Pillow

12.1.1 · active · verified Sat Mar 28

Pillow is a Python Imaging Library (PIL) fork that adds image processing capabilities to Python. It supports extensive file formats and provides efficient internal representations. The current version is 12.1.1, released on February 11, 2026, with a regular release cadence.

Warnings

breaking Dropped support for Python 3.9 in version 12.0.0.
Fix: Upgrade to Python 3.10 or later.
breaking Removed support for FreeType <= 2.9.0 in version 12.0.0.
Fix: Upgrade FreeType to version 2.10.0 or later.
deprecated Deprecated getdata() in favor of get_flattened_data() in version 12.1.0.
Fix: Use get_flattened_data() instead of getdata().
deprecated Deprecated Image._show in version 12.0.0.
Fix: Use alternative methods for displaying images.
gotcha Using _getexif() may return None if the image lacks EXIF data.
Fix: Check if _getexif() returns None before accessing its contents.

Install

pip install pillow Install Pillow

Imports

Image
```
from PIL import Image
```
Direct import of Image without PIL prefix is incorrect.
ImageDraw
```
from PIL import ImageDraw
```
Direct import of ImageDraw without PIL prefix is incorrect.
ImageFont
```
from PIL import ImageFont
```
Direct import of ImageFont without PIL prefix is incorrect.

Quickstart

Open an image file, display it, and save it in a different format.

from PIL import Image

# Open an image file
with Image.open('example.jpg') as img:
    # Display image
    img.show()
    # Save image in a different format
    img.save('example.png')

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