CEF Python
Table of contents:
Introduction
CEF Python is an open source project founded by
Czarek Tomczak
in 2012 to provide Python bindings for the
Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF).
The Chromium project focuses mainly on Google Chrome application
development while CEF focuses on facilitating embedded browser use cases
in third-party applications. Lots of applications use CEF control, there are
more than 100 million CEF instances
installed around the world. There are numerous use cases for CEF:
- Use it as a modern HTML5 based rendering engine that can act as
a replacement for classic desktop GUI frameworks. Think of it as Electron
for Python.
- Embed a web browser widget in a classic Qt / GTK / wxPython desktop
application
- Render web content off-screen in applications that use custom drawing
frameworks
- Use it for automated testing of web applications with more advanced
capabilities than Selenium web browser automation due to CEF low level
programming APIs
- Use it for web scraping, as a web crawler or other kind of internet bots
CEF Python also provides examples of embedding CEF for many Python GUI
frameworks such as PyQt, wxPython, PyGTK, PyGObject, Tkinter, Kivy, Panda3D,
PyGame, PyOpenGL, PyWin32, PySide and PySDL2.
Latest releases sponsored by
Thank you to Fivestars for sponsoring the v66.1 release
with Python 3.8 / 3.9 support. Fivestars helps local communities thrive by empowering
small businesses with cutting edge marketing technology. Please visit their website:
Fivestars.com
Thank you to Lampix for sponsoring the
v66 release. Lampix is the first hardware
and software solution that turns any surface into a smart, augmented reality
or interactive surface. Please visit their website:
Lampix.com
Thanks to all sponsors
Install
You can install pypi/cefpython3
package using pip tool. On Linux pip 8.1+ is required. You can
also download packages for offline installation available on the
GitHub Releases pages. Command to install with pip:
pip install cefpython3==66.0
Tutorial
See the Tutorial.md document.
Examples
See the README-examples.md and
README-snippets.md documents.
Support
- Ask questions and report problems on the
Forum
- Supported examples are listed in the
README-examples.md file
- Documentation is in the docs/ directory:
- API reference is in the api/ directory:
- Additional documentation is available in
Issues labelled Knowledge Base
- To search documentation use GitHub "This repository" search
at the top. To narrow results to documentation only select
"Markdown" in the right pane.
- You can vote on issues in the tracker to let us know which issues are
important to you. To do that add a +1 thumb up reaction to the first post
in the issue. See
Most popular issues
sorted by reactions.
Releases
Information on planned new and current releases, supported platforms,
python versions, architectures and requirements. If you want to
support old operating systems then choose the v31 release.
Next release
- To see planned new features or bugs to be fixed in the near future in one of
next releases, see the
next release
label in the tracker
- To see planned new features or bugs to be fixed in further future, see the
next release 2
label in the tracker
Latest release
OS |
Py2 |
Py3 |
32bit |
64bit |
Requirements |
Windows |
2.7 |
3.4 / 3.5 / 3.6 / 3.7 / 3.8 / 3.9 |
Yes |
Yes |
Windows 7+ (Note that Python 3.9 supports Windows 8.1+) |
Linux |
2.7 |
3.4 / 3.5 / 3.6 / 3.7 |
Yes |
Yes |
Debian 8+, Ubuntu 14.04+, Fedora 24+, openSUSE 13.3+ |
Mac |
2.7 |
3.4 / 3.5 / 3.6 / 3.7 |
No |
Yes |
MacOS 10.9+ |
These platforms are not supported yet:
v49 release (WinXP/Vista)
OS |
Py2 |
Py3 |
32bit |
64bit |
Requirements |
Windows |
2.7 |
3.4 |
Yes |
Yes |
Windows XP+ |
- Install with command:
pip --no-cache-dir install cefpython3==49.0
.
- Please note that if you were previously installing cefpython3
package it is required to use the --no-cache-dir
flag,
otherwise pip will end up with error message
No matching distribution found for cefpython3==49.0
.
This happens because 49.0 release occured after 57.0 and 66.0
releases.
- Downloads are available on GitHub Releases tagged
v49.0.
- See Migration guide document for changes
in this release
- Documentation is available in the docs/
directory in the cefpython49-winxp
branch
- API reference is available in the api/
directory in the cefpython49-winxp
branch
v31 release (old systems)
OS |
Py2 |
Py3 |
32bit |
64bit |
Requirements |
Windows |
2.7 |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Windows XP+ |
Linux |
2.7 |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
Debian 7+ / Ubuntu 12.04+ |
Mac |
2.7 |
No |
Yes |
Yes |
MacOS 10.7+ |
Additional information for v31.2 release:
- On Windows/Mac you can install with command:
pip install cefpython3==31.2
- Downloads are available on the GitHub Releases page tagged
v31.2.
- API reference is available in revision 169a1b2
- Other documentation can be downloaded by cloning the
cefpython.wiki repository: git clone [email protected]:cztomczak/cefpython.wiki.git
Support development
If you would like to support general CEF Python development efforts
by making a donation then please click the Paypal Donate button below.
If you would like to see a specific feature implemented then you can make
a comment about that when making a donation and that will give it a higher
priority.
Thanks to all
- [2021] Thank you to Fivestars for sponsoring
the v66.1 release with Python 3.8 / 3.9 support
- [2018] Thanks to Fivestars for sponsoring
the v49 release for legacy systems (WinXP/Vista)
- [2018] Many thanks to Lampix for sponsoring the v66
release for all platforms
- [2017] Many thanks to HighSide Inc. for sponsoring
the v55/v56 releases for all platforms
- [2016-2018] Thanks to JetBrains for providing an Open Source license for
PyCharm
- [2014] Thanks to Adam Duston for donating a Macbook to aid the development
of Mac port
- [2013-2015] Lots of thanks goes to Cyan Inc.
for sponsoring this project for a long time, making CEF Python 3 mature
- [2013] Thanks to Rentouch GmbH for sponsoring the
development of the off-screen rendering support
- [2013] Thanks to Thomas Wusatiuk for sponsoring the development of the web
response reading features
- [2012-2018] Thanks to those who have made a Paypal donation:
Rentouch GmbH, Walter Purvis, Rokas Stupuras,
Alex Rattray, Greg Kacy, Paul Korzhyk, Tomasz Tomanek.
- [2012-2017] Thanks to those who have donated their time through code
contributions, they are listed in the Authors file
Seeking new sponsors
CEF Python is seeking companies to sponsor further development of the project.
There are many proposals for new features submitted in the issue tracker. Most
notable are:
- Monthly releases with latest Chromium
- An automated build system similar to upstream CEF Spotify Automated Builds
- ARM and Android support
- Multi-threaded support for increased performance
- Proprietary codecs support in build tools: H264, H265,AC3, EAC3, MPEG-4
- More CEF API exposed, only about 50% is exposed so far
- Hundreds of new settings and Chromium preferences not yet exposed
- Easier integration with popular GUI toolkits in just a few lines of code
and support for more third party GUI frameworks
- More examples of implementing various advanced features and more snippets
as well
If your company would like to sponsor CEF Python development efforts then
please contact
Czarek.
Long term sponsorships are welcome and Czarek is open to ideas about
the project. He would love to spend more time on developing this project,
but he can't afford doing so in his free time. Currently there is no company
supporting this project actively on a daily basis.
Other READMEs
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