The _imaging C module is not installed (on windows)

Question

I’m trying to generate some pdf with django/PIL/Imaging and everything is good until I attempt to put some images into the pdf:

Exception Type: ImportError
Exception Value:    
The _imaging C module is not installed
Exception Location: D:installpython27libsite-packagesPILImage.py in __getattr__, line 37
Python Executable:  D:installpython27python.exe
Python Version: 2.7.1
Python Path:    
['D:\~Sasha\Portman',
 'D:\install\python27\lib\site-packages\setuptools-0.6c11-py2.7.egg',
 'D:\install\python27\lib\site-packages\pisa-3.0.33-py2.7.egg',
 'D:\install\python27\lib\site-packages\html5lib-0.95-py2.7.egg',
 'D:\install\python27\lib\site-packages\pypdf-1.13-py2.7.egg',
 'D:\install\PyCharm 2.0.2\helpers',
 'D:\~Sasha\Portman',
 'D:\~Sasha',
 'C:\Windows\system32\python27.zip',
 'D:\install\python27\DLLs',
 'D:\install\python27\lib',
 'D:\install\python27\lib\plat-win',
 'D:\install\python27\lib\lib-tk',
 'D:\install\python27',
 'D:\install\python27\lib\site-packages',
 'D:\install\python27\lib\site-packages\PIL']

PIL was installed via pre-compiled bundle from PIL website and importing _imaging was giving this output:

Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Feb  7 2011, 11:33:02) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import _imaging
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: DLL load failed: %1 is not a valid Win32 application.

Could python x64 be causing this issue?

Python 2.7.1 (r271:86832, Feb  7 2011, 11:33:02) [MSC v.1500 64 bit (AMD64)] on win32

I got a pre-built package for x64 of PIL and installed it on top of existing bundle, now import via console does work:

>>> import _imaging
import _imaging # dynamically loaded from D:installpython27libsite-packagesPIL_imaging.pyd

but I keep getting the same error whilst trying to generate the pdf file.

Asked By: abolotnov

||

Source

Answer 1

Yes, this could definitely be (and most likely is) caused by an x64 issue. If you’re running Python x64, any module that includes a native DLL needs to be installed in a version compiled for x64 too.

Edit: I cannot find an actual precompiled version for x64 at the PIL site, but here is a starting point if you’re interested in compiling it yourself.

Answered By: Joachim Isaksson

Answer 2

I am on Windows, and had a problem “”ImportError: The _imaging C module is not installed””.

The problem solved by installing Pillow from here: http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/#pil. (it’s given by a post however I can’t locate it back..)

Answered By: Mark K

Answer 3

I had the same problem. I just simply uninstalled

PIL

and installed Pillow which is replacement for PIL

pip install pillow

This worked for me.

Answered By: Ahmad

Answer 4

This is an old question… but it seems the issue can still arise.

In my case (Windows 11/x64), I was able to solve the issue by using the pip version of pillow rather than the conda one:

pip install --force pillow

Not sure this is the cleanest way but at least it works!

Answered By: Erwan LE PENNEC

Answer 5

I was having the same problem on windows. I simply uninstalled pillow and then installed it again, it worked for me.

pip uninstall pillow
pip install pillow

PS: I did this on anaconda’s terminal and in the base environment.

Answered By: Murat Can Kurt

The _imaging C module is not installed (on windows)

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