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Forum Update on Monday, May 27th 2025

HiDPI and SVG icon resolution

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  • C cle1109
    30 Oct 2019, 08:23

    Thanks @SimonSchroeder, I've translated the code to Python as follows:

    import sys
    from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QApplication, QMainWindow, QAction
    from PyQt5.QtGui import QIcon, QImage, QPixmap, QPainter
    
    
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)
    main = QMainWindow()
    toolbar = main.addToolBar("toolbar")
    image = QImage("waves-24px.svg")
    pixmap = QPixmap(toolbar.iconSize())
    pixmap.setDevicePixelRatio(main.devicePixelRatio())
    painter = QPainter()
    painter.begin(pixmap)
    painter.drawImage(0, 0, image)
    painter.end()
    icon = QIcon(pixmap)
    action = QAction(icon, "Test")
    toolbar.addAction(action)
    toolbar.show()
    main.show()
    sys.exit(app.exec_())
    

    Note that a QMainWindow doesn't have a pixelRatio method so I've replaced that with a call to devicePixelRatio.

    However, there seems to be something wrong because the result looks like this:

    Screen Shot 2019-10-30 at 09.17.26.png

    The actual content of the icon changes with each program execution BTW.

    On a related note, I found out that this is indeed a macOS-specific issue, because everything looks fine on Linux and Windows using the same 4K monitor in scaled mode (I'm using the original code snippet from my initial post):

    hidpi_linux.png
    hidpi_windows.png

    I guess this is indeed a Qt bug then and I'll report it. Still, I'd be interested in getting the workaround using QPixmap to actually work - then I could use that on macOS until they've fixed the underlying issue.

    S Offline
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    SimonSchroeder
    wrote on 31 Oct 2019, 07:29 last edited by
    #14

    @cle1109 That is unfortunate that the workaround does not work on MacOS. I have one more suggestion you could try. Instead of

    pixmap = QPixmap(toolbar.iconSize())
    pixmap.setDevicePixelRatio(main.devicePixelRatio())
    

    just try

    pixmap = QPixmap(toolbar.iconSize() * main.devicePixelRatio())
    

    There is a slight chance that using pixmap.setDevicePixelRatio does not work properly with SVG on MacOS. In this case this would create a larger icon which is then scaled down when drawing it on the toolbar.

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    • C Offline
      C Offline
      cle1109
      wrote on 31 Oct 2019, 08:11 last edited by
      #15

      @SimonSchroeder I think there is something wrong with the code because like in the first version, I get a more or less random icon with the second version as well. It looks like either the conversion icon = QIcon(pixmap) doesn't work or one of the preceding steps.

      S 1 Reply Last reply 4 Nov 2019, 07:50
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      • C cle1109
        31 Oct 2019, 08:11

        @SimonSchroeder I think there is something wrong with the code because like in the first version, I get a more or less random icon with the second version as well. It looks like either the conversion icon = QIcon(pixmap) doesn't work or one of the preceding steps.

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        SimonSchroeder
        wrote on 4 Nov 2019, 07:50 last edited by
        #16

        @cle1109 You can try if it is one of the preceeding steps by calling pixmap.save(...) and have a look at the saved image.

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        • C Offline
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          cle1109
          wrote on 5 Nov 2019, 08:46 last edited by
          #17

          I did pixmap.save("pixmap.png") after the painter stuff and the resulting PNG doesn't look right. So either the painter doesn't paint correctly into the pixmap or the image is not read in correctly. Can I debug this further to find out what the problem is?

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            SimonSchroeder
            wrote on 6 Nov 2019, 10:36 last edited by
            #18

            To me, this means that the painter does not paint correctly. I'm out of ideas.

            Maybe, one last thing to check: I am not sure how a QPython project would be set up. For C++ I am using qmake. One thing I noticed is that in the end SVG icons are working. However, it would be more correct to add Qt's SVG module, i.e. I would add the line

            QT += svg
            

            to my qmake project file. Is there something similar for Python?

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            • C Offline
              C Offline
              cle1109
              wrote on 6 Nov 2019, 10:46 last edited by
              #19

              I don't think this is necessary in Python. It is sufficient to import the required packages. In the example, I don't explicitly require the PyQt5.QtSvg module, but I don't think this is a problem (the stuff I'm using should automatically use functions from that module if needed).

              I will rewrite my example in C++ to see if this is a problem specific to the Python bindings. That way, it will be easier to decide where to file the bug report (since this is working on Windows and Linux). I'll keep you posted.

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              • C Offline
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                cle1109
                wrote on 6 Nov 2019, 14:16 last edited by
                #20

                I tried this example in C++ and the result is exactly the same. The SVG icon is rendered in a very low resolution.

                #include <QApplication>
                #include <QMainWindow>
                #include <QIcon>
                #include <QAction>
                #include <QToolBar>
                
                
                int main(int argc, char **argv)
                {
                    QApplication app(argc, argv);
                    QMainWindow window;
                    QIcon icon("waves-24px.svg");
                    QAction action(icon, "Test");
                    QToolBar *toolbar = new QToolBar(&window);
                    toolbar->addAction(&action);
                    window.addToolBar(toolbar);
                    window.show();
                    return app.exec();
                }
                
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                • C Offline
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                  cle1109
                  wrote on 6 Nov 2019, 15:06 last edited by
                  #21

                  Also, here's my main.pro file I used to build the app. It doesn't make a difference whether or not I include svg.

                  TEMPLATE = app
                  TARGET = main
                  
                  QT = core gui widgets
                  
                  SOURCES += main.cpp
                  
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                  • S Offline
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                    SimonSchroeder
                    wrote on 7 Nov 2019, 07:32 last edited by
                    #22

                    You'll need to use the trick with the QPixmap and QPainter in C++ as well. In the background Python and C++ use the exact same functionality, so I wouldn't expect any other behavior without the workaround. (I have experienced this exact problem in C++ multiple times.)

                    For your main.pro you need to add the svg module also:

                    ...
                    QT = core gui widgets svg
                    ...
                    

                    This is what I actually meant with my last post.

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                    • C Offline
                      C Offline
                      cle1109
                      wrote on 7 Nov 2019, 10:35 last edited by
                      #23

                      You'll need to use the trick with the QPixmap and QPainter in C++ as well. In the background Python and C++ use the exact same functionality, so I wouldn't expect any other behavior without the workaround. (I have experienced this exact problem in C++ multiple times.)

                      I get exactly the same result as in Python (the icon is just a random pixel pattern).

                      Yes, I know what you meant, I tried adding svg but it didn't make any difference. Same for the workaround. So in conclusion, this seems to be a Qt bug on macOS which also affects PyQt5.

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                      • C Offline
                        C Offline
                        cle1109
                        wrote on 12 Nov 2019, 13:48 last edited by
                        #24

                        Turns out there is a simple solution:

                        app.setAttribute(Qt.AA_UseHighDpiPixmaps)
                        
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                        7 Nov 2019, 10:35

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