How to Install Python Imaging Library in Debian

If you need install Python Imaging Library into virtual environment under Debian you will need set location of several libraries (libfreetype, libjpeg). First of all let setup pre-requirements so we can compile PIL.

apt-get -y install build-essential python-dev \
  python-virtualenv libbz2-dev zlib1g-dev \
  libfreetype6-dev libjpeg8-dev

The script below simplify PIL configuration/setup procedure.

# Download PIL and uzip it
wget http://effbot.org/downloads/Imaging-1.1.7.tar.gz
tar xzf Imaging-1.1.7.tar.gz

# create virtual environment
virtualenv env

ARCH=i386
#ARCH=x86_64

cd Imaging-1.1.7
# Set location of libjpeg8-dev
sed -e "s,JPEG_ROOT = None,JPEG_ROOT = '/usr/lib/$ARCH-linux-gnu',g" \
  setup.py > /tmp/x && mv /tmp/x setup.py

# Set location of zlib1g-dev
sed -e "s,ZLIB_ROOT = None,ZLIB_ROOT = '/usr/lib/$ARCH-linux-gnu',g" \
  setup.py > /tmp/x && mv /tmp/x setup.py

# Set location of libfreetype6-dev
sed -e "s,FREETYPE_ROOT = None,FREETYPE_ROOT = '/usr/lib/$ARCH-linux-gnu',g" \
  setup.py > /tmp/x && mv /tmp/x setup.py

# Proceed with installation into virtual environment
../env/bin/python setup.py install

The virtual environment is ready to be used with projects dependent on PIL, e.g. captcha, etc.

You can download pre-compiled version of PIL per this post.