Warning
Pillow and PIL cannot co-exist in the same environment. Before installing Pillow, please uninstall PIL.
Warning
Pillow >= 1.0 no longer supports import Image. Please use from PIL import Image instead.
Warning
Pillow >= 2.1.0 no longer supports import _imaging. Please use from PIL.Image import core as _imaging instead.
Pillow supports these Python versions.
Note
The following instructions will install Pillow with support for most common image formats. See :ref:`external-libraries` for a full list of external libraries supported.
Install Pillow with :command:`pip`:
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip python3 -m pip install --upgrade Pillow
.. tab:: Linux
We provide binaries for Linux for each of the supported Python
versions in the manylinux wheel format. These include support for all
optional libraries except libimagequant. Raqm support requires
FriBiDi to be installed separately::
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install --upgrade Pillow
Most major Linux distributions, including Fedora, Ubuntu and ArchLinux
also include Pillow in packages that previously contained PIL e.g.
``python-imaging``. Debian splits it into two packages, ``python3-pil``
and ``python3-pil.imagetk``.
.. tab:: macOS
We provide binaries for macOS for each of the supported Python
versions in the wheel format. These include support for all optional
libraries except libimagequant. Raqm support requires
FriBiDi to be installed separately::
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install --upgrade Pillow
.. tab:: Windows
We provide Pillow binaries for Windows compiled for the matrix of
supported Pythons in both 32 and 64-bit versions in the wheel format.
These binaries include support for all optional libraries except
libimagequant and libxcb. Raqm support requires
FriBiDi to be installed separately::
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip
python3 -m pip install --upgrade Pillow
To install Pillow in MSYS2, see `Building on Windows using MSYS2/MinGW`_.
.. tab:: FreeBSD
Pillow can be installed on FreeBSD via the official Ports or Packages systems:
**Ports**::
cd /usr/ports/graphics/py-pillow && make install clean
**Packages**::
pkg install py38-pillow
.. note::
The `Pillow FreeBSD port
<https://www.freshports.org/graphics/py-pillow/>`_ and packages
are tested by the ports team with all supported FreeBSD versions.
Note
You do not need to install all supported external libraries to use Pillow's basic features. Zlib and libjpeg are required by default.
Note
There are Dockerfiles in our Docker images repo to install the dependencies for some operating systems.
Many of Pillow's features require external libraries:
- libjpeg provides JPEG functionality.
- Pillow has been tested with libjpeg versions 6b, 8, 9-9d and libjpeg-turbo version 8.
- Starting with Pillow 3.0.0, libjpeg is required by default, but
may be disabled with the
--disable-jpegflag.
- zlib provides access to compressed PNGs
- Starting with Pillow 3.0.0, zlib is required by default, but may
be disabled with the
--disable-zlibflag.
- Starting with Pillow 3.0.0, zlib is required by default, but may
be disabled with the
- libtiff provides compressed TIFF functionality
- Pillow has been tested with libtiff versions 3.x and 4.0-4.5
- libfreetype provides type related services
- littlecms provides color management
- Pillow version 2.2.1 and below uses liblcms1, Pillow 2.3.0 and above uses liblcms2. Tested with 1.19 and 2.7-2.14.
- libwebp provides the WebP format.
- Pillow has been tested with version 0.1.3, which does not read transparent WebP files. Versions 0.3.0 and above support transparency.
- tcl/tk provides support for tkinter bitmap and photo images.
- openjpeg provides JPEG 2000 functionality.
- Pillow has been tested with openjpeg 2.0.0, 2.1.0, 2.3.1, 2.4.0 and 2.5.0.
- Pillow does not support the earlier 1.5 series which ships with Debian Jessie.
- libimagequant provides improved color quantization
- Pillow has been tested with libimagequant 2.6-4.0.4
- Libimagequant is licensed GPLv3, which is more restrictive than the Pillow license, therefore we will not be distributing binaries with libimagequant support enabled.
- libraqm provides complex text layout support.
- libraqm provides bidirectional text support (using FriBiDi), shaping (using HarfBuzz), and proper script itemization. As a result, Raqm can support most writing systems covered by Unicode.
- libraqm depends on the following libraries: FreeType, HarfBuzz, FriBiDi, make sure that you install them before installing libraqm if not available as package in your system.
