# What is Tkinter?

**URL:** <https://discourse.processing.org/t/what-is-tkinter/30209>\
**Category:** Processing.py\
**Tags:** homework\
**Created:** [May 21, 2021, 12:44pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/what-is-tkinter/30209 "2021-05-21T12:44:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bridgette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b3f665/32.png) [@bridgette](https://discourse.processing.org/u/bridgette)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 12:44pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/what-is-tkinter/30209/1 "2021-05-21T12:44:53Z")

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Hi!

I have a project in where I have to create a currency converter, so when I searched up examples, a lot of them were using Tkinter and the coding looked really complicated. What exactly is Tkinter? and Is there a way where I don’t necessarily have to import something to make my converter? Any answer is much appreciated 🙂

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**Author:** ![Chrisir](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/chrisir/32/45_2.png) [@Chrisir](https://discourse.processing.org/u/Chrisir)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 1:14pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/what-is-tkinter/30209/2 "2021-05-21T13:14:13Z")

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> **[Tkinter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tkinter)**
>
> Tkinter is a Python binding to the Tk GUI toolkit. It is the standard Python interface to the Tk GUI toolkit, and is Python's de facto standard GUI. Tkinter is included with standard Linux, Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X installs of Python.
> The name Tkinter comes from Tk interface. Tkinter was written by Fredrik Lundh.
> Tkinter is free software released under a Python license.
> As with most other modern Tk bindings, Tkinter is implemented as a Python wrapper around a complete Tcl interpreter emb...

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**Author:** ![glv](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/glv/32/18785_2.png) [@glv](https://discourse.processing.org/u/glv)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2021, 2:13pm UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/what-is-tkinter/30209/3 "2021-05-21T14:13:33Z")

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Hello,

> [@bridgette](#):
>
> What exactly is Tkinter?

![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/uploads/processingfoundation1/original/2X/1/1d06af256183500edae43bc492344a47aff3656e.png)

Or use another search engine:

> **[21 Great Search Engines You Can Use Instead Of Google](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/alternative-search-engines/271409/#close)**
>
> There are several search engines that offer a superior search experience to Google – here are 21 of the best alternative search engines you can try

`:)`

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tabreturn](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex036/user_avatar/discourse.processing.org/tabreturn/32/3697_2.png) [@tabreturn](https://discourse.processing.org/u/tabreturn)\
**Post date:** [May 22, 2021, 1:09am UTC](https://discourse.processing.org/t/what-is-tkinter/30209/4 "2021-05-22T01:09:45Z")

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Tkinter provides a collection of GUI widgets to construct a graphic interface – think buttons, text fields, windows, and so forth. Without Tkinter or some similar library, all you can do with (plain old) Python is print and capture text in a terminal / command-line environment.

But Tkinter isn’t made for Processing (or Processing Python Mode). If you’re looking for something similar in Processing, you can try [ControlP5](http://www.sojamo.de/libraries/controlP5/) (which will also work in Python Mode). But, you don’t **have to** use some GUI library – you could likely pull this off with Processing’s standard feature set (text and input functions).