how to add a left or right border to a tkinter Label

Question

The follwing code

import Tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()
labelA = tk.Label(root, text="hello").grid(row=0, column=0)
labelB = tk.Label(root, text="world").grid(row=1, column=1)
root.mainloop()

produces

How can I add a partial border to the Label so that I have

I see a that borderwidth= is a possible option of Label but it handles the four borders.

NOTE: the question is not about padding the cell (which is the essence of the answer that was formerly linked in the duplication comment)

Answer 1

There's not an option or a real easy way to add a custom border, but what you can do is create a class that inherits from Tkinter's Frame class, which creates a Frame that holds a Label. You just have to color the Frame with the border color you want and keep it slightly bigger than the Label so it gives the appearance of a border.

Then, instead of calling the Label class when you need it, you call an instance of your custom Frame class and specify parameters that you set up in the class. Here's an example:

from Tkinter import *

class MyLabel(Frame):
    '''inherit from Frame to make a label with customized border'''
    def __init__(self, parent, myborderwidth=0, mybordercolor=None,
                 myborderplace='center', *args, **kwargs):
        Frame.__init__(self, parent, bg=mybordercolor)
        self.propagate(False) # prevent frame from auto-fitting to contents
        self.label = Label(self, *args, **kwargs) # make the label

        # pack label inside frame according to which side the border
        # should be on. If it's not 'left' or 'right', center the label
        # and multiply the border width by 2 to compensate
        if myborderplace is 'left':
            self.label.pack(side=RIGHT)
        elif myborderplace is 'right':
            self.label.pack(side=LEFT)
        else:
            self.label.pack()
            myborderwidth = myborderwidth * 2

        # set width and height of frame according to the req width
        # and height of the label
        self.config(width=self.label.winfo_reqwidth() + myborderwidth)
        self.config(height=self.label.winfo_reqheight())


root=Tk()
MyLabel(root, text='Hello World', myborderwidth=4, mybordercolor='red',
        myborderplace='left').pack()
root.mainloop()

You could simplify it some if you just need, for instance, a red border of 4 pixels on the right side, every time. Hope that helps.

Answer 2

I don't believe there's an easy way of just adding a left border. However, you can definitely fool by using a sunken label ;)

So for example:

root=Tk()
Label(root,text="hello").grid(row=1,column=1)
Label(root,text="world").grid(row=2,column=3)
Label(root,relief=SUNKEN,borderwidth=1,bg="red").grid(row=2,column=2)
Label(root).grid(row=2,column=1)
root.mainloop()

This will create a window like the one that you wanted to see.