Error installing Python Image Library using pip on Mac OS X 10.9

Question

I want to install PIL on Mavericks using pip but get this error.

_imagingft.c:73:10: fatal error: 'freetype/fterrors.h' file not found
#include <freetype/fterrors.h>
         ^
1 error generated.
error: command 'cc' failed with exit status 1

My Command Line Tools are installed and up to date and every hint I found didn't help. How can I get this to compile?

EDIT: I just checked, freetype is also already installed via homebrew

You need `freetype` headers. – devnull Dec 02 '13 at 10:03 — devnull, Dec 02 '13 at 10:03
Yes, I guessed that ;) Also just found a way to solve this. – Lukas Spieß Dec 02 '13 at 10:11 — Lukas Spieß, Dec 02 '13 at 10:11

score 210 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 09 '13 at 21:55

210

Instead of symlinking to a specific version of freetype2, do this:

ln -s /usr/local/include/freetype2 /usr/local/include/freetype

This saves you the trouble of recreating the symlink whenever you upgrade freetype2.

answered Dec 09 '13 at 21:55

mcuelenaere

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after using `sudo easy_install PIL`, I come across this issue, your solution works like a charm! Thanks! – spiralmoon Jun 16 '14 at 06:03
3

this fixed the issue on Yosemite too – stevejpurves Feb 04 '15 at 21:09
I had freetype2 already linked, it may be best to link the original which was at /usr/local/Cellar/freetype/2.5.5/include/freetype2 – Salyangoz May 06 '15 at 23:23
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@Salyangoz: /usr/local/include/freetype2 is a symlink to /usr/local/Cellar/freetype/2.5.5/include/freetype2 (it's created by Homebrew). Using this instead of the actual path, has the advantage when doing an upgrade that it will still work. – mcuelenaere May 16 '15 at 16:01
2

Freetype2 was not installed on my machine running El Capitan, so I had to run `brew install freetype` before making this symlink – skandocious Dec 08 '15 at 01:17
I had to do `sudo ln -s /opt/local/include/freetype2 /opt/local/include/freetype` in order to get it to work. – Magnus Jun 07 '16 at 20:00

score 31 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 04 '13 at 22:03

31

With macports, the solution that worked for me:

sudo port install freetype
sudo ln -s /opt/local/include/freetype2 /opt/local/include/freetype

And then re-run the PIL build process.

answered Dec 04 '13 at 22:03

Mike Fogel

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this worked for me when i upgraded to maverick thanks – Mo J. Mughrabi Jan 24 '14 at 19:50
worked for me on yosemite while upgrading to cocos2dx v3.3 from 2.2 – andrewz Feb 22 '15 at 20:47

score 28 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 02 '13 at 18:07

28

I've solved this problem with this symlink:

ln -s /usr/local/Cellar/freetype/2.5.1/include/freetype2 /usr/local/include/freetype

I have freetype already installed via homebrew too.

answered Dec 02 '13 at 18:07

Dmitry

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score 5 · Answer 4 · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

This is caused by a change in the headers of freetype >= 2.1.5. PIL is not using the correct documented way to include the freetype headers, which causes the build to fail now that freetype finally removed the long-deprecated way of including the headers. This problem is documented right at the top of http://freetype.sourceforge.net/freetype2/docs/tutorial/step1.html:

NOTE: Starting with FreeType 2.1.6, the old header file inclusion scheme is no longer supported. This means that you now get an error if you do something like the following:

#include <freetype/freetype.h>
#include <freetype/ftglyph.h>

Please take this problem upstream to the developers of PIL and advise them to use the documented way of including freetype headers:

#include <ft2build.h>
#include FT_ERRORS_H

score 4 · Answer 5 · answered May 07 '14 at 17:03

4

After many attempts, I solved this problem compiling the PIL without freetype support. To do that, I simply unlinked from my $PATH using brew unlink freetype and then, pip install PIL==1.1.7.

answered May 07 '14 at 17:03

diegofleury

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what is freetype, anyway? :) – stantonk May 26 '15 at 21:23

score 3 · Answer 6 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

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I just solved this using the steps described in this Stackoverflow answer. Seems this is Xcode's fault for installing freetype in strange locations.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:53

Community

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answered Dec 02 '13 at 10:08

Lukas Spieß

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aclark · Answer 7 · 2014-06-09T20:19:21.017

3

Use Pillow where this issue is fixed "for real":

https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/commit/c6040f618d8f2706a7b46d1cdf37d1a587f9701f

And where you can report issues and see them addressed in a timely fashion:

https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/issues

edited Jun 09 '14 at 20:19

answered Jun 09 '14 at 10:10

aclark

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score 2 · Answer 8 · edited Apr 01 '14 at 06:55

2

In my OSx, I found the .h file in /opt/local/include/freetype2 direcoty. So, I type

sudo ln -s /opt/local/include/freetype2/ /usr/local/include/freetype

it works

Maybe the best way is to add /opt/local/include to your clang's include path.

edited Apr 01 '14 at 06:55

Shell

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answered Apr 01 '14 at 06:31

blowyourheart

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered May 19 '15 at 23:34

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osx yosemite, this worked for me:

(virtualenv)

$ ln -s /opt/local/include/freetype2/ /usr/local/include/freetype2
$ pip install pil==1.1.7 --allow-external pil --allow-unverified pil

answered May 19 '15 at 23:34

Ilja

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Ran the first line only, then this worked for me on Yosemite. Was able to `pip install PIL` – Aaron Ash Aug 15 '15 at 08:11

Beau · Answer 10 · 2013-12-08T11:34:21.760

I'm using Arch Linux and had this issue. In my case had to manually download and unpack the zip file from https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Pillow/2.2.1#downloads . I then edited the file _imagingft.c to change the include path from freetype/fterrors.h to fterrors.h as there was no freetype subdirectory of /usr/include/freetype2 where fterrors.h was located. Finally python setup.py install worked fine.

Edit: I should mention this was the solution for installing Pillow, not PIL, but Pillow is just a fork of PIL and it may still be applicable to others with this issue.

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jul 29 '14 at 15:54

If you're still looking for answers like I was after reading this and other googling, you may be interested to see this:

Warning

Pillow >= 2.1.0 no longer supports “import _imaging”. Please use “from PIL.Image import core as _imaging” instead.

from here

By the time you read this, the page will probably have changed, but the text will be still here at least.

Error installing Python Image Library using pip on Mac OS X 10.9

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