PyQt5: How to install/run Qt Designer

Question

Feeling really stupid, right now, but the title says it all:

How do you start the QtDesigner?

I've installed PyQt5 via pip and I believe to have identified the directory it's been installed in as

C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python36\Lib\site-packages\PyQt5

Now what? There are a lot of .pyd files, some .dll's, too, but nothing executable (well, except a QtWebEngineProcess.exe in ...\site-packages\PyQt5\Qt\bin, but that doesn't sound like what I'm looking for.

If you're still struggling, you may also try my [standalone installer](https://build-system.fman.io/qt-designer-download) for Qt Designer. It's only 40 MB and creates a simple "Qt Designer" entry in the Start menu. — Michael Herrmann, Oct 28 '18 at 14:56
As of December 2018, with Python 3.6 and PyQt5 under Windows 7, QT designer car be installed simply with `pip install pyqt5-tools`. An executable is then available in `C:\Program Files\Python36\Lib\site-packages\pyqt5_tools` — mins, Dec 19 '18 at 19:59
I so agree with the introduction - how hard can it be to run a program?! I felt stupid too! — Andy Brown, May 24 '22 at 08:35
Just installed Python on Windows 11 laptop, and folder seems to have moved to \Lib\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin in virtual environment folder. — Andy Brown, Jul 23 '22 at 08:05
@mins Unfortunately thats no longer correct. I swear this location changes every year — West, Aug 18 '22 at 07:14

score 42 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 04 '21 at 06:48

42

If you are working in python virtual environment, in the command window

>>qt5-tools designer

can open designer window.

answered Feb 04 '21 at 06:48

Bhaskar

478
4
9

1

This answer is a correct answer and deserves an up. – Edward Zhang Apr 09 '21 at 13:58
1

I'm not using venv, installed pyqt5-tools globally. This works. Thanks! – Omkar76 May 03 '21 at 09:54
2

this works both in `venv` and in `global` enviorments. – Muneeb Ahmad Khurram May 09 '21 at 19:00
1

It works. Upvoted. – Neil T. Jan 24 '22 at 05:48

score 40 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 28 '18 at 14:45

40

I struggled with this as well. The pyqt5-tools approach is cumbersome so I created a standalone installer for Qt Designer. It's only 40 MB. Maybe you will find it useful!

answered Oct 28 '18 at 14:45

Michael Herrmann

4,832
3
38
53

7

This should be the top answer in my opinion. – Daniel Farrell Mar 12 '19 at 23:29
Can you update you installer is pretty old 5.11 :/ – emcek Mar 29 '21 at 20:24
2

This tool is seemingly for windows and mac only - do you have a solution for linux? – darthn Dec 29 '21 at 01:02
It is sad that it is not Open Source, could potentially contain spyware – satk0 May 17 '23 at 16:32

score 23 · Answer 3 · edited May 19 '23 at 21:58

23

The Qt designer is not installed with the pip installation.

You can either download the full download from sourceforge (probably won't be the last pyqt release, and might be buggy on presence of another installation, like yours) or install it with another (unofficial) pypi package - pyqt5-tools (pip install pyqt5-tools), then run the designer from the following subpath of your python directory:

...\Python36\Lib\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin\designer.exe

or from (outdated):

...\Python36\Lib\site-packages\pyqt5-tools\designer\designer.exe

edited May 19 '23 at 21:58

satk0

170
1
9

answered Feb 07 '17 at 13:24

Uriel

15,579
6
25
46

1

Thank you! ``pip install pyqt5-tools`` gave me a ``No matching distribution found``, though, so I'll try sourceforge (kind of defeats the purpose of *having* pip, but ...). – User1291 Feb 07 '17 at 13:32
4

Just tried again to install `pyqt5-tools` with pip, and all worked fine. – Uriel Feb 07 '17 at 13:34
Any ideas what could be causing the "no matching distribution"? ``pip install pyqt5`` gives me ``requirement already satisfied`` for both, ``pyqt5`` and ``sip`` (and it should, given that's how I installed ``pyqt5`` in the first place). Doesn't stop ``pyqt5-tools`` from failing. – User1291 Feb 07 '17 at 13:39
On this machine? ``Win7``, still. – User1291 Feb 07 '17 at 13:40
Btw, that sourceforge link is for x86. Any x64 directories? – User1291 Feb 07 '17 at 13:52
1

