How to Change Border Color in Tkinter Widget

How to set border color of certain Tkinter widgets?

Just use

widget.config(highlightbackground=COLOR)

Furthermore, if you don't want that border at all, set the highlightthickness attribute to 0 (zero).

How to change border color in tkinter widget?

When you use highlightbackground you need to provide a color code, for example "#37d3ff".
So use highlightbackground="COLORCODE" and remove relief="solid"

For example:

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()
root.geometry("800x450")
root.title("How should i change border color")
tk.Label(root, text="How should i change border color", width=50, height=4, bg="White", highlightthickness=4, highlightbackground="#37d3ff").place(x=10, y=10)
tk.Button(root, text="Button", width=5, height=1, bg="White", highlightbackground="#37d3ff").place(x=100, y=100)


root.mainloop()

result:

Update: While it workes on my ubuntu machine, I just checked it on windows and it doesn't work there.

How do I change the border color of a tkinter widget?

There is no way to change the border color of a widget, the border color is tied to the background color of the widget. Instead, you can turn off the border, and then use a frame widget where you can set the background color of the frame.

import tkinter as tk

root = tk.Tk()

label_border = tk.Frame(root, background="red")
label = tk.Label(label_border, text="This has a red border", bd=0)
label.pack(fill="both", expand=True, padx=1, pady=1 )

label_border.pack(padx=20, pady=20)

root.mainloop()

How to change a entry widgets border color in Python Tkinter

Addressing the issue with highlightthickness

The code you've given should work, though you may be bumping up against platform implementation (ie: windows may not treat the highlightthickness the same as other platforms)

Here's a program that should work, though I haven't tested it on windows 7:

import Tkinter as tk

class Example(tk.Frame):
    def __init__(self, parent):
        tk.Frame.__init__(self, parent)

        self.entry = tk.Entry(self)
        self.button = tk.Button(self, text="Validate", command=self.validate)
        self.entry.pack(side="top", fill="x")
        self.button.pack(side="bottom")

        self.validate() # initialize the border

    def validate(self):
        data = self.entry.get()
        if len(data) == 0:
            self.entry.configure(highlightbackground="red", highlightcolor="red")
        else:
            self.entry.configure(highlightbackground="blue", highlightcolor="blue")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    root = tk.Tk()
    Example(root).pack(fill="both", expand=True)
    root.mainloop()

Using a frame to simulate a border

Another solution is to create a border with a frame that is just slightly larger than the button. Here's a quick example. Its not really production ready, but it illustrates the point:

import Tkinter as tk

class Example(tk.Frame):
    def __init__(self, parent):
        tk.Frame.__init__(self, parent)

        self.entry = CustomEntry(self)
        self.button = tk.Button(self, text="Validate", command=self.validate)
        self.entry.pack(side="top", fill="x")
        self.button.pack(side="bottom")

        self.validate() # initialize the border

    def validate(self):
        data = self.entry.get()
        if len(data) == 0:
            self.entry.set_border_color("red")
        else:
            self.entry.set_border_color("blue")

class CustomEntry(tk.Frame):
    def __init__(self, parent, *args, **kwargs):
        tk.Frame.__init__(self, parent)
        self.entry = tk.Entry(self, *args, **kwargs)
        self.entry.pack(fill="both", expand=2, padx=2, pady=2)

        self.get = self.entry.get
        self.insert = self.entry.insert

    def set_border_color(self, color):
        self.configure(background=color)

if __name__ == "__main__":
    root = tk.Tk()
    Example(root).pack(fill="both", expand=True)
    root.mainloop()

How can I change the border color of my OptionMenu in Tkinter?

Figured it out! Bryan Oakley in the comments mentioned that it might be the highlightcolor. I tried changing the color of that, and it didn't change anything. Intellisense, however, saved the day. It suggested using highlightbackground and highlightthickness, either of which I can use to hide the outline.

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