- Setting text direction or font features is not supported without libraqm.
- Pillow wheels since version 8.2.0 include a modified version of libraqm that
loads libfribidi at runtime if it is installed.
On Windows this requires compiling FriBiDi and installing
fribidi.dllinto a directory listed in the Dynamic-Link Library Search Order (Microsoft Docs) (fribidi-0.dllorlibfribidi-0.dllare also detected). See Build Options to see how to build this version. - Previous versions of Pillow (5.0.0 to 8.1.2) linked libraqm dynamically at runtime.
- libxcb provides X11 screengrab support.
.. tab:: Linux
If you didn't build Python from source, make sure you have Python's
development libraries installed.
In Debian or Ubuntu::
sudo apt-get install python3-dev python3-setuptools
In Fedora, the command is::
sudo dnf install python3-devel redhat-rpm-config
In Alpine, the command is::
sudo apk add python3-dev py3-setuptools
.. Note:: ``redhat-rpm-config`` is required on Fedora 23, but not earlier versions.
Prerequisites for **Ubuntu 16.04 LTS - 22.04 LTS** are installed with::
sudo apt-get install libtiff5-dev libjpeg8-dev libopenjp2-7-dev zlib1g-dev \
libfreetype6-dev liblcms2-dev libwebp-dev tcl8.6-dev tk8.6-dev python3-tk \
libharfbuzz-dev libfribidi-dev libxcb1-dev
To install libraqm, ``sudo apt-get install meson`` and then see
``depends/install_raqm.sh``.
Prerequisites are installed on recent **Red Hat**, **CentOS** or **Fedora** with::
sudo dnf install libtiff-devel libjpeg-devel openjpeg2-devel zlib-devel \
freetype-devel lcms2-devel libwebp-devel tcl-devel tk-devel \
harfbuzz-devel fribidi-devel libraqm-devel libimagequant-devel libxcb-devel
Note that the package manager may be yum or DNF, depending on the
exact distribution.
Prerequisites are installed for **Alpine** with::
sudo apk add tiff-dev jpeg-dev openjpeg-dev zlib-dev freetype-dev lcms2-dev \
libwebp-dev tcl-dev tk-dev harfbuzz-dev fribidi-dev libimagequant-dev \
libxcb-dev libpng-dev
See also the ``Dockerfile``\s in the Test Infrastructure repo
(https://github.com/python-pillow/docker-images) for a known working
install process for other tested distros.
.. tab:: macOS
The Xcode command line tools are required to compile portions of
Pillow. The tools are installed by running ``xcode-select --install``
from the command line. The command line tools are required even if you
have the full Xcode package installed. It may be necessary to run
``sudo xcodebuild -license`` to accept the license prior to using the
tools.
The easiest way to install external libraries is via `Homebrew
<https://brew.sh/>`_. After you install Homebrew, run::
brew install libjpeg libtiff little-cms2 openjpeg webp
To install libraqm on macOS use Homebrew to install its dependencies::
brew install freetype harfbuzz fribidi
Then see ``depends/install_raqm_cmake.sh`` to install libraqm.
.. tab:: Windows
We recommend you use prebuilt wheels from PyPI.
If you wish to compile Pillow manually, you can use the build scripts
in the ``winbuild`` directory used for CI testing and development.
These scripts require Visual Studio 2017 or newer and NASM.
The scripts also install Pillow from the local copy of the source code, so the
`Installing`_ instructions will not be necessary afterwards.
.. tab:: Windows using MSYS2/MinGW
To build Pillow using MSYS2, make sure you run the **MSYS2 MinGW 32-bit** or
**MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit** console, *not* **MSYS2** directly.
The following instructions target the 64-bit build, for 32-bit
replace all occurrences of ``mingw-w64-x86_64-`` with ``mingw-w64-i686-``.
