Pip install Matplotlib error with virtualenv

Question

I am trying to install matplotlib in a new virtualenv.

When I do:

pip install matplotlib

or

pip install http://sourceforge.net/projects/matplotlib/files/matplotlib/matplotlib-1.1.0/matplotlib-1.1.0.tar.gz

I get this error:

building 'matplotlib._png' extension

gcc -pthread -fno-strict-aliasing -DNDEBUG -g -fwrapv -O2 -Wall -fPIC -  DPY_ARRAY_UNIQUE_SYMBOL=MPL_ARRAY_API -DPYCXX_ISO_CPP_LIB=1 -I/usr/local/include -I/usr/include -I. -I/home/sam/django-projects/datazone/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/numpy/core/include -I. -I/usr/include/python2.7 -c src/_png.cpp -o build/temp.linux-x86_64-2.7/src/_png.o

src/_png.cpp:10:20: fatal error: png.h: No such file or directory

compilation terminated.

error: command 'gcc' failed with exit status 1

Anyone have an idea what is going on?

Any help much appreciated.

You may also see The following required packages can not be built: freetype, png which is the same error in (I think) a newer version of pip. — LondonRob
– LondonRob, Commented Jul 27, 2015 at 17:06

Joe Kington · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-23 17:14:03Z

178

Building Matplotlib requires libpng (and freetype, as well) which isn't a python library, so pip doesn't handle installing it (or freetype).

You'll need to install something along the lines of libpng-devel and freetype-devel (or whatever the equivalent is for your OS).

See the building requirements/instructions for matplotlib.

answered Mar 23, 2012 at 17:14

Joe Kington

287k73 gold badges621 silver badges474 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

6 Comments

Darwin Tech Over a year ago

Thanks for the info! I finally got it working by installing the following dependencies in ubuntu: libpng-dev, libjpeg8-dev, libfreetype6-dev.

william_grisaitis Over a year ago

sudo apt-get build-dep python-matplotlib also does the trick!

Achal Dave Over a year ago

It may work, but note that it wants to install quite a few packages (more than can fit in this comment box), but about 0.6 GB worth of packages.

Jon Over a year ago

On my debian (wheezy/unstable) system it was failing even with libfreetype6-dev installed. It turned out that I also needed pkg-config installed.

tutuca Over a year ago

I actually have libfreetype6-dev intalled on ubuntu 14.04. Matplotlib seems not to be picking it.

|

Lava Sangeetham · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-15 18:26:32Z

52

To generate graph in png format you need to Install following dependent packages

sudo apt-get install libpng-dev
sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev

Ubuntu https://apps.ubuntu.com/cat/applications/libpng12-0/ or using following command

sudo apt-get install libpng12-0

edited Jan 15, 2018 at 18:26

answered Feb 19, 2014 at 14:15

Lava Sangeetham

3,3555 gold badges42 silver badges65 bronze badges

Comments

redacted · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-02 07:39:56Z

31

As I have struggled with this issue twice (even after fresh kubuntu 15.04 install) and installing freetype did not solve anything, I investigated further.

The solution:
From github issue:

This bug only occurs if pkg-config is not installed;
a simple
sudo apt-get install pkg-config
will shore up the include paths for now.

After this installation proceeds smoothly.

answered Sep 2, 2015 at 7:39

redacted

4,0096 gold badges28 silver badges42 bronze badges

2 Comments

Lily Over a year ago

Same here. pip install matplotlib gave me error: IMPORTANT WARNING: pkg-config is not installed. matplotlib may not be able to find some of its dependencies. Freetype shows not installed. I just did brew install pkg-config and was able to get by.

