Python: The _imagingft C module is not installed
Question:
I’ve tried lots of solution that posted on the net, they don’t work.
>>> import _imaging
>>> _imaging.__file__
'C:\python26\lib\site-packages\PIL\_imaging.pyd'
>>>
So the system can find the _imaging but still can’t use truetype font
from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFilter, ImageFont
im = Image.new('RGB', (300,300), 'white')
draw = ImageDraw.Draw(im)
font = ImageFont.truetype('arial.ttf', 14)
draw.text((100,100), 'test text', font = font)
Raises this error:
ImportError: The _imagingft C module is not installed
File "D:Python26Libsite-packagesPILImageFont.py", line 34, in __getattr__
raise ImportError("The _imagingft C module is not installed")
Answers:
Your installed PIL was compiled without libfreetype.
You can get precompiled installer of PIL (compiled with libfreetype) here (and many other precompiled Python C Modules):
On Ubuntu, you need to have libfreetype-dev installed before compiling PIL.
i.e.
$ sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev
$ sudo -s
# pip uninstall pil
# pip install --no-cache-dir pil
PS! Running pip install as sudo will usually install packages to /usr/local/lib on most Ubuntu versions. You may consider to install Pil in a virtual environment (virtualenv or venv) in a path owned by the user instead.
You may also consider installing pillow instead of pil, which I believe is API compatible: https://python-pillow.org. Note that Pillow also requires libfreetype-dev and you might need to follow the same uninstall/install steps if libfreetype-dev was not present during the initial installation.
Ubuntu 11.10 installs zlib and freetype2 libraries following the multi-arch spec (e.g. /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu). You may use PIL setup environment variables so it can find them. However it only works on PIL versions beyond the pil-117 tag.
export PIL_SETUP_ZLIB_ROOT=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
export PIL_SETUP_FREETYPE_ROOT=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
pip install -U PIL
Since your multi-arch path may be different (x86-64), it’s preferable to install the -dev packages and use pkg-config to retrieve the correct path.
pkg-config --variable=libdir zlib
pkg-config --variable=libdir freetype2
Another way given by Barry on Pillow’s setup.py is to use dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH to obtain the proper library directory suffix.
For OS X (I’m running 10.6 but should work for others) I was able to get around this error using the advice from this post. Basically you need to install a couple of the dependencies then reinstall PIL.
In OS X, I did this to solve the problem:
pip uninstall PIL
ln -s /usr/X11/include/freetype2 /usr/local/include/
ln -s /usr/X11/include/ft2build.h /usr/local/include/
ln -s /usr/X11/lib/libfreetype.6.dylib /usr/local/lib/
ln -s /usr/X11/lib/libfreetype.6.dylib /usr/local/lib/libfreetype.dylib
pip install PIL
Basically, you need to install freetype before installing PIL.
If you’re using Homebrew on OS X it’s just a matter of:
brew remove pil
brew install freetype
brew install pil
Worked for Ubuntu 12.10:
sudo pip uninstall PIL
sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev
sudo apt-get install python-imaging
solution for CentOS 6 (and probably other rpm based):
yum install freetype-devel libjpeg-devel libpng-devel
pip uninstall pil Pillow
pip install pil Pillow
The followed works on ubuntu 12.04:
pip uninstall PIL
apt-get install libjpeg-dev
apt-get install libfreetype6-dev
apt-get install zlib1g-dev
apt-get install libpng12-dev
pip install PIL --upgrade
when your see “– JPEG support avaliable” that means it works.
But, if it still doesn’t work when your edit your jpeg image, check the python path!!
My python path missed '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PIL-1.1.7-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/', so I edit the ~/.bashrc add the following code to this file:
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PIL-1.1.7-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/
then, finally, it works!!
I used homebrew to install freetype and I have the following in /usr/local/lib:
libfreetype.6.dylib
libfreetype.a
libfreetype.dylib
But the usual:
pip install pil
Does not work for me, so I used:
pip install http://effbot.org/downloads/Imaging-1.1.6.tar.gz
In my ubuntu12.04, after I installed python-imaging using apt-get, it works.
For me none of the solutions posted here so far has worked. I found another solution here: http://codeinthehole.com/writing/how-to-install-pil-on-64-bit-ubuntu-1204/
First install the dev packages:
$ sudo apt-get install python-dev libjpeg-dev libfreetype6-dev zlib1g-dev
Then create some symlinks:
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -i`-linux-gnu/libfreetype.so /usr/lib/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -i`-linux-gnu/libjpeg.so /usr/lib/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -i`-linux-gnu/libz.so /usr/lib/
Afterwards PIL should compile just fine:
$ pip install PIL --upgrade
The following worked for me on Ubuntu 14.04.1 64 bit:
sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev
Then, in the virtualenv:
pip uninstall pillow
pip install --no-cache-dir pillow
In my Mac, the following steps in terminal works:
$ brew install freetype
$ sudo pip uninstall pil
$ sudo pip install pillow
hopes it works for you. Good luck!
Instead of running: pip install Pillow
Run: pip install Image
darwin Big Sur pyenv
In Windows 11 we need to solve this problem
‘pip install –upgrade pip’
‘pip install –upgrade Pillow’
pip install –upgrade Pillow
Installing libtruetype-dev did not work for me on ubuntu container.
My pillow was not compiled and pip installed one without truetype. (maybe it was cached this way by docker container provider). What did work was installing pill ow via conda:
pip uninstall -y pillow
conda install pillow
I’ve tried lots of solution that posted on the net, they don’t work.
