supercanvas

This package provides a supercanvas widget based on the original tkinter canvas. It provides a quickly useable canvas with a usual cartesian coordinate system.

As it remains a canvas, I've tried to keep canvas's items behaviour. So options of items created are usual options and items created return id (as a number) of the object so that you can itemconfigure it.

Note: tticks tag is no more used, replaced by xlabel and ylabel tags.

Full commands list

from supercanvas import *

supercanvas(rootname, **options)

options could be ususal tkinter options and boolean variables: axes, ticks, xlabel, ylabel grid, zero and follow.

These variables dis/enable features of supercanvas.

supercanvas setup methods:

.setOrigin(x, y)
.getOrigin()

.setViewX(x1, x2)
.setViewY(y1, y2)
.getView()

.setUnit(x, y)
.getUnit()

.setTicks(dx, dy)
.getTicks()

.setDim(scanvas_width, scanvas_height)
.getDim()

supercanvas setup variables:

.axes   # boolean
.ticks  # boolean
.xlabel # boolean
.ylabel # boolean
.grid   # boolean
.zero   # boolean

.step   # float or int: distance between successive argument values in drawFunction/Param

supercanvas drawing methods:

.export()       # save supercanvas in an eps file whose name is timestamped

.drawPoint(x, y, **options)
.drawLine(list, **options)        # flat-list or list of tuples
.drawFunction(function, a, b, **options)
.drawParam(x-function, y_function, a, b, **options)
.drawSeq(function, 1st_term, final_rank, **options)

supercanvas tags to identify objects: axes, ticks, xlabel, ylabel grid and zero.

These tags enable you to configure objects tagged with the usual way:

For example:

.itemconfigure("axes", fill="red", dashed=(5, 2))

hsv_to_rgb(h, s, v) is based on this SO code

beginmagicTk() # output to store
endMagicTk(name_of_previous_output)

Real documentation begins at this point

If you just want to have this supercanvas alone with no other widget, see magicTk section at the end.

class object

>>> from supercanvas import *

Once package importation completed, you have to create a supercanvas the usual way.

r = tkinter.Tk()
c = supercanvas(r, bg="white", width=800, height=600)

origin and units

By default, origin is located at supercanvas's center and units are both 1 pixel (and axes are drawn in french style with arrows). You can change this with setOrigin and setUnit methods:

c.setUnit(80, 100)
c.setOrigin(50, 200)

One new feature of 0.4 version is to introduce setViewX and setViewY which allows you to forget about setUnit and setOrigin. You use these two methods to indicate limits of your drawing frame, that's so simple!

c.setViewX(-5, 5)
c.setViewY(-1.05, 3.1)

axes and ticks

By default, axes, ticks, tticks, grid ans zero are shown/drawn. If you want them not to appear, you pass options axes, ticks, xlabel, ylabel, grid and zero to False in the supercanvas command.

Or you can these variables to False into your script.

setTicks method allow you to set distance between ticks.

c.axes = False
c.setTicks(1, .5)

supercanvas items

supercanvas provides four drawing methods drawPoint, drawLine, drawFunction, drawParam and drawSeq.

• drawPoint method creates a point at the desired coords.

f = lambda x:x**2
x = 3
c.drawPoint(x, f(x), fill="red", outline="red")

It's based on create_oval so you can pass each option related to Oval object.

• drawLine method creates a line with a list of coords.

c.drawLine([(-2, 2), (-1, 0), (0, 3)], fill="blue", width=3)

drawLine also supports a flat list of coords:

c.drawLine([-2, 2, -1, 0, 0, 3], fill="blue", width=3)

gives the same line.

• drawFunction method creates a line representing a function passed.

f = lambda x: 3 * x ** 2 + 2 
c.drawLine(f, -2, 7, fill="green")

-2 and 7 are the lower and upper values of argumentt's function.

You can use step method to specify difference between two consecutive argguments, default is 1.

f = lambda x: 3 * x ** 1.2 + 2
c.step = .1
c.drawLine(f, -2, 7, fill="green")

• drawParam method creates a line representing a parametric curve.

this code creates a unit circle:

f = lambda x: math.cos(x)
g = lambda x: math.sin(x)
c.step = .01
c.drawParam(f, g, 0, 2 * math.pi)

• drawSeq method creates a broken line representing visual serach of a recursive sequence based on a function i.e. $ u_{n+1} = f(u_n)$.

Function and identity function do not need to be drawn but it visually helps to understand line construction.

f = lambda x: 1/(1+x)
c.step = .01
c.drawFunction(f, 0, 2)
c.drawSeq(f, 1, 5)

In the previsous example, $u_1=f(u_0)$ until we reach $u_5$. Construction stops when we just have to read $u_5$ on x-axis.

grab/release background

You can move the whole supercanvas content in grabing / releasing the background. It will refresh coords.

zooming

You can zoom the whole supercanvas content with mousewheel.

supercanvas options

• axes

passing axes=False to supercanvas options disable axes, default is True. For the moment, you cannot change axes style...

• ticks

passing ticks=False to supercanvas options disable ticks, default is True.

• xlabel and ylabel

passing xlabel=False to supercanvas options disable text labels on x-axis, default is True. Same thing for ylabel

• grid

passing grid=False to supercanvas options disable the grid, default is True.

• zero

passing zero=False to supercanvas options disable zero apparition, default is True.

