Package (Python PIL/Pillow) installed but I can't import it

Question

I've been using python for simple data processing scripts, but now I want to do some image processing and I encountered a problem. Importing the pillow module doesn't seem to work. I found a simple script here to check what packages are installed and I found it, but importing it doesn't seem to work.

Here's the code I'm trying to run:

import pip
installed_packages = pip.get_installed_distributions()
installed_packages_list = sorted(["%s==%s" % (i.key, i.version)
     for i in installed_packages])
print(installed_packages_list)

import pillow

And here's the result:

runfile('C:/Users/Augustas/.spyder2/temp.py', wdir=r'C:/Users/Augustas/.spyder2')
['-curses==2.2', 'aafigure==0.5', 'alembic==0.7.1', 'apptools==4.2.1', 'argparse==1.2.2', 'astroid==1.3.2', 'astropy==0.4.2', 'atom==0.3.10', 'babel==1.3', 'backports.ssl-match-hostname==3.4.0.2', 'beaker==1.6.4', 'beautifulsoup4==4.3.2', 'beautifulsoup==3.2.1', 'blockcanvas==4.0.3', 'blosc==1.2.4', 'bottleneck==0.8.0', 'cchardet==0.3.5', 'cdecimal==2.3', 'certifi==14.05.14', 'cffi==0.8.6', 'chaco==4.5.0', 'chardet==2.3.0', 'codetools==4.2.0', 'colorama==0.3.2', 'configobj==5.0.6-xy.1', 'configparser==3.3.0r2', 'cov-core==1.15.0', 'coverage==3.7.1', 'cryptography==0.6.1', 'cssselect==0.9.1', 'cvxopt==1.1.7', 'cvxpy==0.2.15', 'cx-freeze==4.3.3', 'cython==0.21.1', 'datrie==0.7', 'decorator==3.4.0', 'dill==0.2.1', 'distlib==0.1.9', 'docutils-aafigure==0.3', 'docutils==0.12', 'ecdsa==0.12.dev1', 'ecos==1.0.5', 'ed25519ll==0.6', 'egenix-mx-base==3.2.8', 'enable==4.4.1', 'enaml==0.9.8', 'enamllexer==0.0.0', 'encore==0.6.0', 'enum34==1.0.4', 'envisage==4.4.0', 'ets==4.4.4', 'etsdevtools==4.0.2', 'etsproxy==0.1.2', 'execnet==1.2.0', 'fabric==1.10.0', 'faulthandler==2.4', 'ffnet==0.7.1', 'fonttools==2.4', 'formlayout==1.0.15', 'funcsigs==0.4', 'futures==2.2.0', 'gdal==1.11.1', 'gevent-websocket==0.9.3', 'gevent==1.0.1', 'graphcanvas==4.0.2', 'greenlet==0.4.5', 'grin==1.2.1-xy1', 'guidata==1.6.1', 'guiqwt==2.3.2', 'h5py==2.3.1', 'html5lib==0.999', 'imageio==0.5.1', 'imread==0.5.1-git.xy.1', 'ipdb==0.8', 'ipdbplugin==1.4.1', 'ipython==2.3.1', 'jaraco.timing==1.1', 'jaraco.util==10.6.2dev', 'jaraco.windows==3.1.2dev', 'jdcal==1.0', 'jinja2==2.7.3', 'keyring==4.0', 'kiwisolver==0.1.3', 'logilab-common==0.63.2', 'lxml==3.4.1', 'mahotas==1.2.3', 'mako==1.0.0', 'markupsafe==0.23', 'matplotlib==1.4.2', 'mayavi==4.3.1', 'mdp==3.3', 'mock==1.0.1', 'modernize==0.4', 'more-itertools==2.3.dev', 'ndg-httpsclient==0.3.3', 'netcdf4==1.1.1', 'netifaces==0.10.4', 'networkx==1.9.1', 'nose-cov==1.6', 'nose-fixes==1.3', 'nose==1.3.4', 'numexpr==2.4', 'numpy==1.8.2', 'objgraph==1.8.1', 'opencv-python==2.4.9', 'openpyxl==2.1.3', 'pandas==0.15.2', 'paramiko==1.15.1', 'pathlib==1.0.1', 'patsy==0.3.0', 