Creating a program in Python 3 for Windows users, cannot use PIL?

Question

I wrote a fairly simple GUI program to automate a few processes for Windows users in Python (as it is the only programming language I am somewhat familiar with that will run on Windows). I would ideally not want the user to have to run an install program on their machine, as my plan is for it to run self-contained in a USB drive.

It depends on os, shutil, string, sys, tkinter, webbrowser, PIL, ftplib, and glob.

It seems as though all of the dependencies got imported when I ran cx_freeze on it, except for PIL. I have never used cx_freeze before, so I could be doing something wrong but it doesn't seem like it. Running the program from the unfrozen .py script works just fine.

Here's the error message I receive when trying to use a PIL command:

Exception in Tkinter callback
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\Python32\lib\tkinter\__init__.py", line 1399, in __call__
    return self.func(*args)
  File "E:\AlbumUploader.py", line 143, in OnButton2Click
    img.thumbnail(size, Image.ANTIALIAS)
  File "C:\Python32\lib\site-packages\PIL\Image.py", line 1573, in thumbnail
    self.load()
  File "C:\Python32\lib\site-packages\PIL\ImageFile.py", line 168, in load
    self.load_prepare()
  File "C:\Python32\lib\site-packages\PIL\ImageFile.py", line 234, in load_prepare
    self.im = Image.core.new(self.mode, self.size)
  File "C:\Python32\lib\site-packages\PIL\Image.py", line 39, in __getattr__
    raise ImportError("The _imaging C module is not installed")
ImportError: The _imaging C module is not installed

Thanks for any help you can provide. I see that it's still referencing C:\Python32 which could be part of the problem, because it shouldn't be (if I'm not mistaken).

Update:

I looked at the PIL FAQ and it seems like the gist of that answer is that I need to make sure my sys.path list is correct. I basically grabbed all the Python files for Windows and included it in the USB drive which I am trying to use to contain everything, and set my path like so:

program_dir = os.path.split(sys.argv[0])[0]
sys.path = [program_dir]
sys.path.append(program_dir + os.sep + 'Lib')
sys.path.append(program_dir + os.sep + 'Lib' + os.sep + 'site-packages')
sys.path.append(program_dir + os.sep + 'Lib' + os.sep + 'site-packages' + os.sep + 'PIL')
sys.path.append(program_dir + os.sep + 'DLLs')

All the paths seem correct, but for some reason I am still getting the same error. When I run the .py file everything works 100%, but this seems to break it somehow. Other modules seem to work just fine like shutil, os, and sys, for example.

Hi, I'm looking to get PIL to work with my Windows of Python 3.2 install too. I am not 100% sure I understand what you ended up doing. Did you install the ported version that you refer to (http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/) and did that require the changes to `sys.path` you show above? Or did you install an earlier version (which?) of the PIL from http://www.pythonware.com/products/pil/and use the `sys.path` directives to get it to work with Python 3.2? — Levon, May 28 '12 at 00:30

score 4 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:56

4

I think your main problem may be that the Python Imaging Library (PIL) does not yet support Python 3.x.

If you look at the PIL downloads page you'll see that there are Windows downloads for Python 2.4, 2.5, 2.6 and 2.7 but nothing for Python 3.x.

This question has an answer which details unofficial ports of PIL for Python 3.x which might be worth a try.

If that works you could take a look at the first question on the PIL FAQ which is about the "The _imaging C module is not installed" error and lists various things you can do to identify the problem.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:56

Community

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answered Jan 24 '12 at 13:50

David Webb

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I found someone that ported PIL and it works perfectly in my script (using it to generate thumbnails). I found it here:http://www.lfd.uci.edu/~gohlke/pythonlibs/ It's around halfway down the page. – Mylan Connolly Jan 24 '12 at 13:52
@MylanConnolly - I found a question which references those ports too. I've updated my answer. Have you worked through the steps in the PIL FAQ? – David Webb Jan 24 '12 at 13:55
Thank you, I will look into this shortly. – Mylan Connolly Jan 24 '12 at 14:03
I looked at the PIL FAQ and it seems like the gist of that answer is that I need to make sure my sys.path list is correct. I updated my original post to reflect the extra steps I have taken, per that link, but the problem unfortunately still persists. :-( – Mylan Connolly Jan 24 '12 at 17:57
Got it fixed!!! Apparently I wasn't being "aggressive" enough in my imports. I imported a lot more explicitly and now it is getting the proper PIL modules imported. – Mylan Connolly Jan 24 '12 at 19:40

Gareth Latty · Answer 2 · 2012-01-24T14:05:53.210

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In the past I have found cx_Freeze to have issues pulling in the correct DLLs under Windows.

I used Process Explorer to track down what DLLs were being looked for, but not found, and then added them to the project manually, and this got it working. As it would do the same for any file, I imagine the same could be done in your case.

This was for my usage with PySFML, so your mileage may vary.

edited Jan 24 '12 at 14:05

answered Jan 24 '12 at 13:54

Gareth Latty

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Thank you, I will look into this shortly. – Mylan Connolly Jan 24 '12 at 14:08

Creating a program in Python 3 for Windows users, cannot use PIL?

2 Answers2