Building a Simple Text Editor with PyQt6

PyQt is a powerful framework that allows developers to create sophisticated graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in Python. In this tutorial, you'll learn how to build a simple text editor using PyQt6 that includes features for changing the font family, size, and applying text styles like bold, italic, and underline.

Setting Up PyQt6

To begin, ensure PyQt6 is installed in your Python environment:

pip install PyQt6

Creating the Text Editor GUI

Here’s how to create a text editor with advanced text formatting options.

1. Import Necessary Modules

Start by importing the necessary modules:

from PyQt6.QtWidgets import QApplication, QMainWindow, QTextEdit, QAction, QToolBar, QFontComboBox, QSpinBox
from PyQt6.QtGui import QFont, QIcon
from PyQt6.QtCore import Qt

2. Define the Main Window Class

Define your main window class, inheriting from QMainWindow:

class TextEditor(QMainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()

        self.initUI()

    def initUI(self):
        self.textEdit = QTextEdit(self)

        self.setCentralWidget(self.textEdit)
        self.setWindowTitle('Simple Text Editor - PyQt6')
        self.setGeometry(300, 300, 600, 400)

        self.createToolbar()

    def createToolbar(self):
        toolbar = QToolBar("Toolbar", self)
        self.addToolBar(toolbar)

        fontBox = QFontComboBox(toolbar)
        fontBox.currentFontChanged.connect(self.fontFamilyChanged)
        toolbar.addWidget(fontBox)

        fontSizeBox = QSpinBox(toolbar)
        fontSizeBox.setValue(14)
        fontSizeBox.valueChanged.connect(self.fontSizeChanged)
        toolbar.addWidget(fontSizeBox)

        boldAction = QAction(QIcon('icons/bold.png'), 'Bold', self)
        boldAction.triggered.connect(self.boldText)
        toolbar.addAction(boldAction)

        italicAction = QAction(QIcon('icons/italic.png'), 'Italic', self)
        italicAction.triggered.connect(self.italicText)
        toolbar.addAction(italicAction)

        underlineAction = QAction(QIcon('icons/underline.png'), 'Underline', self)
        underlineAction.triggered.connect(self.underlineText)
        toolbar.addAction(underlineAction)

    def fontFamilyChanged(self, font):
        self.textEdit.setCurrentFont(font)

    def fontSizeChanged(self, size):
        self.textEdit.setFontPointSize(size)

    def boldText(self):
        currentWeight = self.textEdit.fontWeight()
        if currentWeight == QFont.Weight.Bold:
            self.textEdit.setFontWeight(QFont.Weight.Normal)
        else:
            self.textEdit.setFontWeight(QFont.Weight.Bold)

    def italicText(self):
        currentState = self.textEdit.fontItalic()
        self.textEdit.setFontItalic(not currentState)

    def underlineText(self):
        currentState = self.textEdit.fontUnderline()
        self.textEdit.setFontUnderline(not currentState)

3. Initialize and Run the Application

To run the application, add the following code:

if __name__ == '__main__':
app = QApplication([])
editor = TextEditor()
editor.show()
app.exec()