PySide6 Development Guide
This skill provides structured reference to the comprehensive PySide6 documentation (730 pages) for building professional desktop GUI applications. When developing PySide6 features, reference the appropriate chapter from the PDF at Docs/pyside6/create-gui-applications-pyside6.pdf.
Quick Reference: Table of Contents
1. Introduction (Pages 2-6)
- A brief history of GUI development
- About Qt and PySide6
- Qt and PySide6 relationship
2. Basic PySide6 Features (Pages 7-166)
Reference for: Core concepts, first applications, fundamental building blocks
2.1 My First Application (Pages 8-17)
- Creating your App
- What's the event loop?
- Widgets and Windows
- QMainWindow
- Sizing windows and widgets
2.2 Signals & Slots (Pages 18-27)
- QPushButton Signals
- Connecting signals to slots
- Signal/slot patterns
2.3 Widgets (Pages 28-55)
- QLabel (p.30): Text and image display
- QCheckBox (p.38): Boolean input
- QComboBox (p.40): Dropdown selection
- QListWidget (p.44): Item lists
- QLineEdit (p.47): Single-line text input
- QSpinBox/QDoubleSpinBox (p.49): Numeric input
- QSlider (p.51): Range slider
- QDial (p.53): Circular dial control
- QWidget (p.55): Base widget class
2.4 Layouts (Pages 56-85)
- Placeholder widget (p.57)
- QVBoxLayout (p.59): Vertical arrangement
- QHBoxLayout (p.62): Horizontal arrangement
- Nesting layouts (p.64): Complex compositions
- QGridLayout (p.68): Grid-based arrangement
- QStackedLayout (p.70): Stacked widgets (like pages)
- QFormLayout (p.77): Two-column form layout
2.5 Actions, Toolbars & Menus (Pages 86-106)
- Toolbars (p.86): Action buttons
- Menus (p.97): Application menus
2.6 Dialogs (Pages 107-149)
- QMessageBox (p.116): Message dialogs
- Standard dialogs (p.119): Built-in dialog types
- Single value dialogs (p.122): Input dialogs
- File dialogs (p.134): Open/save file selection
2.7 Windows (Pages 150-159)
- Creating new windows
- Closing windows
- Persistent windows
- Showing & hiding windows
- Connecting signals between windows
2.8 Events (Pages 160-166)
- Mouse events
- Context menus
- Event hierarchy
3. Qt Designer (Pages 168-199)
Reference for: Visual UI design,.ui files, resource management
3.1 Installing Qt Designer (Pages 169-174)
- Command line launcher
- Platform-specific installation
3.2 Getting Started with Qt Designer (Pages 175-191)
- Creating.ui files
- Laying out Main Window
- Using UI files from Python
- Loading.ui files in Python
- Converting.ui to Python
- Building your application
- Adding application logic
3.3 The Qt Resource System (Pages 192-199)
- The QRC file
- Using QRC files
- Resources in Qt Designer
- Using resources with compiled UI files
4. Theming (Pages 200-265)
Reference for: Application styling, dark mode, icons, QSS
4.1 Styles (Pages 201-202)
- Fusion style
4.2 Palettes (Pages 203-211)
- Dark Mode implementation
4.3 Icons (Pages 212-217)
- Qt Standard Icons
- Icon files
- Free Desktop Specification Icons
4.4 Qt Style Sheets (QSS) (Pages 218-265)
- Style editor (p.218)
- Styling properties (p.223)
- Targeting (p.239): Selecting specific widgets
- Inheritance (p.247)
- Pseudo-selectors (p.249)::hover,:pressed, etc.
- Styling Widget Sub-controls (p.254)
- Editing Stylesheets in Qt Designer (p.263)
5. Model View Controller (Pages 266-357)
Reference for: MVC architecture, data models, table views, SQL integration
5.1-5.2 Introduction to MVC (Pages 266-292)
- Architecture overview
- Implementation patterns
- Creating the Model
- Where's the Controller?