• follow

passing follow=False to supercanvas options disable cursor follow with coords, default is True.

exporting

supercanvas provides an export method. At each call, this creates an eps (encapsulated postscript, so a vector graphics) file which name is a timestamp, so successive exports are sorted.

Export images are in a exportImages directory created on the current directory if it doesn't exist.

create an animation for linux users

You can find an eps2png perl script by Johan Vromans.

It's a quite fast script. Once in the exportImages directory, you run it:

$ eps2png *.eps

It creates you png files with the same names. Then with convert command of ImageMagick, you run:

Note: It's better to pass -width and -height options to this conversion command to respect initial size. Sometimes you will need also to adapt antialiasing with -antialias option (1, 2, 4 or 8).

$ convert -delay 10 *.png animation.gif

to output a gif with the delay specified between images.

See example 4 below for a full complete example.

full examples

• example 1

Points and functions using drawPoint and drawLine.

from supercanvas import *
import math
r = tkinter.Tk()

c = supercanvas(r, bg="white", width=800, height=600, ticks=False)
c.setUnit(100, 100)

f=lambda x:math.cos(x)
g=lambda x:math.sin(x)

p = .1
a, b = -3, 3
x = a
listePointsF = []
listePointsG = []
for i in range(int(1 + (b - a) / p)):
    # creating points 
    c.drawPoint(x, f(x), fill="red", outline="red")
    # two lists
    # function f with tuples
    listePointsF += (x, f(x))
    # function g with flat list
    listePointsG += [x]+[g(x)]
    x += p

# drawings of the two curves
c.drawLine(listePointsF, fill="green")
c.drawLine(listePointsG, fill="blue", width=3)

# balancing canvas on the root
c.pack(expand=True)

# q to quit
r.bind("<q>", quit)
tkinter.mainloop()

• example 2

Function using drawFunction.

from supercanvas import *
import math
r = tkinter.Tk()

c = supercanvas(r, bg="#00964a")
c.setOrigin(30, 150)
c.setUnit(10, 80)

f = lambda x: math.sin(x) / x
c.step=.1
c.drawFunction(f, c.step, 10*math.pi, width=3, fill="white")

c.pack()
r.bind("<q>", quit)
tkinter.mainloop()

• example 3

Cardioid curve using drawParam

from supercanvas import *
import math
r = tkinter.Tk()

c = supercanvas(r, bg="red", width=500, height=500)
c.setOrigin(100, 250)
c.setUnit(150, 150)

x = lambda t: 2 * (1 - t ** 2) / (1 + t ** 2) ** 2
y = lambda t: 4 * t / (1 + t ** 2) ** 2
c.step=.001
c.drawParam(x, y, -10, 10, width=3, fill="white")

c.pack()
r.bind("<q>", quit)
tkinter.mainloop()

• example 4

Lissajous animated curve with possibility to export.

from supercanvas import *

import math
w = beginMagicTk()
# canvas dimension
dim = 600
# offset: mid-with of the linewidth
offset = 25
#
c = supercanvas(w, bg="white", width=dim, height=dim,
                axes=False, ticks=False)
c.pack(expand=True)
c.setUnit(dim/2 - offset, dim/2 - offset)

# steps between entry values
c.step = .005
# exploring to 10 with 50 values in-between
n = 10
steps = 50
#
for i in range(steps * n + 1):
    j = i / steps
    allerRetour = abs(n / 2 - j)
    twoPi = 2 * math.pi
    id = c.drawParam(lambda x: math.cos(allerRetour * x),
                     lambda x:math.sin((n / 2 - allerRetour) * x),
                     0, twoPi,
                     width=50, fill="black", smooth=1,
                     joinstyle="round", capstyle="round")
    # update content
    c.update()
    # export image to directory
    # next line to uncomment to export
    # c.export()
    # wait a little
    w.after(10)
    # delete actual curve from content
    c.delete(id)

endMagicTk(w)

• example 5

Customizing axes and drawn elements

w = beginMagicTk()
dim = 600
c = supercanvas(w, bg="white", width=dim, height=dim,
                axes=True,
                ticks=True,
                xlabel=False,
                ylabel=False,
                grid=True)
c.setUnit(100, 100)
c.itemconfigure("axes", fill="red", width=1)
c.itemconfigure("grid", fill="darkblue", dash=(5, 2, 1, 2))
c.itemconfigure("ticks", fill="blue", width=5)
c.step=.1
c.drawFunction(lambda x:.5 * x**2, -5, 5,
               fill="darkgreen", dash=(5, 2), width=4)

endMagicTk(w)

magicTk

Because remembering tkinter commands for just one widget is awful, supercanvas provides two commands beginMagicTk and endMagicTk.

Key q is bind to close/exit event.

Here's how to use them in a standalone example file:

from supercanvas import *
w = beginMagicTk()

c = supercanvas(w, bg="white")
c.setUnit(100, 20)
c.setTicks(.5, 2)

f = lambda x: x ** 3
c.step=.1
c.drawFunction(f, -3, 3)

endMagicTk(w)

Assign first command output, use it in supercanvas and endMagicTk commands.

If you want to update supercanvas content for animation for example, you shouldn't use this since endMagicTk contains the command to show the canvas, so maybe too late for you.

further

Much much more!

about

supercanvas is rather an attempt to publish on the PyPi packages index than a fully completed python project, I do not recommend supercanvas usage for professionnal use. You have to consider this package as an experiment.