2", bg="red", fg="white")

box2.pack(ipadx=20, ipady=20, padx=20, pady=20,

fill=tk.BOTH, expand=True)

root.mainloop()
Output:

When to use the pack geometry manager

The pack geometry manager is suitable for the following:

● Placing widgets in a top-down layout.

● Placing widgets side-by-side layout.

See the following example:

import tkinter as tk

from tkinter import ttk

root = tk.Tk()

root.title('Pack Demo')

root.geometry("300x200")

ipadding = {'ipadx': 10, 'ipady': 10}

# place widgets top down

label1 = tk.Label(root, text='Box 1', bg="red", fg="white")

label1.pack(**ipadding, fill=tk.X)

label2 = tk.Label(root, text='Box 2', bg="green", fg="white")

label2.pack(**ipadding, fill=tk.X)

label3 = tk.Label(root, text='Box 3', bg="blue", fg="white")

label3.pack(**ipadding, fill=tk.X)

# place widgets side by side

label4 = tk.Label(root, text='Left', bg="cyan", fg="black")

label4.pack(**ipadding, expand=True, fill=tk.BOTH, side=tk.LEFT)

label5 = tk.Label(root, text='Center', bg="magenta", fg="black")

label5.pack(**ipadding, expand=True, fill=tk.BOTH, side=tk.LEFT)

label6 = tk.Label(root, text='Right', bg="yellow", fg="black")

label6.pack(**ipadding, expand=True, fill=tk.BOTH, side=tk.LEFT)

root.mainloop()
Output:

Using pack to create a login form example

The following example uses the pack() method to create a login form:

import tkinter as tk

from tkinter import ttk

root = tk.Tk()

root.title('Login')

root.geometry("350x220")

fields = {}

fields['username_label'] = ttk.Label(text='Username:')

fields['username'] = ttk.Entry()
fields['password_label'] = ttk.Label(text='Password:')

fields['password'] = ttk.Entry(show="*")

for field in fields.values():

field.pack(anchor=tk.W, padx=10, pady=5, fill=tk.X)

ttk.Button(text='Login').pack(anchor=tk.W, padx=10, pady=5)

root.mainloop()

Output:
How it works.

First, initialize a dictionary to store the widgets:

fields = {}

Second, create Label and Entry widgets:

fields['username_label'] = ttk.Label(text='Username:')

fields['username'] = ttk.Entry()

fields['password_label'] = ttk.Label(text='Password:')

fields['password'] = ttk.Entry(show="*")

Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Third, iterate through the widgets and pack them:

for field in fields.values():

field.pack(anchor=tk.W, padx=10, pady=5, fill=tk.X)

Finally, add the login button:

ttk.Button(text='Login').pack(anchor=tk.W, padx=10, pady=5)

Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

Summary
● Use Tkinter pack geometry manager to arrange widgets in a top-down layout or
side by side.
● Use the fill, expand, and side options of pack geometry manager to control
how widgets are arranged.