Why is pip installing Pillow for OS X 10.12, when I have OS X 10.11 installed?

Question

When trying to import PIL (using Pillow), I get the following error:

    from PIL import ImageTk, Image
  File \"/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/PIL/I         


        

Answer 1

This is a bug in the latest Pillow 5.1.0 release.

It was caused by upgrading Xcode from version 8 to 9.2 for building the binary wheels.

El Capitan 10.11 is the "min macOS to run" for Xcode 8.

Sierra 10.12.6 is the min for Xcode 9.2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xcode#Xcode_7.0_-9.x(since_Free_On-Device_Development

There will be a Pillow 5.1.1 out to fix it at some point.

In the meantime, the workaround is: pip install 'pillow!=5.1.0'

(Or upgrade your macOS, or build from source.)

For more info, see https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/issues/3068