Request Help With Displaying XBM Image

[Peter Otten]

Wildman via Python-list wrote:

> As part of a program I am working on I want to display a
> 48x48 XBM image on the main window.  I have done a lot
> of searching for code snippets and I found what appears
> to be the correct way to do it using a Label.  So far I
> have not been able to get it to work.  I have tried
> different variations of the syntax but nothing will
> display the image.  The Label will expand to size of
> the image but nothing is there.  I have the background
> of the Label set to white so it can be seen.
> 
> For experimentation I create a small program for the
> sole purpose of displaying an XBM image.  The complete
> script is pasted below.  I am thinking the problem
> might have something with the way the image object
> is being created.  I'm probable making a dumb newbie
> mistake.  BTW, if I run the script from a terminal
> window, I do not get any errors.  Any guidance is
> appreciated.

It's not you, the program as you wrote it should and would show the image, 
were it not for an odd quirk in how images are handled in tkinter:

You have to keep an explicit reference of the Image to prevent it from being 
garbage-collected. Changing open_image() as follows

>     def open_image(self):
>         file_filter = [
>             ('X BitMap', '*.xbm *.XBM'),
>             ('all files', '*.*')
>             ]
>         fileName = tkFileDialog.askopenfilename(parent=root,
>                                                 initialdir=cv.default_dir,
>                                                 filetypes=file_filter,
>                                                 title="Open XBM Image")
>         if fileName:
>             cv.default_dir = os.path.dirname(fileName)
>             openImage = Image.open(fileName)
              self.imageFile = ImageTk.BitmapImage(openImage)
              self.xbmImage.config(image=self.imageFile)
>         else:
>              return None

should achieve that.