How do I change the background of a Frame in Tkinter?

Question

I have been creating an Email program using Tkinter, in Python 3.3. On various sites I have been seeing that the Frame widget can get a different background using Frame.config(background="color"). However, when I use this in my Frames it gives the following error:

_tkinter.TclError: unknown option "-Background"

It does not work when doing the following:

frame = Frame(root, background="white")

Or:

frame = Frame(root)
frame.config(bg="white")

I can't figure it out. I would post my whole source code but I dont want it exposed on the internet, but the frame creation goes something like this:

mail1 = Frame(self, relief=SUNKEN)
mail1.pack()
mail1.place(height=70, width=400, x=803, y=109)
mail1.config(Background="white")

I have tried multiple options trying to modify the background. The frame is like a wrap around an email preview for an inbox.

In case it's needed, this the way I am importing my modules:

import tkinter, time, base64, imaplib, smtplib
from imaplib import *
from tkinter import *
from tkinter.ttk import *

The following is the full traceback:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "C:\Users\Wessel\Dropbox\Python\Main\Class Ginomail.py", line 457, in <module>
main()
File "C:\Users\Wessel\Dropbox\Python\Main\Class Ginomail.py", line 453, in main
app = Application(root) #start the application with root as the parent
File "C:\Users\Wessel\Dropbox\Python\Main\Class Ginomail.py", line 60, in __init__
self.initINBOX()
File "C:\Users\Wessel\Dropbox\Python\Main\Class Ginomail.py", line 317, in initINBOX
mail1.config(bg="white")
File "C:\Python33\lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 1263, in configure
return self._configure('configure', cnf, kw)
File "C:\Python33\lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 1254, in _configure
self.tk.call(_flatten((self._w, cmd)) + self._options(cnf))
_tkinter.TclError: unknown option "-bg"

Gives the following error with the code from the answer:

  File "C:\Users\Wessel\Dropbox\Python\Main\Class Ginomail.py", line 317, in initINBOX
  mail1 = Frame(self, relief=SUNKEN, style='myframe')
  File "C:\Python33\lib\tkinter\ttk.py", line 733, in __init__
  Widget.__init__(self, master, "ttk::frame", kw)
  File "C:\Python33\lib\tkinter\ttk.py", line 553, in __init__
  tkinter.Widget.__init__(self, master, widgetname, kw=kw)
  File "C:\Python33\lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 2075, in __init__
  (widgetName, self._w) + extra + self._options(cnf))
  _tkinter.TclError: Layout myframe not found

---

Solved! Thanks. Its the inbox bar to the right, background needed to be white.

Answer 1

The root of the problem is that you are unknowingly using the Frame class from the ttk package rather than from the tkinter package. The one from ttk does not support the background option.

This is the main reason why you shouldn't do global imports -- you can overwrite the definition of classes and commands.

I recommend doing imports like this:

import tkinter as tk
import ttk

Then you prefix the widgets with either tk or ttk :

f1 = tk.Frame(..., bg=..., fg=...)
f2 = ttk.Frame(..., style=...)

It then becomes instantly obvious which widget you are using, at the expense of just a tiny bit more typing. If you had done this, this error in your code would never have happened.