Python script to copy text to clipboard

Question

I just need a python script that copies text to the clipboard.

After the script gets executed i need the output of the text to be pasted to another source. Is it possible to write a python script that does this job?

Answer 1

See Pyperclip. Example (taken from Pyperclip site):

import pyperclip
pyperclip.copy('The text to be copied to the clipboard.')
spam = pyperclip.paste()

Also, see Xerox. But it appears to have more dependencies.

Answer 2

On macOS, use subprocess.run to pipe your text to pbcopy:

import subprocess 
data = "hello world"
subprocess.run("pbcopy", text=True, input=data)

It will copy "hello world" to the clipboard.

Answer 3

To use native Python directories, use:

import subprocess

def copy2clip(txt):
    cmd='echo '+txt.strip()+'|clip'
    return subprocess.check_call(cmd, shell=True)

on Mac, instead:

import subprocess

def copy2clip(txt):
    cmd='echo '+txt.strip()+'|pbcopy'
    return subprocess.check_call(cmd, shell=True)

Then use:

copy2clip('This is on my clipboard!')

to call the function.

Answer 4

PyQt5:

from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication
import sys

def main():
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    cb = QApplication.clipboard()
    cb.clear(mode=cb.Clipboard )
    cb.setText("Copy to ClipBoard", mode=cb.Clipboard)
    # Text is now already in the clipboard, no need for further actions.
    sys.exit()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Answer 5

GTK3:

#!/usr/bin/python3

from gi.repository import Gtk, Gdk


class Hello(Gtk.Window):

    def __init__(self):
        super(Hello, self).__init__()
        clipboard = Gtk.Clipboard.get(Gdk.SELECTION_CLIPBOARD)
        clipboard.set_text("hello world", -1)
        Gtk.main_quit()


def main():
    Hello()
    Gtk.main()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

Answer 6

I try this clipboard 0.0.4 and it works well.

https://pypi.python.org/pypi/clipboard/0.0.4

import clipboard
clipboard.copy("abc")  # now the clipboard content will be string "abc"
text = clipboard.paste()  # text will have the content of clipboard

Answer 7

One more answer to improve on: https://stackoverflow.com/a/4203897/2804197 and https://stackoverflow.com/a/25476462/1338797 (Tkinter).

Tkinter is nice, because it's either included with Python (Windows) or easy to install (Linux), and thus requires little dependencies for the end user.

Here I have a "full-blown" example, which copies the arguments or the standard input, to clipboard, and - when not on Windows - waits for the user to close the application:

import sys

try:
    from Tkinter import Tk
except ImportError:
    # welcome to Python3
    from tkinter import Tk
    raw_input = input

r = Tk()
r.withdraw()
r.clipboard_clear()

if len(sys.argv) < 2:
    data = sys.stdin.read()
else:
    data = ' '.join(sys.argv[1:])

r.clipboard_append(data)

if sys.platform != 'win32':
    if len(sys.argv) > 1:
        raw_input('Data was copied into clipboard. Paste and press ENTER to exit...')
    else:
        # stdin already read; use GUI to exit
        print('Data was copied into clipboard. Paste, then close popup to exit...')
        r.deiconify()
        r.mainloop()
else:
    r.destroy()

This showcases:

• importing Tk across Py2 and Py3
• raw_input and print() compatibility
• "unhiding" Tk root window when needed
• waiting for exit on Linux in two different ways.

Answer 8

This is an altered version of @Martin Thoma's answer for GTK3. I found that the original solution resulted in the process never ending and my terminal hung when I called the script. Changing the script to the following resolved the issue for me.

#!/usr/bin/python3

from gi.repository import Gtk, Gdk
import sys
from time import sleep

class Hello(Gtk.Window):

    def __init__(self):
        super(Hello, self).__init__()
        
        clipboardText = sys.argv[1]
        clipboard = Gtk.Clipboard.get(Gdk.SELECTION_CLIPBOARD)
        clipboard.set_text(clipboardText, -1)
        clipboard.store()


def main():
    Hello()
    
    

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

You will probably want to change what clipboardText gets assigned to, in this script it is assigned to the parameter that the script is called with.

On a fresh ubuntu 16.04 installation, I found that I had to install the python-gobject package for it to work without a module import error.