How do I make my ttk widgets look modern?

Question

I am having a problem with tkinter.ttk on mac. I am using macports and python3.1. When I try to use tkinter.ttk I get very old looking gui elements.

eg: I get this

Instead of this:

The code I used is:

from tkinter import *
from tkinter import ttk
root = Tk()
button = ttk.Button(root, text="Hello World").grid()
root.mainloop()

I would be happy to provide any information from my computer needed to answer this question. As I am a novice programer please tell me where to find said information.

I have a Macbook 5,2 with Snow Leopard installed. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks, Marlen

Question Update:
I installed tk @8.5.9_0+quartz as schlenk suggested only to get this error:

TclMacOSXNotifierAddRunLoopMode: Tcl not built with CoreFoundation support Abort trap

I fixed this error with the patch from https://trac.macports.org/ticket/22954. I followed the instructions to the letter(they are):

$ cd /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/ports/lang/tcl
$ sudo patch < ~/Downloads/tcl.2.patch 
$ sudo port install tcl 

This created a new error which is:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "hello.py", line 5, in <module>
    root = Tk()
  File "/opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.1/lib/python3.1/tkinter/__init__.py", line 1632, in __init__
    self.tk = _tkinter.create(screenName, baseName, className, interactive, wantobjects, useTk, sync, use)
_tkinter.TclError: Can't find a usable tk.tcl in the following directories: 
    /opt/local/lib/tcl8.5/tk8.5 /opt/local/lib/tcl8.5/tk8.5/Resources/Scripts /opt/local/lib/tk8.5 /opt/local/lib/tk8.5/Resources/Scripts /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.1/Resources/Python.app/Contents/lib/tk8.5 /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.1/Resources/Python.app/Contents/lib/tk8.5/Resources/Scripts /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.1/Resources/Python.app/lib/tk8.5 /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.1/Resources/Python.app/Contents/library

/opt/local/lib/tk8.5/tk.tcl: version conflict for package "Tk": have 8.5.7, need exactly 8.5.9
version conflict for package "Tk": have 8.5.7, need exactly 8.5.9
    while executing
"package require -exact Tk  8.5.9"
    (file "/opt/local/lib/tk8.5/tk.tcl" line 20)
    invoked from within
"source /opt/local/lib/tk8.5/tk.tcl"
    ("uplevel" body line 1)
    invoked from within
"uplevel #0 [list source $file]"


This probably means that tk wasn't installed properly.

Answer 1

The problem might be macports. There are three versions of Tk you could use as the basis for your ttk. The screenshot looks a lot like the older X11 Tk, not the aqua based Tk. 1. Tk via X11. 2. Tk compiled with Carbon 'windowingsystem -aqua' 3. Tk compiled with Cocoa

So you should try to either build a Tk variant 'quartz' via macports or you should get some prebuilt version (e.g. ActiveStates) that has the right version already built.

So try:

sudo port build tk @8.5.9+quartz

Have a look at tutorials here for some more guidance: http://www.tkdocs.com/tutorial/install.html#installmac

Answer 2

try

style = ttk.Style()
print(style.theme_names())
style.theme_use('default') # change 'default' to something better

Answer 3

I haven't played with ttk, however I have a decent amount of experience with tkinter. I belive you have to fill out the style keyword argument.

I think it would look something like this.

from tkinter import *
from tkinter import ttk
root = Tk()
button = ttk.Button(root, text="Hello World", style="somestyle").grid()
root.mainloop()

Link to some relevant documentation: http://docs.python.org/release/3.1.3/library/tkinter.ttk.html