Is there a way to add close buttons to tabs in tkinter.ttk.Notebook?

One advantage of the themed (ttk) widgets is that you can create new widgets out of individual widget “elements”. While not exactly simple (nor well documented), you can create a new “close tab” element add add that to the “tab” element.

I will present one possible solution. I’ll admit it’s not particularly easy to understand. Perhaps one of the best sources for how to create custom widget styles can be found at tkdocs.com, starting with the Styles and Themes section.

try:
    import Tkinter as tk
    import ttk
except ImportError:  # Python 3
    import tkinter as tk
    from tkinter import ttk

class CustomNotebook(ttk.Notebook):
    """A ttk Notebook with close buttons on each tab"""

    __initialized = False

    def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
        if not self.__initialized:
            self.__initialize_custom_style()
            self.__inititialized = True

        kwargs["style"] = "CustomNotebook"
        ttk.Notebook.__init__(self, *args, **kwargs)

        self._active = None

        self.bind("<ButtonPress-1>", self.on_close_press, True)
        self.bind("<ButtonRelease-1>", self.on_close_release)

    def on_close_press(self, event):
        """Called when the button is pressed over the close button"""

        element = self.identify(event.x, event.y)

        if "close" in element:
            index = self.index("@%d,%d" % (event.x, event.y))
            self.state(['pressed'])
            self._active = index
            return "break"

    def on_close_release(self, event):
        """Called when the button is released"""
        if not self.instate(['pressed']):
            return

        element =  self.identify(event.x, event.y)
        if "close" not in element:
            # user moved the mouse off of the close button
            return

        index = self.index("@%d,%d" % (event.x, event.y))

        if self._active == index:
            self.forget(index)
            self.event_generate("<<NotebookTabClosed>>")

        self.state(["!pressed"])
        self._active = None

    def __initialize_custom_style(self):
        style = ttk.Style()
        self.images = (
            tk.PhotoImage("img_close", data=""'
                R0lGODlhCAAIAMIBAAAAADs7O4+Pj9nZ2Ts7Ozs7Ozs7Ozs7OyH+EUNyZWF0ZWQg
                d2l0aCBHSU1QACH5BAEKAAQALAAAAAAIAAgAAAMVGDBEA0qNJyGw7AmxmuaZhWEU
                5kEJADs=""'),
            tk.PhotoImage("img_closeactive", data=""'
                R0lGODlhCAAIAMIEAAAAAP/SAP/bNNnZ2cbGxsbGxsbGxsbGxiH5BAEKAAQALAAA
                AAAIAAgAAAMVGDBEA0qNJyGw7AmxmuaZhWEU5kEJADs=""'),
            tk.PhotoImage("img_closepressed", data=""'
                R0lGODlhCAAIAMIEAAAAAOUqKv9mZtnZ2Ts7Ozs7Ozs7Ozs7OyH+EUNyZWF0ZWQg
                d2l0aCBHSU1QACH5BAEKAAQALAAAAAAIAAgAAAMVGDBEA0qNJyGw7AmxmuaZhWEU
                5kEJADs=""')
        )

        style.element_create("close", "image", "img_close",
                            ("active", "pressed", "!disabled", "img_closepressed"),
                            ("active", "!disabled", "img_closeactive"), border=8, sticky='')
        style.layout("CustomNotebook", [("CustomNotebook.client", {"sticky": "nswe"})])
        style.layout("CustomNotebook.Tab", [
            ("CustomNotebook.tab", {
                "sticky": "nswe",
                "children": [
                    ("CustomNotebook.padding", {
                        "side": "top",
                        "sticky": "nswe",
                        "children": [
                            ("CustomNotebook.focus", {
                                "side": "top",
                                "sticky": "nswe",
                                "children": [
                                    ("CustomNotebook.label", {"side": "left", "sticky": ''}),
                                    ("CustomNotebook.close", {"side": "left", "sticky": ''}),
                                ]
                        })
                    ]
                })
            ]
        })
    ])

if __name__ == "__main__":
    root = tk.Tk()

    notebook = CustomNotebook(width=200, height=200)
    notebook.pack(side="top", fill="both", expand=True)

    for color in ("red", "orange", "green", "blue", "violet"):
        frame = tk.Frame(notebook, background=color)
        notebook.add(frame, text=color)

    root.mainloop()

Here’s what it looks like on a linux system: