The Python Imaging Library, PIL, is a very useful addition to your Python installation if you need to manipulate pictures. Django uses it to validate upload images for example.

On a Mac you do need to install libjpeg beforehand.

Install libjpeg:

  • Get the source: http://www.ijg.org/files/jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz

  • Extract the archive.

  • Move inside the source directory and execute the following commands:

    cp /usr/share/libtool/config.sub .
cp /usr/share/libtool/config.guess .
./configure --enable-shared
make
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/include
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/lib
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/man/man1
sudo make install

Install PIL:

  • Get PIL at: http://effbot.org/downloads/Imaging-1.1.6.tar.gz

  • Extract the archive.

  • Move inside the source directory

  • Change the following values in setup.py from the default None to:

    JPEG_ROOT = "/usr/local/include"
ZLIB_ROOT = "/usr/local/include"

  • Check if everything is well configured:

    python setup.py build_ext -i
python selftest.py

  • If no errors are found and the required libraries are installed (like JPEG support), install PIL:

    sudo python setup.py install

And that's it, I've tried this on Mac OS Leopard, and it works fine, let me know how it went for you.