Make sure you have Python and GCC installed::
pacman -S \
mingw-w64-x86_64-gcc \
mingw-w64-x86_64-python3 \
mingw-w64-x86_64-python3-pip \
mingw-w64-x86_64-python3-setuptools
Prerequisites are installed on **MSYS2 MinGW 64-bit** with::
pacman -S \
mingw-w64-x86_64-libjpeg-turbo \
mingw-w64-x86_64-zlib \
mingw-w64-x86_64-libtiff \
mingw-w64-x86_64-freetype \
mingw-w64-x86_64-lcms2 \
mingw-w64-x86_64-libwebp \
mingw-w64-x86_64-openjpeg2 \
mingw-w64-x86_64-libimagequant \
mingw-w64-x86_64-libraqm
.. tab:: FreeBSD
.. Note:: Only FreeBSD 10 and 11 tested
Make sure you have Python's development libraries installed::
sudo pkg install python3
Prerequisites are installed on **FreeBSD 10 or 11** with::
sudo pkg install jpeg-turbo tiff webp lcms2 freetype2 openjpeg harfbuzz fribidi libxcb
Then see ``depends/install_raqm_cmake.sh`` to install libraqm.
.. tab:: Android
Basic Android support has been added for compilation within the Termux
environment. The dependencies can be installed by::
pkg install -y python ndk-sysroot clang make \
libjpeg-turbo
This has been tested within the Termux app on ChromeOS, on x86.
Once you have installed the prerequisites, to install Pillow from the source code on PyPI, run:
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip python3 -m pip install --upgrade Pillow --no-binary :all:
If the prerequisites are installed in the standard library locations for your machine (e.g. :file:`/usr` or :file:`/usr/local`), no additional configuration should be required. If they are installed in a non-standard location, you may need to configure setuptools to use those locations by editing :file:`setup.py` or :file:`setup.cfg`, or by adding environment variables on the command line:
CFLAGS="-I/usr/pkg/include" python3 -m pip install --upgrade Pillow --no-binary :all:
If Pillow has been previously built without the required
prerequisites, it may be necessary to manually clear the pip cache or
build without cache using the --no-cache-dir option to force a
build with newly installed external libraries.
If you would like to install from a local copy of the source code instead, you
can clone from GitHub with git clone https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow
or download and extract the compressed archive from PyPI.
After navigating to the Pillow directory, run:
python3 -m pip install --upgrade pip python3 -m pip install .
- Environment variable:
MAX_CONCURRENCY=n. Pillow can use multiprocessing to build the extension. SettingMAX_CONCURRENCYsets the number of CPUs to use, or can disable parallel building by using a setting of 1. By default, it uses 4 CPUs, or if 4 are not available, as many as are present. - Build flags:
--disable-zlib,--disable-jpeg,--disable-tiff,--disable-freetype,--disable-lcms,--disable-webp,--disable-webpmux,--disable-jpeg2000,--disable-imagequant,--disable-xcb. Disable building the corresponding feature even if the development libraries are present on the building machine. - Build flags:
--enable-zlib,--enable-jpeg,--enable-tiff,--enable-freetype,--enable-lcms,--enable-webp,--enable-webpmux,--enable-jpeg2000,--enable-imagequant,--enable-xcb. Require that the corresponding feature is built. The build will raise an exception if the libraries are not found. Webpmux (WebP metadata) relies on WebP support. Tcl and Tk also must be used together. - Build flags:
--vendor-raqm --vendor-fribidiThese flags are used to compile a modified version of libraqm and a shim that dynamically loads libfribidi at runtime. These are used to compile the standard Pillow wheels. Compiling libraqm requires a C99-compliant compiler. - Build flag:
--disable-platform-guessing. Skips all of the platform dependent guessing of include and library directories for automated build systems that configure the proper paths in the environment variables (e.g. Buildroot). - Build flag:
--debug. Adds a debugging flag to the include and library search process to dump all paths searched for and found to stdout.
Sample usage:
python3 -m pip install --upgrade Pillow --global-option="build_ext" --global-option="--enable-[feature]"
Current platform support for Pillow. Binary distributions are contributed for each release on a volunteer basis, but the source should compile and run everywhere platform support is listed. In general, we aim to support all current versions of Linux, macOS, and Windows.
