PyQt5: How to install/run Qt Designer

The Qt designer is not installed with the pip installation.

You can either download the full download from sourceforge (probably won’t be the last pyqt release, and might be buggy on presence of another installation, like yours) or install it with another (unofficial) pypi package – pyqt5-tools (pip install pyqt5-tools), then run the designer from the following subpath of your python directory –

...Python36Libsite-packagespyqt5-toolsdesignerdesigner.exe

You can also install Qt Designer the following way:

1. Install latest Qt (I’m using 5.8) from Qt main site
2. Make sure you include “Qt 5.8 MinGW” component
3. Qt Designer will be installed in C:Qt5.8mingw53_32bindesigner.exe
4. Note that the executable is named “designer.exe”

I struggled with this as well. The pyqt5-tools approach is cumbersome so I created a standalone installer for Qt Designer. It’s only 40 MB. Maybe you will find it useful!

Try using:

pip install pyqt5-tools

Now you’d find the designer in site-packages/pyqt5-tools.

pip install pyqt5-tools

Then restart the cmd, just type “designer” and press enter.

pip install pyqt5-tools

working in python 3.7.4

wont work in python 3.8.0

Download the module using pip:

pip install PyQt5Designer

Then, for anaconda users, open:

C:ProgramDataAnacondaXLibsite-packagesQtDesignerdesigner.exe

For python users:

• 64-bit:

  C:Program FilesPythonXXLibsite-packagesQtDesignerdesigner.exe
  

• 32-bit:

  C:Program Files (x86)PythonXXLibsite-packagesQtDesignerdesigner.exe
  

I was having the same problem, however I was able to install using the Pygame module installation code, changing some information:

pygame:

py -m pip install -U pygame --user

PyQt5:

py -m pip install -U pyqt5-tools --user

If you are installing the pyqt5-tools then you can find the designer.exe file inside:

<python_installation>Libsite-packagesQt

If you cannot locate the file or have any issues opening this directly, then open a command prompt and type:

<python_installation>Scriptspyqt5designer.exe

PyQt5 works after pip install PyQt5Designer

you should find it here if your using anaconda

C:Users%username%anaconda3envsuntitledLibsite-packagesqt5_applicationsQtbin

By far the easiest way to do this is to use this installer:

https://build-system.fman.io/qt-designer-download

It seems as though the other answers here are now out of date, not to mention confusing for someone who is just starting out with this. Sourceforge no longer has this package, I installed the tools as suggested but nothing appeared in the scripts folder, and none of the pip commands above worked either.

If you cannot see the Designer , just look into this path "Libsite-packagesqt5_applicationsQtbin" for designer.exe and run it.

For anyone stumbling across this post in 2021+ and finding the answers outdated: QT Designer is now in the qt5-applications package, under Qtbin. On Windows this means the default path, for CPython 3.9 using the Python.org installer, is %APPDATA%PythonPython39site-packagesqt5_applicationsQtbindesigner.exe.

If you are working in python virtual environment, in the command window

>>qt5-tools designer

can open designer window.

For Qt Designer 6 this worked for me thanks for that protip from @Bhaskar

pip install pyqt6-tools

Then started:

qt6-tools designer

End up with nice working lightweight Qt Designer 6.0.1 version

@ pip install pyqt6-tools
Collecting pyqt6-tools
  Using cached pyqt6_tools-6.1.0.3.2-py3-none-any.whl (29 kB)
Collecting pyqt6-plugins<6.1.0.3,>=6.1.0.2.2
  Downloading pyqt6_plugins-6.1.0.2.2-cp39-cp39-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (77 kB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 77 kB 492 kB/s            
Collecting python-dotenv
  Using cached python_dotenv-0.19.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl (17 kB)
Collecting pyqt6==6.1.0
  Downloading PyQt6-6.1.0-cp36.cp37.cp38.cp39-abi3-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (6.8 MB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 6.8 MB 1.0 MB/s            
Requirement already satisfied: click in ./.pyenv/versions/3.9.6/lib/python3.9/site-packages (from pyqt6-tools) (8.0.1)
Collecting PyQt6-sip<14,>=13.1
  Downloading PyQt6_sip-13.2.0-cp39-cp39-manylinux1_x86_64.whl (307 kB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 307 kB 898 kB/s            
Collecting PyQt6-Qt6>=6.1.0
  Using cached PyQt6_Qt6-6.2.2-py3-none-manylinux_2_28_x86_64.whl (50.0 MB)
Collecting qt6-tools<6.1.0.2,>=6.1.0.1.2
  Downloading qt6_tools-6.1.0.1.2-py3-none-any.whl (13 kB)
Collecting click
  Downloading click-7.1.2-py2.py3-none-any.whl (82 kB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 82 kB 381 kB/s            
Collecting qt6-applications<6.1.0.3,>=6.1.0.2.2
  Downloading qt6_applications-6.1.0.2.2-py3-none-manylinux2014_x86_64.whl (80.5 MB)
     |████████████████████████████████| 80.5 MB 245 kB/s            
Installing collected packages: qt6-applications, PyQt6-sip, PyQt6-Qt6, click, qt6-tools, pyqt6, python-dotenv, pyqt6-plugins, pyqt6-tools
  Attempting uninstall: click
    Found existing installation: click 8.0.1
    Uninstalling click-8.0.1:
      Successfully uninstalled click-8.0.1
Successfully installed PyQt6-Qt6-6.2.2 PyQt6-sip-13.2.0 click-7.1.2 pyqt6-6.1.0 pyqt6-plugins-6.1.0.2.2 pyqt6-tools-6.1.0.3.2 python-dotenv-0.19.2 qt6-applications-6.1.0.2.2 qt6-tools-6.1.0.1.2

In a Windows’ terminal, activate your virtual env where you have installed PyQt5 then just type designer.

You can create a shortcut by finding its path with where designer

For PyQt6 look at Libsite-packagesqt6_applicationsQtbin

Using python 3.9, I found the designer.exe in

site-packages -> qt5_applications -> Qt -> bin