Build a Simple Python Novel Reader with Adjustable Speed

Introduction

This tutorial demonstrates how to build a simple novel reader with Python's Tkinter library, allowing text from a file to be displayed at a configurable speed.

Implementation Steps

1. Import required packages

import time
from tkinter import messagebox
import tkinter as t
from tkinter import ttk
from tkinter import filedialog
from tkinter import simpledialog

2. Create the main GUI

class gui:
    def __init__(self):
        self.root = t.Tk()
        self.root.title('小说阅读器V1.0')
        self.root.geometry('700x700')
        self.root.wm_attributes('-topmost', 1)
        self.root.wm_minsize(140, 170)
        self.root.wm_maxsize(1440, 2800)
        self.root.resizable(width=False, height=True)
        self.te = t.Text(self.root, width=60, height=40)
        self.b1 = t.Button(self.root, text='打开文件', font=('宋体', 10, 'bold'), command=self.open_file)
        self.cb = ttk.Combobox(self.root, width=12)
        self.b2 = t.Button(self.root, text='清空内容', command=self.clean)
        self.l1 = t.Label(self.root, text='请选择阅读速度:')
        self.cb['values'] = ('请选择-----', '全部读取', '一秒一行', '两秒一行', '自定义')
        self.cb.current(0)
        self.cb.bind('<<ComboboxSelected>>', self.go)
        self.b1.place(x=30, y=30)
        self.b2.place(x=360, y=26)
        self.l1.place(x=130, y=30)
        self.te.place(x=30, y=60)
        self.cb.place(x=230, y=30)
        self.root.mainloop()

3. Open file dialog

def open_file(self):
    self.file = filedialog.askopenfilename(title='打开文件', filetypes=[('文本文件', '*.txt'), ('All Files', '*')])
    return self.file

4. Read file content

self.ff = open(self.file, 'r', encoding='utf8')
aa = self.ff.read()

5. Clean whitespace

self.ab = aa.replace('
', '').replace('\t', '').strip()

6. Implement reading speed options

if self.cb.get() == '请选择-----':
    pass
elif self.cb.get() == '全部读取':
    if self.ab:
        self.te.insert('insert', self.ab)
        self.te.update()
    else:
        self.ff.close()
elif self.cb.get() == '一秒一行':
    for y in range(len(self.ab)):
        if self.ab:
            self.te.insert('insert', self.ab[y])
            if y % 10 == 0 and y != 0:
                self.te.insert('insert', '
')
                self.te.update()
            else:
                time.sleep(0.1)
        else:
            self.ff.close()
elif self.cb.get() == '两秒一行':
    for y in range(len(self.ab)):
        if self.ab:
            self.te.insert('insert', self.ab[y])
            if y % 10 == 0 and y != 0:
                self.te.insert('insert', '
')
                self.te.update()
            else:
                time.sleep(0.2)
        else:
            self.ff.close()
elif self.cb.get() == '自定义':
    res = simpledialog.askinteger(title='请输入', prompt='几秒读取一行:', initialvalue='')
    for y in range(len(self.ab)):
        if self.ab:
            self.te.insert('insert', self.ab[y])
            if y % 10 == 0 and y != 0:
                self.te.insert('insert', '
')
                self.te.update()
            else:
                time.sleep(res / 10)
        else:
            self.ff.close()

7. Clear text area

def clean(self):
    self.te.delete('1.0', t.END)

Result

The application displays the novel text according to the selected speed; changing the number in the condition if y % 10 == 0 adjusts how many characters appear per line.

Conclusion

This simple Tkinter‑based GUI demonstrates how to create a customizable novel reader, and the speed can be easily modified by changing the numeric value in the code.