Minecraft server querier that generates an image of online players This little chunk of code is run every 10 seconds on my desktop. It generates a PNG with up to 6 player faces based on the list of online players. 

Is there any way for this code to execute faster? Any comments?

Each player has a PNG of their avatar's face with the title: "username_face.png" These are pasted into the main image when that player is online.

I wrote this script to compile their faces into a single image for display in a program called conky, allowing me to display the online players as part of my desktop.

from mcstatus import MinecraftServer
import os
from PIL import Image

#Query the server and get player names.
server = MinecraftServer("123.123.123.123", 25565)
query = server.query()
nameList = query.players.names


#Sort the list of player names.
nameList.sort()

#Open our temporary file for storing player names.
tempFile = open('server1_previous_players.txt', 'r')
oldNameList = tempFile.read().splitlines()
tempFile.close()

def createImage(players):
    #create a blank transparent image with the dimensions: 212x147px.
    baseImage = Image.new("RGBA", (212, 147))
    slotList = [(17, 17), (82, 17), (147, 17), (17, 82), (82, 82), (147, 82)]

    if len(players) &gt; 0:
        for x in range(0, 6):
            try:
                face = Image.open(str(nameList[x]).lower() + "_face.png", 'r')
                baseImage.paste(face, slotList[x])
            except:
                break

    baseImage.save("server1_online.png")

#If nothing changed, pass!
if nameList == oldNameList:
    print("same thing!")
    pass

#Else, if no-one is on, but the text file says people are on, empty the text file.
elif len(nameList) == 0 and len(oldNameList) &gt; 0:
    print("everyone left :'(")
    tempFile = open('server1_previous_players.txt', 'w')
    createImage(nameList)

#Else, if at least 1 person is on, generate a new image accordingly.
elif len(nameList) &gt; 0:
    tempFile = open('server1_previous_players.txt', 'w')
    print('\n'.join(nameList), file=tempFile)
    createImage(nameList)

else:
    pass
Maybe it will not increase the performance, but I have some general tips:
Use while loops instead of for-loops with break. It will make your code more readable.
I have rewritten the createImage function for you:

def createImage(players):
    # create a blank transparent image with the dimensions: 212x147px.
    baseImage = Image.new("RGBA", (212, 147))
    slotList = [(17, 17), (82, 17), (147, 17), (17, 82), (82, 82), (147, 82)]

    x = 0
    while x &lt; len(players) and x &lt; 6:
        face = Image.open(str(players[x]).lower() + "_face.png", 'r')
        baseImage.paste(face, slotList[x])
        x += 1
    baseImage.save("server1_online.png")


If you prefer for over while, you can use:

def createImage(players):
    # create a blank transparent image with the dimensions: 212x147px.
    baseImage = Image.new("RGBA", (212, 147))
    slotList = [(17, 17), (82, 17), (147, 17), (17, 82), (82, 82), (147, 82)]

    for slot, player in zip(slotList, players):
        face = Image.open(str(player).lower() + "_face.png", 'r')
        baseImage.paste(face, slot)
    baseImage.save("server1_online.png")


Read more about zip here

You need to close the files you open:

# If nothing changed, pass!
if nameList == oldNameList:
    print("same thing!")

# Else, if no-one is on, but the text file says people are on, empty the text file.
elif len(nameList) == 0 and len(oldNameList) &gt; 0:
    print("everyone left :'(")
    tempFile = open('server1_previous_players.txt', 'w')
    tempFile.write("")
    tempFile.close()
    createImage(nameList)

# Else, if at least 1 person is on, generate a new image accordingly.
elif len(nameList) &gt; 0:
    tempFile = open('server1_previous_players.txt', 'w')
    # write should be used instead of print
    tempFile.write('\n'.join(nameList))
    tempFile.close()
    createImage(nameList)


An if-statement can be used without an else, so if there is only pass in there you don't need it.

If you want to create an empty / transparent image when nobody is on, you can combine both elif-statements:

# If nothing changed, pass!
if nameList == oldNameList:
    print("same thing!")


# else generate image and write new player list to file
else:
    if len(nameList) == 0 and len(oldNameList) &gt; 0:
        print("everybody left")
    tempFile = open('server1_previous_players.txt', 'w')
    tempFile.write('\n'.join(nameList))  # writes "" for an empty player list
    tempFile.close()
    createImage(nameList)