[c++] Qt: resizing a QLabel containing a QPixmap while keeping its aspect ratio

I use a QLabel to display the content of a bigger, dynamically changing QPixmap to the user. It would be nice to make this label smaller/larger depending on the space available. The screen size is not always as big as the QPixmap.

How can I modify the QSizePolicy and sizeHint() of the QLabel to resize the QPixmap while keeping the aspect ratio of the original QPixmap?

I can't modify sizeHint() of the QLabel, setting the minimumSize() to zero does not help. Setting hasScaledContents() on the QLabel allows growing, but breaks the aspect ratio thingy...

Subclassing QLabel did help, but this solution adds too much code for just a simple problem...

Any smart hints how to accomplish this without subclassing?

I have polished this missing subclass of QLabel. It is awesome and works well.

aspectratiopixmaplabel.h

#ifndef ASPECTRATIOPIXMAPLABEL_H
#define ASPECTRATIOPIXMAPLABEL_H

#include <QLabel>
#include <QPixmap>
#include <QResizeEvent>

class AspectRatioPixmapLabel : public QLabel
{
    Q_OBJECT
public:
    explicit AspectRatioPixmapLabel(QWidget *parent = 0);
    virtual int heightForWidth( int width ) const;
    virtual QSize sizeHint() const;
    QPixmap scaledPixmap() const;
public slots:
    void setPixmap ( const QPixmap & );
    void resizeEvent(QResizeEvent *);
private:
    QPixmap pix;
};

#endif // ASPECTRATIOPIXMAPLABEL_H

aspectratiopixmaplabel.cpp

#include "aspectratiopixmaplabel.h"
//#include <QDebug>

AspectRatioPixmapLabel::AspectRatioPixmapLabel(QWidget *parent) :
    QLabel(parent)
{
    this->setMinimumSize(1,1);
    setScaledContents(false);
}

void AspectRatioPixmapLabel::setPixmap ( const QPixmap & p)
{
    pix = p;
    QLabel::setPixmap(scaledPixmap());
}

int AspectRatioPixmapLabel::heightForWidth( int width ) const
{
    return pix.isNull() ? this->height() : ((qreal)pix.height()*width)/pix.width();
}

QSize AspectRatioPixmapLabel::sizeHint() const
{
    int w = this->width();
    return QSize( w, heightForWidth(w) );
}

QPixmap AspectRatioPixmapLabel::scaledPixmap() const
{
    return pix.scaled(this->size(), Qt::KeepAspectRatio, Qt::SmoothTransformation);
}

void AspectRatioPixmapLabel::resizeEvent(QResizeEvent * e)
{
    if(!pix.isNull())
        QLabel::setPixmap(scaledPixmap());
}

Hope that helps! (Updated resizeEvent, per @dmzl's answer)

I just use contentsMargin to fix the aspect ratio.

#pragma once

#include <QLabel>

class AspectRatioLabel : public QLabel
{
public:
    explicit AspectRatioLabel(QWidget* parent = nullptr, Qt::WindowFlags f = Qt::WindowFlags());
    ~AspectRatioLabel();

public slots:
    void setPixmap(const QPixmap& pm);

protected:
    void resizeEvent(QResizeEvent* event) override;

private:
    void updateMargins();

    int pixmapWidth = 0;
    int pixmapHeight = 0;
};

#include "AspectRatioLabel.h"

AspectRatioLabel::AspectRatioLabel(QWidget* parent, Qt::WindowFlags f) : QLabel(parent, f)
{
}

AspectRatioLabel::~AspectRatioLabel()
{
}

void AspectRatioLabel::setPixmap(const QPixmap& pm)
{
    pixmapWidth = pm.width();
    pixmapHeight = pm.height();

    updateMargins();
    QLabel::setPixmap(pm);
}

void AspectRatioLabel::resizeEvent(QResizeEvent* event)
{
    updateMargins();
    QLabel::resizeEvent(event);
}

void AspectRatioLabel::updateMargins()
{
    if (pixmapWidth <= 0 || pixmapHeight <= 0)
        return;

    int w = this->width();
    int h = this->height();

    if (w <= 0 || h <= 0)
        return;

    if (w * pixmapHeight > h * pixmapWidth)
    {
        int m = (w - (pixmapWidth * h / pixmapHeight)) / 2;
        setContentsMargins(m, 0, m, 0);
    }
    else
    {
        int m = (h - (pixmapHeight * w / pixmapWidth)) / 2;
        setContentsMargins(0, m, 0, m);
    }
}

Works perfectly for me so far. You're welcome.

