Python GUI Programming Tutorial using PyQt and Qt Designer

Introduction
Qt Designer is a visual design tool for creating PyQt GUI applications. PyQt is a set of Python bindings for the Qt application framework and runs on all platforms supported by Qt including Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. In this tutorial, we will show you how to use Qt Designer to create a simple GUI application using PyQt.

Step 1: Install PyQt
Before you can start using Qt Designer, you need to install PyQt on your system. You can install PyQt using pip by running the following command:

pip install pyqt5

Step 2: Open Qt Designer
Once you have PyQt installed, you can open Qt Designer by running the following command in your terminal:

designer

This will open the Qt Designer window where you can design your GUI application.

Step 3: Create a New GUI Application
In Qt Designer, go to File > New and select the type of form you want to create. For this tutorial, we will create a simple dialog-based application.

Step 4: Design the GUI
Once you have created a new form, you can start designing the GUI by dragging and dropping widgets from the widget box onto the form. You can customize the properties of each widget in the property editor on the right side of the window.

Step 5: Save the Form
Once you have finished designing your GUI, you can save the form by going to File > Save or by pressing Ctrl + S. Save the form with a .ui extension.

Step 6: Generate Python Code
To use the form in your PyQt application, you need to convert the .ui file to a .py file. You can do this by running the following command in your terminal:

pyuic5 -x your_form.ui -o your_form.py

This will generate a Python file that you can use to create your GUI application.

Step 7: Create a PyQt Application
Now that you have the Python file generated from Qt Designer, you can create a PyQt application that uses the form. Here is an example of a simple PyQt application that uses the form you created:

import sys
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QMainWindow
from your_form import Ui_MainWindow

class MyDialog(QMainWindow, Ui_MainWindow):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()
        self.setupUi(self)

if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    dialog = MyDialog()
    dialog.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())

Replace your_form with the name of the .py file generated from Qt Designer. This code creates an instance of your form and shows it as a dialog window.

Step 8: Run the Application
To run the application, save the Python code to a file and run it using Python. You should see your GUI application open with the form you created in Qt Designer.

Conclusion
In this tutorial, we have shown you how to create a simple GUI application using Qt Designer and PyQt. Qt Designer makes it easy to design complex GUI applications by providing a visual design tool that generates Python code for you. With PyQt, you can create cross-platform GUI applications that run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. We hope this tutorial has been helpful in getting you started with Qt Designer and PyQt GUI programming.