These platforms are built and tested for every change.
| Operating system | Tested Python versions | Tested architecture |
|---|---|---|
| Alpine | 3.9 | x86-64 |
| Amazon Linux 2 | 3.7 | x86-64 |
| Arch | 3.9 | x86-64 |
| CentOS 7 | 3.9 | x86-64 |
| CentOS Stream 8 | 3.9 | x86-64 |
| CentOS Stream 9 | 3.9 | x86-64 |
| Debian 10 Buster | 3.7 | x86 |
| Debian 11 Bullseye | 3.9 | x86 |
| Fedora 36 | 3.10 | x86-64 |
| Fedora 37 | 3.11 | x86-64 |
| Gentoo | 3.9 | x86-64 |
| macOS 11 Big Sur | 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, PyPy3 | x86-64 |
| Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS (Bionic) | 3.9 | x86-64 |
| Ubuntu Linux 20.04 LTS (Focal) | 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, PyPy3 | x86-64 |
| Ubuntu Linux 22.04 LTS (Jammy) | 3.10 | arm64v8, ppc64le, s390x, x86-64 |
| Windows Server 2016 | 3.7 | x86-64 |
| Windows Server 2022 | 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11, PyPy3 | x86, x86-64 |
| 3.9 (MinGW) | x86, x86-64 | |
| 3.8, 3.9 (Cygwin) | x86-64 |
These platforms have been reported to work at the versions mentioned.
Note
Contributors please test Pillow on your platform then update this document and send a pull request.
| Operating system | Tested Python
versions
|
Latest tested
Pillow version
|
Tested
processors
|
|---|---|---|---|
| macOS 13 Ventura | 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11 | 9.3.0 | arm |
| macOS 12 Big Sur | 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11 | 9.3.0 | arm |
| macOS 11 Big Sur | 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10 | 8.4.0 | arm |
| 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 3.10, 3.11 | 9.3.0 | x86-64 | |
| 3.6 | 8.4.0 | ||
| macOS 10.15 Catalina | 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 | 8.3.2 | x86-64 |
| 3.5 | 7.2.0 | ||
| macOS 10.14 Mojave | 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 | 7.2.0 | x86-64 |
| 2.7 | 6.0.0 | ||
| 3.4 | 5.4.1 | ||
| macOS 10.13 High Sierra | 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 | 4.2.1 | x86-64 |
| macOS 10.12 Sierra | 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 | 4.1.1 | x86-64 |
| Mac OS X 10.11 El Capitan | 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7 | 5.4.1 | x86-64 |
| 3.3 | 4.1.0 | ||
| Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks | 2.7, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 | 3.0.0 | x86-64 |
| Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion | 2.6, 2.7, 3.2, 3.3 | x86-64 | |
| Redhat Linux 6 | 2.6 | x86 | |
| CentOS 6.3 | 2.7, 3.3 | x86 | |
| CentOS 8 | 3.9 | 9.0.0 | x86-64 |
| Fedora 23 | 2.7, 3.4 | 3.1.0 | x86-64 |
| Ubuntu Linux 12.04 LTS (Precise) | 2.6, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5
PyPy5.3.1, PyPy3 v2.4.0
|
3.4.1 | x86,x86-64 |
| 2.7 | 4.3.0 | x86-64 | |
| 2.7, 3.2 | 3.4.1 | ppc | |
| Ubuntu Linux 10.04 LTS (Lucid) | 2.6 | 2.3.0 | x86,x86-64 |
| Debian 8.2 Jessie | 2.7, 3.4 | 3.1.0 | x86-64 |
| Raspbian Jessie | 2.7, 3.4 | 3.1.0 | arm |
| Raspbian Stretch | 2.7, 3.5 | 4.0.0 | arm |
| Raspberry Pi OS | 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 | 8.2.0 | arm |
| 2.7 | 6.2.2 | ||
| Gentoo Linux | 2.7, 3.2 | 2.1.0 | x86-64 |
| FreeBSD 11.1 | 2.7, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 | 4.3.0 | x86-64 |
| FreeBSD 10.3 | 2.7, 3.4, 3.5 | 4.2.0 | x86-64 |
| FreeBSD 10.2 | 2.7, 3.4 | 3.1.0 | x86-64 |
| Windows 10 | 3.7 | 7.1.0 | x86-64 |
| Windows 10/Cygwin 3.3 | 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9 | 8.4.0 | x86-64 |
| Windows 8.1 Pro | 2.6, 2.7, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 | 2.4.0 | x86,x86-64 |
| Windows 8 Pro | 2.6, 2.7, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4a3 | 2.2.0 | x86,x86-64 |
| Windows 7 Professional | 3.7 | 7.0.0 | x86,x86-64 |
| Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise | 3.3 | x86-64 |
You can download old distributions from the release history at PyPI and by direct URL access eg. https://pypi.org/project/Pillow/1.0/.