The Qt documentations has an Image Viewer example which demonstrates handling resizing images inside a QLabel. The basic idea is to use QScrollArea as a container for the QLabel and if needed use label.setScaledContents(bool) and scrollarea.setWidgetResizable(bool) to fill available space and/or ensure QLabel inside is resizable. Additionally, to resize QLabel while honoring aspect ratio use:

label.setPixmap(pixmap.scaled(width, height, Qt::KeepAspectRatio, Qt::FastTransformation));

The width and height can be set based on scrollarea.width() and scrollarea.height(). In this way there is no need to subclass QLabel.

I tried using phyatt's AspectRatioPixmapLabel class, but experienced a few problems:

• Sometimes my app entered an infinite loop of resize events. I traced this back to the call of QLabel::setPixmap(...) inside the resizeEvent method, because QLabel actually calls updateGeometry inside setPixmap, which may trigger resize events...
• heightForWidth seemed to be ignored by the containing widget (a QScrollArea in my case) until I started setting a size policy for the label, explicitly calling policy.setHeightForWidth(true)
• I want the label to never grow more than the original pixmap size
• QLabel's implementation of minimumSizeHint() does some magic for labels containing text, but always resets the size policy to the default one, so I had to overwrite it

That said, here is my solution. I found that I could just use setScaledContents(true) and let QLabel handle the resizing. Of course, this depends on the containing widget / layout honoring the heightForWidth.

aspectratiopixmaplabel.h

#ifndef ASPECTRATIOPIXMAPLABEL_H
#define ASPECTRATIOPIXMAPLABEL_H

#include <QLabel>
#include <QPixmap>

class AspectRatioPixmapLabel : public QLabel
{
    Q_OBJECT
public:
    explicit AspectRatioPixmapLabel(const QPixmap &pixmap, QWidget *parent = 0);
    virtual int heightForWidth(int width) const;
    virtual bool hasHeightForWidth() { return true; }
    virtual QSize sizeHint() const { return pixmap()->size(); }
    virtual QSize minimumSizeHint() const { return QSize(0, 0); }
};

#endif // ASPECTRATIOPIXMAPLABEL_H

aspectratiopixmaplabel.cpp

#include "aspectratiopixmaplabel.h"

AspectRatioPixmapLabel::AspectRatioPixmapLabel(const QPixmap &pixmap, QWidget *parent) :
    QLabel(parent)
{
    QLabel::setPixmap(pixmap);
    setScaledContents(true);
    QSizePolicy policy(QSizePolicy::Maximum, QSizePolicy::Maximum);
    policy.setHeightForWidth(true);
    this->setSizePolicy(policy);
}

int AspectRatioPixmapLabel::heightForWidth(int width) const
{
    if (width > pixmap()->width()) {
        return pixmap()->height();
    } else {
        return ((qreal)pixmap()->height()*width)/pixmap()->width();
    }
}

Adapted from Timmmm to PYQT5

from PyQt5.QtGui import QPixmap
from PyQt5.QtGui import QResizeEvent
from PyQt5.QtWidgets import QLabel


class Label(QLabel):

    def __init__(self):
        super(Label, self).__init__()
        self.pixmap_width: int = 1
        self.pixmapHeight: int = 1

    def setPixmap(self, pm: QPixmap) -> None:
        self.pixmap_width = pm.width()
        self.pixmapHeight = pm.height()

        self.updateMargins()
        super(Label, self).setPixmap(pm)

    def resizeEvent(self, a0: QResizeEvent) -> None:
        self.updateMargins()
        super(Label, self).resizeEvent(a0)

    def updateMargins(self):
        if self.pixmap() is None:
            return
        pixmapWidth = self.pixmap().width()
        pixmapHeight = self.pixmap().height()
        if pixmapWidth <= 0 or pixmapHeight <= 0:
            return
        w, h = self.width(), self.height()
        if w <= 0 or h <= 0:
            return

        if w * pixmapHeight > h * pixmapWidth:
            m = int((w - (pixmapWidth * h / pixmapHeight)) / 2)
            self.setContentsMargins(m, 0, m, 0)
        else:
            m = int((h - (pixmapHeight * w / pixmapWidth)) / 2)
            self.setContentsMargins(0, m, 0, m)