How do you remove the padding between frames in a grid?

Question

I'm trying to make a simple chess board using tkinter, but between each row there is a bit of blank space that's not used even when expanding. The problem seems to be coming from configuring the columns and rows but I need that for the size to stay the same. How do I fix this? Here's my code:

from tkinter import *
import tkinter as tk

window = tk.Tk()

for i in range(8):
    window.columnconfigure(i, minsize=75)
    window.rowconfigure(i, minsize=75)
    for j in range(8):
        if i % 2 == 1 and j % 2 == 1:
            frame = tk.Frame (
                master=window,
                bg="white", 
                )
            frame.grid(row=i, column=j)
            label = tk.Label(master=frame, text="White sq", background="white", foreground="white")
            label.pack(padx=12, pady=15)
        elif i % 2 == 1 and j % 2 == 0:
            frame = tk.Frame (
                master=window,
                bg="black", 
                )
            frame.grid(row=i, column=j)
            label = tk.Label(master=frame, text="Black sq", background="black")
            label.pack(padx=12, pady=15)
        elif i % 2 == 0 and j % 2 == 1:
            frame = tk.Frame (
                master=window,
                bg="black", 
                )
            frame.grid(row=i, column=j)
            label = tk.Label(master=frame, text="Black sq", background="black")
            label.pack(padx=12, pady=15)
        else:
            frame = tk.Frame (
                master=window,
                bg="white", 
                )
            frame.grid(row=i, column=j)
            label = tk.Label(master=frame, text="White sq", background="white", foreground="white")
            label.pack(padx=12, pady=15)
        
            
            
        

window.mainloop()

Have you tried adding `bg=0, highlightthickness=0` to `tk.Frame(...)`? — TheLizzard, Apr 28 '21 at 15:49
I would also consider using a `Canvas` widget filled with squares, like [here](https://stackoverflow.com/a/4959995/8661764). — Demian Wolf, Apr 28 '21 at 16:12
@TheLizzard, well, that's just another approach for solving the OP's problem. — Demian Wolf, Apr 28 '21 at 16:15
@DemianWolf It introduces a new widget, and makes positioning the labels harder. Also your approach would be terrible if OP wants the user to be able to resize the window. It overcomplicates the problem instead of solving it — TheLizzard, Apr 28 '21 at 16:18
@TheLizzard, `Canvas` widget has a `.scale(...)` method for that. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33795411/tkinter-scaling-items-on-a-canvas — Demian Wolf, Apr 28 '21 at 16:20
@TheLizzard, the "labels" can be placed using `Canvas.create_text` quite simply, just by doing some simple math to count the coords of the center of a square. — Demian Wolf, Apr 28 '21 at 16:23
@DemianWolf Good luck making that work instead of just adding some parameters to `Frame(...)` and `grid(...)`. As I said, it overcomplicates the problem — TheLizzard, Apr 28 '21 at 16:23

score 0 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 28 '21 at 17:24

0

As @acw1668 said, you can solve the problem by passing sticky="nswe" argument to grid.

Also, don't repeat yourself (DRY). You have copy-pasted almost the same stuff multiple times.

Here is the fixed code:

import tkinter as tk


root = tk.Tk()

fill_with_white = True

for row in range(8):
    root.rowconfigure(row, minsize=75)
    
    for column in range(8):
        bg = "white" if fill_with_white else "black"

        root.columnconfigure(column, minsize=75)
        frame = tk.Frame(root, bg=bg)
        frame.grid(row=row, column=column, sticky="news")
        label = tk.Label(frame, text=bg.capitalize(), bg=bg)
        label.pack()

        fill_with_white = not fill_with_white

    fill_with_white = not fill_with_white

root.mainloop()

edited Apr 28 '21 at 17:24

TheLizzard

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answered Apr 28 '21 at 16:33

Demian Wolf

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No problem. You know it will be easier to choose the colour if you just had 1 variable. Do you want me to edit your answer with my suggestion? – TheLizzard Apr 28 '21 at 16:41
Instead of the XOR, I just use a variable that I toggle. It simplifies the code :D. – TheLizzard Apr 28 '21 at 16:44
@TheLizzard, I see :) Didn't think about such an approach :) – Demian Wolf Apr 28 '21 at 16:45
1

A few months ago I made a chess engine and that is the code that I used :D – TheLizzard Apr 28 '21 at 16:46
2

Or `bg = "white" if (row+column)&1 else "black"`. – acw1668 Apr 28 '21 at 16:49
@TheLizzard, yeah, I've seen it on your Github with several other projects. :) – Demian Wolf Apr 28 '21 at 16:49

How do you remove the padding between frames in a grid?

1 Answers1