Problem
You want to install PIL on 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin).
Solution
With pip already installed, install the required development packages:
sudo apt-get install python-dev libjpeg-dev libfreetype6-dev zlib1g-dev
and symlink the three image libraries into /usr/lib:
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -i`-linux-gnu/libfreetype.so /usr/lib/
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -i`-linux-gnu/libjpeg.so /usr/lib/
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/`uname -i`-linux-gnu/libz.so /usr/lib/
PIL should now install with support for JPEGs, PNGs and FreeType, as indicated by the compilation output:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
PIL 1.1.7 SETUP SUMMARY
--------------------------------------------------------------------
version 1.1.7
platform linux2 2.7.3 (default, Apr 20 2012, 22:39:59)
[GCC 4.6.3]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
*** TKINTER support not available
--- JPEG support available
--- ZLIB (PNG/ZIP) support available
--- FREETYPE2 support available
*** LITTLECMS support not available
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Common problems
Missing image libraries
If the image libraries are not installed and available in /usr/lib, you’ll see
something like this:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
PIL 1.1.7 SETUP SUMMARY
--------------------------------------------------------------------
version 1.1.7
platform linux2 2.7.3 (default, Apr 20 2012, 22:39:59)
[GCC 4.6.3]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
*** TKINTER support not available
*** JPEG support not available
*** ZLIB (PNG/ZIP) support not available
*** FREETYPE2 support not available
*** LITTLECMS support not available
--------------------------------------------------------------------
To add a missing option, make sure you have the required
library, and set the corresponding ROOT variable in the
setup.py script.
Missing python headers
Without python-dev, you’ll see something that ends with the following:
...
running build_ext
building '_imaging' extension
creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7
creating build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/libImaging
gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -fPIC -IlibImaging -I/usr/include -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c _imaging.c -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/_imaging.o
_imaging.c:75:20: fatal error: Python.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1
Discussion
Yes, this has been written about before. This is just my note-to-self that I can refer others to - I also wanted to include the common error messages that people will search for.