- Project Architecture notes
5.3 Qt's Model View Architecture (Pages 293-294)
- The Model View concept
5.4 A Simple Model View - Todo List (Pages 295-310)
- The UI
- The Model
- Basic implementation
- Hooking up actions
- Using DecorationRole
- Persistent data store
5.5 Tabular Data with numpy & pandas (Pages 311-331)
- QTableView introduction (p.311)
- Nested list as 2D data store (p.313)
- Writing custom QAbstractTableModel (p.315)
- Formatting numbers and dates (p.317)
- Styles & Colors with Roles (p.319)
- Alternative Python data structures (p.327)
5.6 Querying SQL Databases with Qt Models (Pages 332-357)
- Connecting to database (p.333)
- QSqlTableModel (p.334)
- QSqlRelationalTableModel (p.343)
- QSqlRelationalDelegate (p.345)
- QSqlQueryModel (p.346)
- QDataWidgetMapper (p.352)
- QSqlDatabase authentication (p.357)
6. Custom Widgets (Pages 358-422)
Reference for: Custom drawing, QPainter, creating new widget types
6.1 Bitmap Graphics in Qt (Pages 359-386)
- QPainter (p.359): Core drawing class
- Drawing primitives (p.362): Lines, shapes, text
- Fun with QPainter (p.376): Creative examples
6.2 Creating Custom Widgets (Pages 387-414)
- Getting started
- paintEvent (p.389)
- Positioning
- Updating the display
- Drawing the bar
- Customizing the Bar
6.3 Using Custom Widgets in Qt Designer (Pages 415-422)
- Background
- Writing Promotable Custom Widgets
7. Concurrent Execution (Pages 423-522)
Reference for: Threading, async operations, background tasks, QThread, QRunnable
7.1 Introduction to Threads & Processes (Pages 425-430)
- The wrong approach (blocking UI)
- Threads and Processes overview
7.2 Using the Thread Pool (Pages 431-440)
- QRunnable (p.431)
- QThreadPool.start() (p.433)
- Extending QRunnable (p.435)
- Thread IO (p.436)
7.3 QRunnable Examples (Pages 441-497)
- Progress watcher (p.442)
- Calculator (p.452)
- Stopping a running QRunnable (p.457)
- Pausing a runner (p.460)
- Communicator (p.464)
- Generic runner (p.470)
- Running external processes (p.478)
- The Manager (p.488)
7.4 Long-running Threads (Pages 498-513)
- Using QThread (p.498)
7.5 Running External Commands & Processes (Pages 514-522)
8. Plotting (Pages 523-558)
Reference for: Charts, graphs, data visualization
8.1 Plotting with PyQtGraph (Pages 524-542)
- Getting started
- Creating a PyQtGraph widget
- Styling plots
- Plot Titles
- Axis Labels
- Legends
- Background Grid
- Plotting multiple lines
- Clearing the plot
- Updating the plot
8.2 Plotting with Matplotlib (Pages 544-558)
- Installing Matplotlib
- Simple examples
- Plot controls
- Updating plots
- Embedding plots from Pandas
9. Further PySide6 Features (Pages 559-603)
Reference for: Advanced topics, timers, signals, system tray, enums
9.1 Timers (Pages 560-564)
- Interval timers (p.560)
- Single shot timers (p.562)
- Postponing via event queue (p.563)
9.2 Extending Signals (Pages 565-574)
- Custom Signals (p.565)
- Modifying Signal Data (p.567)
9.3 Working with Relative Paths (Pages 575-579)
- Relative paths
- Using a Paths class
9.4 System Tray & macOS Menus (Pages 580-588)
- Adding system tray icon
9.5 Enums & the Qt Namespace (Pages 589-597)
- It's all just numbers
- Binary & Hexadecimal
- Bitwise OR combination
- Checking compound flags
- Bitwise AND checks
9.6 Working with Command-line Arguments (Pages 598-601)
9.7 Pythonic PySide6 (Pages 602-603)
10. Packaging & Distribution (Pages 605-652)
