Icons in popup menus as of 2024

acolomb · April 25, 2024, 10:06am

Hi!

I’ve spent some time now searching how to force showing an icon in my popup menu. Unfortunately none of the hints from the last decade and a half (basically since Gtk3 came) actually worked. The problem can be seen in the wxPython demo’s Menu sample.

My environment is an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS install using the default GNOME-based Ubuntu desktop. Using the system installation of wxPython 4.2.1 and wxGtk 3.2.2 with Gtk 3.24.38.

There is a gsettings entry com.canonical.unity.desktop.interface menus-have-icons, but enabling it doesn’t change anything. Neither did setting gtk-menu-images = 1 in .config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini. For my own app, I called SetBitmap() for sure, but also the wxPython demo is missing the icons.

So is there any way to get wxPython menu icons back in this modern world of today?

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

RichardT · April 25, 2024, 11:22am

When I run the PopupMenu example in the wxPython Demo, the popup menu does show the smiley bitmap next to item ‘One’.

I am running wxPython 4.2.1 + Python 3.10.12 + Linux Mint 21.3, and am using the Mate desktop environment.

popup_menu

acolomb · April 25, 2024, 10:41am

What version of wxGtk and Gtk?

RichardT · April 25, 2024, 10:59am

Gtk is version 3.24.33

>>> wx.version()
'4.2.1 gtk3 (phoenix) wxWidgets 3.2.2.1'

How are you getting the version of wxGtk?

acolomb · April 25, 2024, 1:23pm

Well the wxGtk version is the wxWidgets version I suppose. What I wrote was based on the installed package versions in Ubuntu.

Just tried on a Raspberry Pi 4 on Bookworm (Wayland, MATE if I’m not mistaken), which has wxPython 4.2.0. No menu icons either in the demo.

RichardT · April 25, 2024, 1:48pm

My Mint-MATE installation has an app which can be run from: Menu -> Preferences -> Desktop Settings

On the ‘Interface’ tab, there is an option ‘Show icons on menus’. If I switch that option off, then the smiley doesn’t appear in the demo’s popup menu. If I switch it on, the smiley does appear.

Does your desktop environment have an equivalent setting?

acolomb · April 25, 2024, 2:07pm

On GNOME there isn’t (on my dev laptop).

The Raspberry Pi desktop is LXDE-based and I haven’t found a matching setting there. There is an option in gsettings org.mate.desktop.interface menus-have-icons though, that’s why I thought it was a Mate desktop. It obviously doesn’t work either, though.

acolomb · April 25, 2024, 2:11pm

UPDATE: It now works for the Raspberry Pi OS desktop. There’s apparently no menu entry for the tool, but the lxappearance utility has an option for this.

Still need a solution for the GNOME desktop.

RichardT · April 25, 2024, 2:12pm

In the thread Menu icons don't show up on Ubuntu, do on others @Robin suggests the Gnome Tweak Tools may have an option.

acolomb · April 25, 2024, 2:26pm

Checked that, it doesn’t unfortunately. What’s strange is that the similar gsettings key org.gnome.desktop.interface menus-have-icons has vanished as well, that must have existed at some point. And the package description of gnome-tweaks does mention the possibility to configure “icons in menus and buttons”, but the actual UI does not show such an option. I guess it has been removed from Gtk for good at some point…

EDIT: Found a screenshot of the setting in GNOME Tweaks (formerly known as Tweak Tool):

RichardT · April 26, 2024, 12:28pm

Are icons on FlatMenus visible on Gnome?

import wx
import wx.lib.agw.flatmenu as FM

class MyFrame(wx.Frame):
    def __init__(self, parent):
        super().__init__(parent, title="Right-click for popup menu")
        panel = wx.Panel(self)
        self.Bind(wx.EVT_CONTEXT_MENU, self.OnPopupMenu)

    def OnPopupMenu(self, event):
        pos = event.GetPosition()
        popup_menu = FM.FlatMenu()
        bmp = wx.ArtProvider.GetBitmap(wx.ART_CUT, wx.ART_MENU, (16, 16))
        item = FM.FlatMenuItem(popup_menu, -1, "Cut", normalBmp=bmp)
        popup_menu.AppendItem(item)
        bmp = wx.ArtProvider.GetBitmap(wx.ART_COPY, wx.ART_MENU, (16, 16))
        item = FM.FlatMenuItem(popup_menu, -1, "Copy", normalBmp=bmp)
        popup_menu.AppendItem(item)
        bmp = wx.ArtProvider.GetBitmap(wx.ART_PASTE, wx.ART_MENU, (16, 16))
        item = FM.FlatMenuItem(popup_menu, -1, "Paste", normalBmp=bmp)
        popup_menu.AppendItem(item)
        popup_menu.Popup(pos)


if __name__ == '__main__':
    app = wx.App()
    frame = MyFrame(None)
    frame.Show()
    app.MainLoop()

Right-click for popup menu_001