Yeah, browse the installations manually under the "files" tab (near "summary", under the title with the logo), then navigate to "PyQt5". – Uriel Feb 07 '17 at 14:05
1

@User1291. The current pyqt5-tools is for PyQt-5.7 not PyQt-5.7.1, so it's not compatible. However, you should be able to open the pyqt5-tools wheel like a zip file and extract the contents to a suitable location. You can then try running the `designer.exe` file in the `pyqt5-tools/designer` folder. – ekhumoro Feb 07 '17 at 21:10
@ekhumoro Indeed, thank you. Works and doesn't risk interfering with the installed ``pyqt5``. Want to make an answer out of it? – User1291 Feb 08 '17 at 07:54
@UrielEli Either I'm missing something or these archives don't contain the designer either. – User1291 Feb 08 '17 at 07:56
@User1291 i've added support for several more versions and am working on linux wheels now. sorry there isn't a better list of versions but you can check https://ci.appveyor.com/project/KyleAltendorf/pyqt5-tools/build/268 for a list of the versions that 1.2 was released for. with this versioning it's a bit weird but i'm thinking specifying something like `pyqt5-tools~=5.7.1.0` is where you end up (https://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0440/#compatible-release). Raise an issue at github.com/altendky/pyqt5-tools if something isn't working for you. – altendky Sep 05 '17 at 15:11
3

I found it here: C:\Python37-32\Lib\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin – Captain Fantastic Feb 22 '21 at 05:07
1

@CaptainFantastic Thank you! It was driving me crazy. – Mostafa Abdulrazic Jun 20 '21 at 18:43
C:\Users\"UserName"\AppData\Local\Programs\Python\Python39\Lib\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin then will find -> designer.exe – Ibrahim El Aidi Jul 24 '21 at 23:45

ekhumoro · Accepted Answer · 2023-05-17T18:50:41.970

The latest PyQt5 wheels (which can be installed via pip) only contain what's necessary for running applications, and don't include the dev tools. This applies to PyQt versions 5.7 and later. For PyQt versions 5.6 and earlier, there are binary packages for Windows that also include the dev tools, and these are still available at sourceforge. The maintainer of PyQt does not plan on making any further releases of such binary packages, though - only the runtime wheels will now be made available, and there will be no official wheels for the dev tools.

In light of this, someone has created an unofficial pyqt5-tools wheel (for Windows only). This appears to be in it's early stages, though, and so may not keep up with recent PyQt5 releases. This means that it may not always be possible to install it via pip. If that is the case, as a work-around, the wheel files can be treated as zip files and the contents extracted to a suitable location. This should then allow you to run the designer.exe file that is in the pyqt5-tools folder.

Finally, note that you will also see some zip and tar.gz files at sourceforge for PyQt5. These only contain the source code, though, so will be no use to you unless you intend to compile PyQt5 yourself. And just to be clear: compiling from source still would not give you all the Qt dev tools. If you go down that route, you would need to install the whole Qt development kit separately as well (which would then get you the dev tools).

`pyqt5-tools-wheel` works from `pip`. After that, just start designer.exe from Python\Scripts folder. Thanks! — Hrvoje T, Jan 20 '19 at 21:53

score 21 · Answer 5 · edited Jul 06 '19 at 02:22

21

pip install pyqt5-tools

Then restart the cmd, just type "designer" and press enter.

edited Jul 06 '19 at 02:22

eyllanesc

235,170
19
170
241

answered Jul 05 '19 at 20:24

Sairaj Das

211
2
2

1

Thank you a thousand times! – Pedro Serpa Aug 08 '19 at 13:51

score 9 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 18 '21 at 05:32

9

If you cannot see the Designer , just look into this path "Lib\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin" for designer.exe and run it.

