Step-by-step guide: Creating a Custom Slider with Stylesheet in PySide or PyQt

In this tutorial, we will create a custom slider with a modern GUI using PySide or PyQt without using QPainter and only utilizing stylesheets. This custom slider will have a sleek design and will be customizable to fit any application’s look and feel.

Before we begin, make sure you have PySide or PyQt installed in your Python environment. If not, you can install them using pip:

pip install PySide2
# or
pip install PyQt5

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Create a new Python file and import the necessary libraries:

from PySide2.QtWidgets import QApplication, QWidget, QSlider, QVBoxLayout

Step 2: Create a custom slider class that inherits from QSlider:

class CustomSlider(QSlider):
    def __init__(self, parent=None):
        super().__init__(parent)

        self.setStyleSheet("""
            QSlider {
                background: transparent;
                width: 10px;
            }
            QSlider::groove:vertical {
                border: 1px solid #ddd;
                background: #f1f1f1;
                width: 10px;
            }
            QSlider::handle:vertical {
                background: #3498db;
                border: 1px solid #ddd;
                width: 10px;
                margin: 0 -5px;
            }
        """)

In this class, we customize the appearance of the slider using stylesheets. You can modify the colors, sizes, and other properties to fit your design.

Step 3: Create a main window and add the custom slider to it:

class MainWindow(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()

        layout = QVBoxLayout()
        slider = CustomSlider()
        layout.addWidget(slider)

        self.setLayout(layout)

Step 4: Instantiate the QApplication and run the main window:

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = QApplication([])
    window = MainWindow()
    window.show()
    app.exec_()

Congratulations! You have created a custom slider with a modern GUI using stylesheets in PySide or PyQt. You can further customize the appearance and behavior of the slider by tweaking the stylesheet properties.

Feel free to experiment with different styles and designs to create sliders that perfectly match your application’s look and feel. Happy coding!