Introduction to Kivy

Installing Kivy

Let us discuss how to install Kivy in various operating systems.

Windows

This section will install Kivy for windows using the pip method. 

Note:  It is necessary to have Python 3 installed on our machine to use the libraries.

Step 1: Update the wheel and pip before installing kivy with this command in cmd.

python -m pip install --upgrade pip wheel setuptools

Step 2: Install all the dependencies for kivy with the following commands.

python -m pip install kivy.deps.GStreamer
python -m pip install kivy.deps.angle
python -m pip install docutils pygments pypiwin32 kivy.deps.sdl2 kivy.deps.glew

Step 3: Finally, install kivy with the below commands.

python -m pip install kivy

With these steps, we have successfully installed our Kivy application for windows.

For Linux:

This section will install Kivy for Linux using the cmd. 

Step 1:  Firstly, add the PPA by entering this command in the terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kivy-team/kivy

Step 2: Update our package list using our package manager.

sudo apt-get update

Step 3: Finally, install kivy with the below commands.

sudo apt-get install python3-kivy

With these steps, we have successfully installed our Kivy application for Linux.

Hello World in Kivy

To create a Kivy interface, first of all, we need to import the Kivy App module to our program using the below code:

from kivy.app import App

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Now let's import label from kivy.uix.label.

from kivy.uix.label import Label

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Finally, we will write the main code to print "Hello world." 

class CodingNinjas(App):
    def build(self):
        return Label(text = "Hello World!!")

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Now let's write the complete code for printing Hello World text.

Complete Code:

import kivy
from kivy.uix.label import Label
from kivy.app import App
  
  
# Current version
kivy.require('1.11.1') 


class CodingNinjas(App):
    def build(self):
        return Label(text = "Hello World!!")


CodingNinjas().run() 

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Run Code

Output:

Hello World!!

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the label widget in Kivy?

The Label widget helps render text. It supports Unicode strings and ASCII. It is the text we want to include in our window, add to the buttons, etc.

Can we give styling to a label in Kivy?

Yes, we can apply styling on labels like increasing the text size, text color, and more.

What is the extension of kivy files?

Kivy files are saved with .kv file extension.

What are the steps to create a Kivy application?

The steps to create an application with kivy are as follows:

• At first, we need to inherit Kivy's App class representing our widgets' window.
• Next, we will create a build() method to show the content of the widgets.
• Finally, call the run() method.

What Is Kivy Language?

As our application grows, it becomes difficult to maintain & construct widget tress and explicitly declare bindings. To overcome these shortcomings, kivy language is an alternative, also known as kv language or kvlang.

Kivy language allows us to create the widget tree in a declarative manner that makes very fast prototypes and agile changes to the UI.

Conclusion

In this article, we have extensively discussed an introduction to introduction to Kivy, its advantages, disadvantages, and installation.

We hope that this blog has helped you enhance your knowledge on the introduction to Kivy, its advantages, disadvantages, and installation. If you would like to learn more, check out our articles on Dropdown List in Kivy, Scroll View Widget in Kivy, Button Color in Kivy, Button Action in Kivy, Kivy Float Layout in Python. Do upvote our blog to help other ninjas grow. Happy Coding!