PyQt5 – Background color for pressed check box in intermediate state

Last Updated : 28 Apr, 2025

In this article we will see how to set the color to the check box when it get pressed while in the intermediate state. By default no pressed color is set to the label part of the check box, although indicator by default has a light blue background color when it get pressed. Intermediate state is a state inbetween checked and unchecked state it is the third state which is created with the help of setTristate method. In order to add background color to the check box when pressed from intermediate(indeterminate) state, we have to edit the style sheet code which is used with check box object. Below is the style sheet code.

QCheckBox::indeterminate:pressed
{
background-color : cyan;
}

Below is the implementation.

Python3

# importing libraries
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import * 
from PyQt5 import QtCore, QtGui
from PyQt5.QtGui import * 
from PyQt5.QtCore import * 
import sys


class Window(QMainWindow):

    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()

        # setting title
        self.setWindowTitle("Python ")

        # setting geometry
        self.setGeometry(100, 100, 600, 400)

        # calling method
        self.UiComponents()

        # showing all the widgets
        self.show()

    # method for widgets
    def UiComponents(self):
        # creating the check-box
        checkbox = QCheckBox('Geek ?', self)

        # setting tristate check box
        checkbox.setTristate(True)

        # setting geometry of check box
        checkbox.setGeometry(200, 150, 100, 30)

        # adding background color to the pressed check box label part
        # when it is in intermediate state
        checkbox.setStyleSheet("QCheckBox:indeterminate:pressed"
                               "{"
                               "background-color : cyan;"
                               "}")


# create pyqt5 app
App = QApplication(sys.argv)

# create the instance of our Window
window = Window()

# start the app
sys.exit(App.exec())