Made using PyQt5
A minimal desktop digital clock built with PyQt5, featuring a custom 7-segment-style font, dynamic layout, light and dark mode (based on current time), and robust exception handling. This project demonstrates modular GUI programming, file-based logging, and safe resource loading.
- Live digital clock updating every second
- Custom digital font (
DS-DIGIT.TTF) applied using Qt's font database - Exception-safe font loading with automatic fallback to the system font
- Auto-generated log files with detailed error tracebacks (timestamped)
- Clean GUI with:
- Centered layout
- HSL color styling
- Dark background for high contrast
PythonDigitalClock/
├── main.py # Entry point – sets up logging and launches the app
├── digitalClock.py # Contains the DigitalClock widget (UI + logic)
├── logConfig.py # Handles timestamped log file setup
├── setup.py # Handles the setup to package the app (unrelated to the app's logic)
├── fonts/
│ └── ds_digital/
│ └── DS-DIGIT.TTF # Custom font file
├── logs/ # Automatically created log files for each run
└── README.md # You're here :)
The clock uses a custom font (DS-DIGIT.TTF) to mimic a digital display. Font loading is handled through QFontDatabase. If the font fails to load (e.g., missing, corrupt, unreadable), the program:
- Logs the error to a timestamped file (inside
/logs) - Falls back to a default system font
- Keeps the application running safely
- Logs are saved to
/logs/clock_YYYY-MM-DD_HH-MM-SS.log - Only errors and critical issues are logged
- Output is sent to both:
- A file for persistent inspection
- The console for real-time debugging
- Python 3.7+
- PyQt5
Install dependencies with:
pip install PyQt5Make sure you're in the root folder:
python main.pyA new log file will be created automatically in the logs/ folder each time you run the app.
The custom font is located at:
fonts/ds_digital/DS-DIGIT.TTF
You can replace it with any .ttf file of your choice by modifying the path inside load_font().
Exception types handled during font loading:
FileNotFoundError– if the font file is missingIndexError– if no font families are returned after loadingRuntimeError– raised manually when font registration failsOSError– if the file is corrupted or locked
These are caught gracefully and logged via Python’s logging module.
You can turn this project into a native macOS .app using py2app. Follow the steps below:
Use Python 3.11 — py2app is not compatible with Python 3.13+ as of now.
# Install Python 3.11 via Homebrew (if needed)
brew install python@3.11
# Create and activate a virtual environment
python3.11 -m venv venv311
source venv311/bin/activate
# Install dependencies
pip install pyqt5 py2apppython3 setup.py py2appThis will create a standalone app in the dist/ folder:
dist/
└── main.app
To run it:
open dist/main.appTo run it from the terminal and see logs:
./dist/main.app/Contents/MacOS/mainThe custom font is bundled inside the app at:
main.app/Contents/Resources/fonts/ds_digital/DS-DIGIT.TTF
The load_font() method in the code auto-detects whether the app is running in a bundle and adjusts the font path accordingly.
If the app fails to launch due to security restrictions, run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine dist/main.appThis removes the quarantine flags and allows unsigned apps to run.
Built by @fgatto13. Cleanly written and modularized to demonstrate PyQt5 best practices.
This project is based on a PyQt5 digital clock tutorial originally created by BroCode.
The original tutorial served as a foundation for building a minimal clock GUI.
This version expands upon it with:
- Exception-safe font handling
- Robust logging to timestamped files
- Modular project structure (
main.py,digitalClock.py,logConfig.py) - Best practices for maintainability and error traceability
These enhancements aim to demonstrate real-world engineering standards, especially around resilience and observability.