Jens de Bruijn Over a year ago

This is also the problem on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows Insider Preview

ciphor · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-20 03:13:23Z

27

As a supplementary, on Amazon EC2, what I need to do is:

sudo yum install freetype-devel
sudo yum install libpng-devel
sudo pip install matplotlib

edited Aug 20, 2014 at 3:13

answered May 15, 2014 at 7:18

ciphor

8,31811 gold badges57 silver badges71 bronze badges

1 Comment

Roman Over a year ago

It is recommended to install a package to a virtual environment, which makes pip so nice. Hence sudo pip install negates most of the usefulness that pip brings to the table.

gh4x · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-09 17:42:20Z

8

On OSX I was able to get matplotlib to install via:

pip install matplotlib==1.4.0

only after I ran:

brew install freetype

answered Jan 9, 2015 at 17:42

gh4x

8301 gold badge10 silver badges16 bronze badges

Comments

ralfiii · Accepted Answer · 2017-09-22 09:40:36Z

6

Under Windows this worked for me:

python -m pip install -U pip setuptools
python -m pip install matplotlib

(from https://matplotlib.org/users/installing.html)

answered Sep 22, 2017 at 9:40

ralfiii

6805 silver badges17 bronze badges

Comments

user2436428 · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-27 16:37:27Z

2

sudo apt-get install libpng-dev libjpeg8-dev libfreetype6-dev

worked for me on Ubuntu 14.04

answered Sep 27, 2015 at 16:37

user2436428

1,7233 gold badges17 silver badges24 bronze badges

2 Comments

jpcgt Over a year ago

I needed sudo apt-get install pkg-config first though.

Ilmari Karonen Over a year ago

@RahulChauhan: Please post your alternative solution as a separate answer instead of trying to edit it into someone else's answer.

Shapi · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-28 17:22:01Z

0

None of the above answers worked for me in Mint, so I did:

sudo apt-get install build-essential g++

answered Dec 28, 2015 at 17:22

Shapi

5,6334 gold badges31 silver badges40 bronze badges

Comments

Coderaemon · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-17 09:55:22Z

0

If on MacOSx try

xcode-select --install

This complies subprocess 32, the reason for the failure.

answered Dec 17, 2017 at 9:55

Coderaemon

3,9177 gold badges31 silver badges53 bronze badges

Comments

loretoparisi · Accepted Answer · 2018-03-07 22:58:05Z

To reduce the required packages to install you just need

apt-get install -y \
    libfreetype6-dev \
    libxft-dev && \
    pip install matplotlib

and you will get the following packages locally installed

Collecting matplotlib
  Downloading matplotlib-2.2.0-cp35-cp35m-manylinux1_x86_64.whl (12.5MB)
Collecting pytz (from matplotlib)
  Downloading pytz-2018.3-py2.py3-none-any.whl (509kB)
Collecting python-dateutil>=2.1 (from matplotlib)
  Downloading python_dateutil-2.6.1-py2.py3-none-any.whl (194kB)
Collecting pyparsing!=2.0.4,!=2.1.2,!=2.1.6,>=2.0.1 (from matplotlib)
  Downloading pyparsing-2.2.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl (56kB)
Requirement already satisfied: six>=1.10 in /opt/conda/envs/pytorch-py35/lib/python3.5/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Collecting cycler>=0.10 (from matplotlib)
  Downloading cycler-0.10.0-py2.py3-none-any.whl
Collecting kiwisolver>=1.0.1 (from matplotlib)
  Downloading kiwisolver-1.0.1-cp35-cp35m-manylinux1_x86_64.whl (949kB)
Requirement already satisfied: numpy>=1.7.1 in /opt/conda/envs/pytorch-py35/lib/python3.5/site-packages (from matplotlib)
Requirement already satisfied: setuptools in /opt/conda/envs/pytorch-py35/lib/python3.5/site-packages/setuptools-27.2.0-py3.5.egg (from kiwisolver>=1.0.1->matplotlib)
Installing collected packages: pytz, python-dateutil, pyparsing, cycler, kiwisolver, matplotlib
Successfully installed cycler-0.10.0 kiwisolver-1.0.1 matplotlib-2.2.0 pyparsing-2.2.0 python-dateutil-2.6.1 pytz-2018.3

Hamza Liaqat · Accepted Answer · 2021-11-23 12:10:44Z

0

Installing matplotlib==3.3.3 with Python 3.9 resolved the issue for me. Reference

answered Nov 23, 2021 at 12:10

Hamza Liaqat

414 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Pip install Matplotlib error with virtualenv

11 Answers 11

6 Comments

Comments

2 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

11 Answers 11

6 Comments

Comments

2 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

2 Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Comments

Linked

Related