Difference between QPushButton and QToolButton

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QPushButton is simply a button. QToolButton is part of a group of widgets in the QtWidgets module that operate on QActions: QMenu and QToolBar are other examples. As a result, QToolButton is much more complex under the hood than QPushButton.

Some examples of how they are different in practice:

  • QToolButton is tightly integrated with QAction. Changing the icon, text, or other properties of a tool button’s default action is reflected on the button.
  • You can change the layout of the tool button contents (icon only, text only, text beside icon, text below icon). This is not possible for a QPushButton.
  • QToolButton supports a “split” button type: a sidebar hot zone opens a menu instead of triggering the default action.
  • Tool buttons can be created directly in a QToolBar by adding an action. Other widgets must be explicitly added to the toolbar.
  • A tool button is meant to be displayed in a grid, so it has smaller default internal margins than a push button.
  • QPushButton is more for “Ok”/”Close” type buttons that contain text with an optional icon.
  • A QToolButton should generally have an icon.
  • A QPushButton should always have text.

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