'pdfrw==0.1', 'pep8==1.5.7', 'pillow==2.6.1', 'ply==3.4', 'polygon==2.0.5', 'pp==1.6.4', 'psutil==2.1.3', 'py2exe==0.6.9', 'py==1.4.26', 'pyamg==2.1.0', 'pyasn1-modules==0.0.5', 'pyasn1==0.1.8rc2', 'pyaudio==0.2.8', 'pycares==0.6.3', 'pycparser==2.11.dev1', 'pycrypto==2.6.1', 'pycurl==7.19.5', 'pydicom==0.9.9', 'pyemf==2.0.0', 'pyface==4.4.0', 'pyflakes==0.8.1', 'pygments==2.0.1', 'pygraphviz==1.3.dev', 'pyhdf==0.8.3', 'pyhyphen==2.0.5', 'pyicu==1.8-xy.1', 'pylint==1.4.0', 'pymc==2.3.4', 'pyminuit==1.2.1', 'pyodbc==3.0.7', 'pyopengl-accelerate==3.1.0', 'pyopengl==3.1.0', 'pyopenssl==0.14', 'pyparallel==0.2', 'pyparsing==2.0.3', 'pypdf2==1.23', 'pypdf==1.13', 'pyreadline==2.0.6-xy.1', 'pyserial==2.7', 'pytest-bench==0.3.0', 'pytest-cache==1.0', 'pytest-cov==1.8.1', 'pytest-flakes==0.2', 'pytest-pep8==1.0.6', 'pytest-runner==2.1.2', 'pytest-xdist==1.11', 'pytest==2.6.4', 'python-dateutil==2.3', 'pytz==2014.10', 'pyvisa==1.6.1', 'pywavelets==0.2.2', 'pywin32==219', 'pywin==0.3.1', 'pywinauto==0.4.2', 'pyyaml==3.11', 'pyzmq==14.4.1', 'reportlab==3.1.10', 'requests==2.5.0', 'rope==0.10.2', 'rst2pdf==0.93', 'sampy==1.2.1', 'scikit-image==0.10.1', 'scikit-learn==0.15.2', 'scimath==4.1.2', 'scipy==0.14.0', 'scs==1.0.6', 'seaborn==0.5.1', 'sendkeys==0.3', 'simplejson==3.6.5', 'singledispatch==3.4.0.3', 'six==1.8.0', 'smc.freeimage==0.3dev', 'sphinx==1.2.3', 'sphinxcontrib-aafig==1.0', 'sphinxcontrib-napoleon==0.2.8', 'spyder==2.3.2', 'sqlalchemy==0.9.8', 'statsmodels==0.6.1', 'svg2rlg==0.3', 'svglib==0.6.3', 'sympy==0.7.6', 'tables==3.1.1', 'tempita==0.5.2', 'termcolor==1.1.0', 'toolz==0.7.0', 'tornado==4.0.2', 'traits==4.5.0', 'traitsui==4.4.0', 'ttfquery==1.0.5', 'ujson==1.33', 'uncertainties==2.4.6.1', 'unittest2==0.8.0', 'veusz==1.22', 'virtualenv==1.11.6', 'virtualenvwrapper-win==1.1.5', 'vitables==2.1', 'vpython==5.74', 'vtk==5.10.1', 'wheel==0.24.0', 'whoosh==2.5.7', 'wincertstore==0.2', 'winpdb==1.4.8', 'wsaccel==0.6.2', 'wxpython-common==2.8.12.1', 'wxpython==2.8.12.1', 'xhtml2pdf==0.0.7.dev', 'xlrd==0.9.3', 'xlwt==0.7.5']
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
  File "C:Python27libsite-packagesspyderlibwidgetsexternalshellsitecustomize.py", line 601, in runfile
    execfile(filename, namespace)
  File "C:Python27libsite-packagesspyderlibwidgetsexternalshellsitecustomize.py", line 66, in execfile
    exec(compile(scripttext, filename, 'exec'), glob, loc)
  File "C:/Users/Augustas/.spyder2/temp.py", line 7, in <module>
    import pillow
ImportError: No module named pillow

I'm running this on Windows 8.1 using Spyder and Python 2.7.9

Answer 1

You are importing incorrectly. Try using:

import  PIL
from PIL import Image

PIL i.e Python Imaging Library is no longer maintained, Pillow is used instead. To maintain backwards compatibility, PIL module name is used in imports.