# The PyQt5 Resource System

PyQt5 supports Qt’s resource system. This is a facility for embedding resources such as icons and translation files in an application. This makes the packaging and distribution of those resources much easier.

A `.qrc` resource collection file is an XML file used to specify which resource files are to be embedded. The application then refers to the resource files by their original names but preceded by a colon.

For a full description, including the format of the `.qrc` files, see the Qt Resource System in the Qt documentation.

## pyrcc5

pyrcc5 is PyQt5’s equivalent to Qt’s rcc utility and is used in exactly the same way. pyrcc5 reads the `.qrc` file, and the resource files, and generates a Python module that only needs to be `import`ed by the application in order for those resources to be made available just as if they were the original files.