Why can't Python import Image from PIL?

python python-imaging-library importerror python-import pillow
Betohaku picture Betohaku · Oct 22, 2014 · Viewed 139.6k times · Source

The single line that I am trying to run is the following:

from PIL import Image

However simple this may seem, it gives an error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "C:\...\2014-10-22_12-49.py", line 1, in <module>
    from PIL import Image
  File "C:\pyzo2014a\lib\site-packages\PIL\Image.py", line 29, in <module>
    from PIL import VERSION, PILLOW_VERSION, _plugins
ImportError: cannot import name 'VERSION'

In case that's helpful, I installed pillow from https://pypi.python.org/pypi/Pillow/2.6.1 (file Pillow-2.6.1.win-amd64-py3.4.exe) before running this (before that there was already som PIL install, which I uninstalled). The script is run in Pyzo with Python version 3.4.1.

What is going wrong, how can I import Image?

Answer

Trent picture Trent · Jul 30, 2015

I had the same error. Here was my workflow. I first installed PIL (not Pillow) using 

pip install --no-index -f https://dist.plone.org/thirdparty/ -U PIL

Then I found Pillow and installed it using

pip install Pillow

What fixed my issues was uninstalling both and reinstalling Pillow

pip uninstall PIL
pip uninstall Pillow
pip install Pillow

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