ImportError: Imageio Pillow requires Pillow, not PIL!

[Swiffers]

hi,

I'm falling into this error,

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "./script.py", line 255, in add_watermark
    watermark = (ImageClip("./watermark.png")
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/moviepy/video/VideoClip.py", line 968, in __init__
    img = imread(img)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/imageio/core/functions.py", line 185, in imread
    reader = read(uri, format, 'i', **kwargs)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/imageio/core/functions.py", line 105, in get_reader
    format = formats.search_read_format(request)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/imageio/core/format.py", line 660, in search_read_format
    if format.can_read(request):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/imageio/core/format.py", line 189, in can_read
    return self._can_read(request)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/imageio/plugins/pillow.py", line 57, in _can_read
    Image = self._init_pillow()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/imageio/plugins/pillow.py", line 43, in _init_pillow
    raise ImportError('Imageio Pillow requires Pillow, not PIL!')
ImportError: Imageio Pillow requires Pillow, not PIL!

[almarklein]

Hi! It looks like you've installed PIL instead of Pillow. If this is not the case, please let me know.

[Swiffers]

It seems to be installed

> sudo pip install Pillow
Requirement already satisfied: Pillow in /usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages

[almarklein]

What does this give you?

>> import PIL
>> PIL
>> PIL.VERSION
>> PIL.PILLOW_VERSION

[Swiffers]

Somehow pillow was installed in /usr/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/
But python was looking for it in /usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/

I solved the issue by running:
pip install --target=/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ --upgrade pillow

[almarklein]

Odd, but glad that it is now fixed!

[chrischma]

still getting the same error in 2022. any other ideas how to solve it? thank you!

[FirefoxMetzger]

@chrischma Hard to say without you providing more information about your situation. In general, this error comes up if your environment is ill-configured and there isn't much we can bake into the library to prevent that from happening.

A few angles to start debugging:

• Check from which location you are importing pil: python -c "import PIL; print(PIL.__file__)" and verify that it comes from the site-packages where you can install packages to and that nothing unexpected happens.
• try uninstalling pillow (pip uninstall pillow) and see if anything aliases the package, i.e., after you've uninstalled pillow a import PIL should raise an ImportError, if not, you have packages aliasing each other.
• Try upgrading pillow via pip install -U pillow

If none of this provides useful insight, you will have to describe your problem in more detail.