Reference for: Building executables, installers, deployment
10.1 Packaging with PyInstaller (Pages 606-628)
- Requirements
- Getting Started
- Building the basic app
- The.spec file
- Tweaking the build
- Data files and Resources
10.2 Creating a Windows Installer with InstallForge (Pages 629-639)
- General, Setup, Dialogs, System, Build sections
- Running the installer
10.3 Creating a macOS Disk Image Installer (Pages 640-642)
- create-dmg
10.4 Creating a Linux Package with fpm (Pages 643-652)
- Installing fpm
- Structuring your package
- Building your package
- Scripting the build
11. Example Applications (Pages 653-688)
Reference for: Complete application examples
11.1 Mozzarella Ashbadger - Web Browser (Pages 653-668)
- Browser widget
- Paths
- Navigation
- File operations
- Printing
- Help
- Tabbed Browsing
11.2 Moonsweeper - Minesweeper Game (Pages 669-688)
- Icons & Colors
- Playing Field
- Position Tiles
- Mechanics
- Endgames
- Status
- Menus
Appendix A (Pages 689-716)
Reference for: Installation, C++ translation, PyQt6 differences
A.1 Installing PySide6 (Pages 690-694)
- Windows, macOS, Linux installation
- Working with Virtual Environments
A.2 Translating C++ Examples to Python (Pages 695-704)
- Imports
- main() function
- C++ types
- Signals
- Syntax
A.3 PyQt6 and PySide6 Differences (Pages 705-714)
- Background
- Licensing
- Namespaces & Enums
- UI files
- exec() vs exec_()
- Slots and Signals
- QMouseEvent
- Features in PySide6 only
- Supporting both in libraries
Usage Guidelines
When to Use This Skill
Reference this skill when:
- Creating new widgets: See Chapter 2.3 (Widgets) and Chapter 6 (Custom Widgets)
- Building layouts: See Chapter 2.4 (Layouts)
- Implementing signals/slots: See Chapter 2.2 and Chapter 9.2
- Creating dialogs: See Chapter 2.6 (Dialogs)
- Theming/styling: See Chapter 4 (Theming) especially QSS
- Data tables/models: See Chapter 5 (Model View Controller)
- Threading/async: See Chapter 7 (Concurrent Execution)
- Plotting/charts: See Chapter 8 (Plotting)
- Packaging apps: See Chapter 10 (Packaging & Distribution)
Reading the PDF
To read specific content from the PDF, use pdfplumber:
import pdfplumber
with pdfplumber.open('Docs/pyside6/create-gui-applications-pyside6.pdf') as pdf:
# Read specific page (0-indexed, so page 100 in PDF is index 99)
page = pdf.pages[99] # Page 100
text = page.extract_text()
print(text)Key PySide6 Patterns from This Book
Signal/Slot Connection
from PySide6.QtWidgets import QPushButton
button = QPushButton("Click me")
button.clicked.connect(self.on_button_clicked)Custom Widget with paintEvent
from PySide6.QtWidgets import QWidget
from PySide6.QtGui import QPainter
class CustomWidget(QWidget):
def paintEvent(self, event):
painter = QPainter(self)
# Drawing code here
painter.end()QThread for Background Tasks
from PySide6.QtCore import QThread, Signal
class Worker(QThread):
finished = Signal(object)
def run(self):
result = self.do_work()
self.finished.emit(result)QSS Styling
widget.setStyleSheet("""
QWidget {
background-color: #2d2d2d;
color: white;
font-size: 14px;
}
QPushButton:hover {
background-color: #3d3d3d;
}
""")PDF Location
Full Documentation: Docs/pyside6/create-gui-applications-pyside6.pdf Total Pages: 730 Version: 6.1 (2025-09-10) Author: Martin Fitzpatrick
When you need detailed examples or explanations on any PySide6 topic, read the appropriate pages from this PDF using the pdf skill tools.