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Create GUI Applications with Python & Qt — PySide2 Edition

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$19.00
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Tired of piecing together incomplete and out of date examples?


Looking for a book that answers real problems with well designed modern solutions? I've been teaching PySide2 for 8 years. This book has already helped more than 10K developers make their apps a reality. 

I know the problems you're facing, because I've seen them before. Let's get your project finished!

— Martin Fitzpatrick 
You will get the following files:
  • EPUB (19MB)
  • PDF (14MB)
  • ZIP (8MB)

Over 10,000 copies sold

  • 750+ page ebook of hands-on PySide2 exercises
  • 280+ code examples to experiment with
  • Includes PDF and EPub formats.
  • Compatible with Python 3.4+
  • Code free to reuse in your own projects
  • Lifetime updates — last updated May 2022


What People Say

Inside the book

Basic concepts and first steps

Starting from the very basics of creating a desktop window this modern PySide2 book takes you on a tour of the key features of PySide2. We'll look at the basic building blocks of PySide2 applications — Widgets, Layouts & Signals and learn how PySide2 uses the event loop to handle and respond to user input.

Designing UIs with Qt Designer

Build your user interfaces visually in the Qt Designer drag-and-drop editor. We'll take a quick tour of the designer and show how to load your created interface into Python.

Unleash your creativity

Think the default look of Qt is a bit drab? You can customize almost anything using Styles, Palettes and Qt Style Sheets. We'll take a tour through how you can use these to completely customize the look and feel of your applications.

Build data-driven applications

Use PySide2's MVC-like interface to work efficiently with data, right in your applications. Use custom data stores and sync widgets automatically, allowing you to focus on the logic.

Use tabular views to display SQL databases and numpy or pandas datastructures. Use linked widgets for easy editing.

Create your own custom widgets

PySide2 provides a huge number of built-in widgets, but sometimes you need a little something extra. Starting with an introduction to bitmap graphics we'll build up to creating entirely custom-drawn widgets for your apps.

Efficient apps with threads and processes

Are your apps stuttering to a halt? Learn how to use threads & processes to keep long-running calculations, loading large files or connections to remote servers all running smoothly.

Capture output from threads and processes and keep your users informed with progress bars and thread managers.

Visualize data with interactive charts

Use matplotlib or PyQtGraph to display data within your app. Use threads to create live dashboards, pulling data from your calculations or remote services.

Unlock the data-analysis capabilities of Python from within your applications.

Build real apps not just examples

Move beyond simple examples, learning how to use to create fully-functional applications.

The book guides you through creating a simple Web browserMinesweeper gamePaint app and a Simple Todo reminder, using the features you've learned.

Package your apps for distribution

Once your app is ready, it's time to share it!

Discover how to package your applications for distribution on Windows, Mac and Linux.

Not your average ebook

First published over 5 years ago Create GUI Applications has been regularly improved and extended following reader feedback. Now at over 750 pages, you benefit from the combined experience of thousands of readers. Buying the book gives you access to all future updates. Every chapter comes with complete, runnable code examples.

About the author

Martin Fitzpatrick is a Python programmer, author and tutor. He's been developing Python/Qt apps for 10 years. Starting out building desktop applications to make data-analysis tools more user-friendly, Python was the obvious choice. Starting with Tk, later moving to wxWidgets and finally adopting PyQt & PySide.

Table of Contents

  1. Basic PySide2 Features p6-190
    • My first Application
    • Signals & Slots
    • Widgets
    • Layouts
    • Actions, Toolbars & Menus
    • Dialogs
    • Windows
    • Events
  2. Qt Designer p191-225
    • Installing Qt Designer
    • Getting started with Qt Designer
    • The Qt Resource system
  3. Theming p216-291
    • Styles
    • Palettes
    • Icons
    • Qt Style Sheets (QSS)
  4. Model View Architecture p292-369
    • The Model View Architecture — Model View Controller
    • A simple Model View — a Todo List
    • Tabular data in ModelViews, with numpy & pandas
    • SQL databases with Qt models
  5. Custom Widgets p370-450
    • QPainter and Bitmap Graphics
    • Creating Custom Widgets
  6. Concurrent Execution p451-564
    • Introducing Threads & Processes
    • QRunnable and the QThreadPool
    • QRunnable Examples, Progress Bars & thread Managers
    • Running external commands with QProcess
  7. Plotting p565-604
    • PyQtGraph
    • Matplotlib
  8. Further Qt6 Features p605-656
    • Timers
    • Extending Signals
    • Working with Relative Paths
    • System tray & macOS menus
    • Enums & the Qt Namespace
    • Working with command-line arguments
  9. Packaging & Distribution p657-711
    • Packaging with PyInstaller
    • Creating a Windows Installer with Installforge
    • Creating a macOS Disk Image Installer
    • Creating a Linux Package with fpm
  10. Example applications p712-759
    • Web Browser
    • Minesweeper
  11. Appendices
    • Translating C++ to Python
    • PySide2 vs. PyQt5

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