PySide Auto Icon

""" I needed some unique icons for numerous pyside scripts. This helped.
"""
from PySide import QtCore, QtGui
import sys
import operator

def getIcon(inputStr='', saturation=.8, value=.9, size=128):
    """ Creates a QIcon of a single letter on a solid color based on an input 
        string. The same string will always produce the same background color.

        This will generate an oversized QPixmap so that QIcon can derive most
        necessary sizes.
    """
    # ensure that the inputStr is a string and not empty.
    inputStr = str(inputStr)
    if inputStr == '':
        inputStr = ' '

    color = QtGui.QColor()
    color.setHsvF(getStringHue(inputStr), saturation, value)

    pixmap = QtGui.QPixmap(size,size)
    pixmap.fill(color)

    font = QtGui.QFont()
    font.setBold(True)
    font.setPixelSize(.8*size)

    painter = QtGui.QPainter(pixmap)
    painter.setRenderHint(painter.TextAntialiasing)
    painter.setFont(font)
    painter.setPen(QtCore.Qt.white)
    painter.drawText(pixmap.rect(), QtCore.Qt.AlignCenter, inputStr[0].upper())
    painter.end()
    
    return QtGui.QIcon(pixmap)

def getStringHue(inputStr, steps=16):
    """ Return a float value used for Hue.
    """
    total = reduce(operator.add, map(ord, str(inputStr)))
    return 1.0/steps * (total % steps)

def main():
    app = QtGui.QApplication([])
    dlg = QtGui.QDialog()
    lyt = QtGui.QVBoxLayout()
    dlg.setLayout(lyt)
    text = "Testing 123"
    if len(sys.argv) > 1:
        text = sys.argv[1]

    icn = getIcon(text)
    lbl = QtGui.QLabel()
    lbl.setPixmap(icn.pixmap(128,128))
    lyt.addWidget(lbl)
    dlg.setWindowIcon(icn)
    dlg.show()
    return app.exec_()

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()