>>> import _imaging
>>> _imaging.__file__
'C:\python26\lib\site-packages\PIL\_imaging.pyd'
>>>
So the system can find the _imaging but still can’t use truetype font
from PIL import Image, ImageDraw, ImageFilter, ImageFont
im = Image.new('RGB', (300,300), 'white')
draw = ImageDraw.Draw(im)
font = ImageFont.truetype('arial.ttf', 14)
draw.text((100,100), 'test text', font = font)
Raises this error:
ImportError: The _imagingft C module is not installed
File "D:Python26Libsite-packagesPILImageFont.py", line 34, in __getattr__
raise ImportError("The _imagingft C module is not installed")
Your installed PIL was compiled without libfreetype.
You can get precompiled installer of PIL (compiled with libfreetype) here (and many other precompiled Python C Modules):
On Ubuntu, you need to have libfreetype-dev installed before compiling PIL.
i.e.
$ sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev
$ sudo -s
# pip uninstall pil
# pip install --no-cache-dir pil
PS! Running pip install as sudo will usually install packages to /usr/local/lib on most Ubuntu versions. You may consider to install Pil in a virtual environment (virtualenv or venv) in a path owned by the user instead.
You may also consider installing pillow instead of pil, which I believe is API compatible: https://python-pillow.org. Note that Pillow also requires libfreetype-dev and you might need to follow the same uninstall/install steps if libfreetype-dev was not present during the initial installation.
Ubuntu 11.10 installs zlib and freetype2 libraries following the multi-arch spec (e.g. /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu). You may use PIL setup environment variables so it can find them. However it only works on PIL versions beyond the pil-117 tag.
export PIL_SETUP_ZLIB_ROOT=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
export PIL_SETUP_FREETYPE_ROOT=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu
pip install -U PIL
Since your multi-arch path may be different (x86-64), it’s preferable to install the -dev packages and use pkg-config to retrieve the correct path.
pkg-config --variable=libdir zlib
pkg-config --variable=libdir freetype2
Another way given by Barry on Pillow’s setup.py is to use dpkg-architecture -qDEB_HOST_MULTIARCH to obtain the proper library directory suffix.
For OS X (I’m running 10.6 but should work for others) I was able to get around this error using the advice from this post. Basically you need to install a couple of the dependencies then reinstall PIL.
In OS X, I did this to solve the problem:
pip uninstall PIL
ln -s /usr/X11/include/freetype2 /usr/local/include/
ln -s /usr/X11/include/ft2build.h /usr/local/include/
ln -s /usr/X11/lib/libfreetype.6.dylib /usr/local/lib/
ln -s /usr/X11/lib/libfreetype.6.dylib /usr/local/lib/libfreetype.dylib
pip install PIL
Basically, you need to install freetype before installing PIL.
If you’re using Homebrew on OS X it’s just a matter of:
brew remove pil
brew install freetype
brew install pil
Worked for Ubuntu 12.10:
sudo pip uninstall PIL
sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev
sudo apt-get install python-imaging
solution for CentOS 6 (and probably other rpm based):
yum install freetype-devel libjpeg-devel libpng-devel
pip uninstall pil Pillow
pip install pil Pillow
The followed works on ubuntu 12.04:
pip uninstall PIL
apt-get install libjpeg-dev
apt-get install libfreetype6-dev
apt-get install zlib1g-dev
apt-get install libpng12-dev
pip install PIL --upgrade
when your see “– JPEG support avaliable” that means it works.
But, if it still doesn’t work when your edit your jpeg image, check the python path!!
My python path missed '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PIL-1.1.7-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/', so I edit the ~/.bashrc add the following code to this file:
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/PIL-1.1.7-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg/
then, finally, it works!!
I used homebrew to install freetype and I have the following in /usr/local/lib:
libfreetype.6.dylib
libfreetype.a
libfreetype.dylib
But the usual:
pip install pil
Does not work for me, so I used:
pip install http://effbot.org/downloads/Imaging-1.1.6.tar.gz
In my ubuntu12.04, after I installed python-imaging using apt-get, it works.
For me none of the solutions posted here so far has worked. I found another solution here: http://codeinthehole.com/writing/how-to-install-pil-on-64-bit-ubuntu-1204/
First install the dev packages:
$ sudo apt-get install python-dev libjpeg-dev libfreetype6-dev zlib1g-dev
Then create some symlinks:
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -i`-linux-gnu/libfreetype.so /usr/lib/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -i`-linux-gnu/libjpeg.so /usr/lib/
$ sudo ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -i`-linux-gnu/libz.so /usr/lib/
Afterwards PIL should compile just fine:
$ pip install PIL --upgrade
The following worked for me on Ubuntu 14.04.1 64 bit:
sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev
Then, in the virtualenv:
pip uninstall pillow
pip install --no-cache-dir pillow
In my Mac, the following steps in terminal works:
$ brew install freetype
$ sudo pip uninstall pil
$ sudo pip install pillow
hopes it works for you. Good luck!
Instead of running: pip install Pillow
Run: pip install Image
darwin Big Sur pyenv
In Windows 11 we need to solve this problem
‘pip install –upgrade pip’
‘pip install –upgrade Pillow’
pip install –upgrade Pillow
Installing libtruetype-dev did not work for me on ubuntu container.
My pillow was not compiled and pip installed one without truetype. (maybe it was cached this way by docker container provider). What did work was installing pill ow via conda:
pip uninstall -y pillow
conda install pillow