answered Jan 18 '21 at 05:32

Saikiran Gutla

121
1
2

Thank you very much, I recently installed pyqt6-tools and was confused about this. This answer is perfect for me. IF you have already installed the tools and are unable to locate the designer then try this step. for QT6 look for Python39\Lib\site-packages\qt6_applications\Qt\bin and you will find the designer.exe – Abinash Tripathy Jul 28 '21 at 13:18

score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 05 '20 at 18:29

6

PyQt5 works after pip install PyQt5Designer

answered Sep 05 '20 at 18:29

user5816728

61
1
3

This helped with Python 3.9 under Windows. Thanks. That got me QtDesigner. ... To get pyuic5 also going (to generate Python output) I had to also install pyuic5-tool with pip. – BarryM Jan 15 '21 at 06:08

score 5 · Answer 8 · edited Jul 06 '19 at 02:23

5

You can also install Qt Designer the following way:

Install latest Qt (I'm using 5.8) from Qt main site
Make sure you include "Qt 5.8 MinGW" component
Qt Designer will be installed in C:\Qt\5.8\mingw53_32\bin\designer.exe
Note that the executable is named "designer.exe"

edited Jul 06 '19 at 02:23

eyllanesc

235,170
19
170
241

answered Apr 05 '17 at 11:46

akej74

1,174
10
8

score 5 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 27 '19 at 21:14

5

pip install pyqt5-tools

working in python 3.7.4

wont work in python 3.8.0

answered Nov 27 '19 at 21:14

dima_showstopper

51
1
2

score 5 · Answer 10 · answered Jan 25 '21 at 01:52

5

For anyone stumbling across this post in 2021+ and finding the answers outdated: QT Designer is now in the qt5-applications package, under Qt\bin\. On Windows this means the default path, for CPython 3.9 using the Python.org installer, is %APPDATA%\Python\Python39\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin\designer.exe.

answered Jan 25 '21 at 01:52

Ryan Plant

1,037
1
11
18

I wish there was a way to move posts to the top when the old ones are out of date. May 2022, Visual Studio Code - this is exactly where designer.exe now sits. – Andy Brown May 24 '22 at 08:40

score 4 · Answer 11 · edited Nov 30 '21 at 20:30

4

Download the module using pip:

pip install PyQt5Designer

Then, for anaconda users, open:

C:\ProgramData\AnacondaX\Lib\site-packages\QtDesigner\designer.exe

For python users:

64-bit:

C:\Program Files\PythonXX\Lib\site-packages\QtDesigner\designer.exe

32-bit:

C:\Program Files (x86)\PythonXX\Lib\site-packages\QtDesigner\designer.exe

edited Nov 30 '21 at 20:30

General Grievance

4,555
31
31
45

answered Apr 26 '20 at 08:50

Gray Hat

39
3

score 3 · Answer 12 · answered Jan 20 '22 at 13:54

For Qt Designer 6 this worked for me thanks for that protip from @Bhaskar

pip install pyqt6-tools

Then started:

