Python Tkinter text editor does not save font to text file - python-2.7

Question

Currently, I am working on a GUI text editor with python and tkinter. Thanks to the great people at SO (thank you Rinzler), I have managed to modify the font of the text. However, I am unable to save the font and font size to the txt file.
I know that this should be possible as Notepad can modify and save a txt file with a specified font.
This is the code to save to a file:
def file_saveas():
filename = tkFileDialog.asksaveasfile(mode='w', defaultextension=".txt")
if filename is None: # asksaveasfile return `None` if dialog closed with "cancel".
return
text2save = str(textPad.get(1.0, END)) # starts from `1.0`, not `0.0`
filename.write(text2save)
filename.close()
print filename
This is the code (courtesy of Rinzler) to change the font:
def choose_font():
global root, textPad # I hate to use global, but for simplicity
t = Tkinter.Toplevel()
font_name = Tkinter.Label(t, text='Font Name: ')
font_name.grid(row=0, column=0, sticky='nsew')
enter_font = Tkinter.Entry(t)
enter_font.grid(row=0, column=1, sticky='nsew')
font_size = Tkinter.Label(t, text='Font Size: ')
font_size.grid(row=1, column=0, sticky='nsew')
enter_size = Tkinter.Entry(t)
enter_size.grid(row=1, column=1, sticky='nsew')
# associating a lambda with the call to text.config()
# to change the font of text (a Text widget reference)
ok_btn = Tkinter.Button(t, text='Apply Changes',
command=lambda: textPad.config(font=(enter_font.get(),
enter_size.get())))
print font
ok_btn.grid(row=2, column=1, sticky='nsew')
done = Tkinter.Button(t, text='Get rid of Pushy!', command=t.destroy)
done.grid(row=4, column=1, sticky='nsew')
# just to make strechable widgets
# you don't strictly need this
for i in range(2):
t.grid_rowconfigure(i, weight=1)
t.grid_columnconfigure(i, weight=1)
t.grid_rowconfigure(2, weight=1)
Finally, this is the code that reads the font and other configuration information:
font = (fontname, size)
textPad.config(
borderwidth=0,
font=font ,
foreground="green",
background="black",
insertbackground="white", # cursor
selectforeground="blue", # selection
selectbackground="#008000",
wrap="word",
width=64,
undo=True, # Tk 8.4
)
I have searched the internet without coming up with any answers as to why the font and text size are not saved. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I am using python 2.7.7 , Tkinter, and this is being run on Windows 7.
Any help manipulation an rtf file would also be helpful (currently, I see the tags and not the end format).

Answer 1

There is no support for this in tkinter. You will have to pick a file fomat that supports fonts (rtf, .docx, .html, etc), convert the data in the widget to this format, and then write it to a file.

Answer 2

Notepad can only have a custom font and size for its editor window, it doesn't save it to the file, it just remembers the user's custom settings, and applies them to its window when you use it.
The tkinter text widget can be horrible to save formatting to another format, I've tried converting it to XML to save to a .docx but I haven't been successful. I have used my own format which is a plain text file with an 'index' of the tkinter Text widget tags at the start and their line&column indexes, then a marker for where the document begins, then the document. This cannot hold images though, and it opens with all the formatting index when you open it in another word processor.
XML is ideal for opening and saving the tkinter text contents - use an xml parser to open, then wite a recursive function to add text with tags as you go. (If you want rich text, this, like xml, is an iterative format - elements inside elements, so could be done like i'm describing below for xml, but you need to write your own rich text parser)
import xml.etree.ElementTree as etree
e = etree.fromstring(string)
#create an element tree of the xml file
insert_iter(e)
#call the recursive insert function
def insert_iter(element):
#recursive insert function
text.insert("end", element.text, tagname)
#insert the elements text
for child in element:
insert_iter(child)
#iterate through the element's child elements, calling the recursive function for each
text.insert("end", child.tail, tagname)
#insert the text after the child element
text.tag_config(tagname, **attrib)
#configure the text
'attrib' is a dictionary eg. {"foreground":"red", "underline":True} would make the text you insert have red font and black underline,
'tagname' is a random string, and needs to be automatically created by your program
To save the file, make a function to do the reverse. I wouldn't bother with using the xml library for this - as tkinter outputs the correct format, just write it manually, but make sure to escape it
from xml.sax.saxutils import escape
data = text.dump("1.0", "end")
print(data[0:500]) # print some of the output just to show how the dump method works
output = ''
#get contents of text widget (including all formatting, in order) and create a string to add the output file to
for line in data:
if line[0] == "text":
#add the plain text to the output
output += escape(line[1])
elif line[0] == "tagon":
#add a start xml tag, with attributes for the given tkinter tag
name = 'font'
attrib = ""
tag = #the dictionary you stored in your program when creating this tag
for key in tag:
attrib += "%s='%s' "%(key, escape(tag[key]))
output += "<%s %s>"%(name, attrib)
elif line[0] == "tagoff":
#add a closing xml tag
output += '</%s>'%name