qt6-tools designer

End up with nice working lightweight Qt Designer 6.0.1 version

@ pip install pyqt6-tools
Collecting pyqt6-tools
  Using cached pyqt6_tools-6.1.0.3.2-py3-none-any.whl (29 kB)
Collecting pyqt6-plugins<6.1.0.3,>=6.1.0.2.2
  Downloading pyqt6_plugins-6.1.0.2.2-cp39-cp39-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (77 kB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 77 kB 492 kB/s            
Collecting python-dotenv
  Using cached python_dotenv-0.19.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl (17 kB)
Collecting pyqt6==6.1.0
  Downloading PyQt6-6.1.0-cp36.cp37.cp38.cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (6.8 MB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 6.8 MB 1.0 MB/s            
Requirement already satisfied: click in ./.pyenv/versions/3.9.6/lib/python3.9/site-packages (from pyqt6-tools) (8.0.1)
Collecting PyQt6-sip<14,>=13.1
  Downloading PyQt6_sip-13.2.0-cp39-cp39-manylinux1_x86_64.whl (307 kB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 307 kB 898 kB/s            
Collecting PyQt6-Qt6>=6.1.0
  Using cached PyQt6_Qt6-6.2.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (50.0 MB)
Collecting qt6-tools<6.1.0.2,>=6.1.0.1.2
  Downloading qt6_tools-6.1.0.1.2-py3-none-any.whl (13 kB)
Collecting click
  Downloading click-7.1.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl (82 kB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 82 kB 381 kB/s            
Collecting qt6-applications<6.1.0.3,>=6.1.0.2.2
  Downloading qt6_applications-6.1.0.2.2-py3-none-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (80.5 MB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 80.5 MB 245 kB/s            
Installing collected packages: qt6-applications, PyQt6-sip, PyQt6-Qt6, click, qt6-tools, pyqt6, python-dotenv, pyqt6-plugins, pyqt6-tools
  Attempting uninstall: click
    Found existing installation: click 8.0.1
    Uninstalling click-8.0.1:
      Successfully uninstalled click-8.0.1
Successfully installed PyQt6-Qt6-6.2.2 PyQt6-sip-13.2.0 click-7.1.2 pyqt6-6.1.0 pyqt6-plugins-6.1.0.2.2 pyqt6-tools-6.1.0.3.2 python-dotenv-0.19.2 qt6-applications-6.1.0.2.2 qt6-tools-6.1.0.1.2

score 2 · Answer 13 · edited Jul 06 '19 at 02:22

2

Try using:

pip install pyqt5-tools

Now you'd find the designer in site-packages/pyqt5-tools.

edited Jul 06 '19 at 02:22

eyllanesc

235,170
19
170
241

answered Jun 22 '19 at 15:35

M Pavan Kumar

101
1
2

score 2 · Answer 14 · edited Aug 14 '20 at 19:46

2

If you are installing the pyqt5-tools then you can find the designer.exe file inside:

<python_installation>\Lib\site-packages\Qt

If you cannot locate the file or have any issues opening this directly, then open a command prompt and type:

<python_installation>\Scripts\pyqt5designer.exe

edited Aug 14 '20 at 19:46

Jose-Rdz

539
6
14

answered Jul 16 '20 at 16:29

Jalib Akther

21
1

score 0 · Answer 15 · edited Nov 30 '21 at 23:10

0

I was having the same problem, however I was able to install using the Pygame module installation code, changing some information:

pygame:

py -m pip install -U pygame --user

PyQt5:

py -m pip install -U pyqt5-tools --user

edited Nov 30 '21 at 23:10

iamzeid

104
1
2
18

answered May 05 '20 at 14:51

Guilherme Denobi

1

score 0 · Answer 16 · edited Dec 01 '20 at 05:27

0

you should find it here if your using anaconda

C:\Users\%username%\anaconda3\envs\untitled\Lib\site-packages\qt5_applications\Qt\bin

edited Dec 01 '20 at 05:27

Simas Joneliunas

2,890
20
28
35

answered Dec 01 '20 at 04:25

jack chyna

83
4

score 0 · Answer 17 · answered Dec 10 '20 at 15:49

By far the easiest way to do this is to use this installer:

https://build-system.fman.io/qt-designer-download

It seems as though the other answers here are now out of date, not to mention confusing for someone who is just starting out with this. Sourceforge no longer has this package, I installed the tools as suggested but nothing appeared in the scripts folder, and none of the pip commands above worked either.

score 0 · Answer 18 · answered Dec 04 '22 at 17:12

0

In a Windows' terminal, activate your virtual env where you have installed PyQt5 then just type designer.

You can create a shortcut by finding its path with where designer

answered Dec 04 '22 at 17:12

Antoine Nguyen

101
1
5

score 0 · Answer 19 · answered Mar 28 '23 at 14:03

0

For PyQt6 look at \Lib\site-packages\qt6_applications\Qt\bin

answered Mar 28 '23 at 14:03

Michael

96
1
5

score 0 · Answer 20 · answered Apr 08 '23 at 19:38

0

Using python 3.9, I found the designer.exe in

site-packages -> qt5_applications -> Qt -> bin

answered Apr 08 '23 at 19:38

maxwellnewage

355
2
13

PyQt5: How to install/run Qt Designer

20 Answers20

Linked

Related