ImportError: Cannot Import ‘_imagingft’ from PIL in communication_handler.py

[Lib3Ns]

Which installation method have you chosen?

Python Virtual Environment (venv)

What version of the software are you using?

Pillow 9.5.0

What operating system are you using (Name and Version)?

Linux Ubuntu 24.04

What browser are you using (Name and Version)?

No response

Describe your issue

Good morning,
while processing the products retrieved via the Amazon APIs, I encountered this issue related to the version of Pillow/PIL:

2025-05-18 17:30:45 :: [communication_handler.py ] - [single_message         ] - [ERROR   ] - 1 - An error occurred while extracting the message information from the product for the asin B0CPLWSGFP: cannot import name '_imagingft' from 'PIL' (/var/www/python/TelegramBot-AmazonOffers/.venv/lib/python3.12/site-packages/PIL/__init__.py)

I tried installing the latest version of Pillow, and the issue is resolved, but then the following command no longer works:

  w1, h1 = draw.textsize(f"{old_price}{old_currency}", font=font1)
  w2, h2 = draw.textsize(f"{new_price}{currency}", font=font2)

So, when updating the function draw.textsize to draw.textlength, it raises the following exception:

cannot unpack non-iterable float object

How can I resolve this?

Thank you.

Describe the steps to reproduce the issue

Run python src/main.py
Wait for the Amazon API product processing.

To speed up the resolution of the issue, please provide the logs file.

No response

[Piero24]

Hi, the error you’re seeing:

cannot import name '_imagingft' from 'PIL'

typically means that Pillow was not installed with FreeType support, which is required for text rendering features (like font-based drawing). This isn’t a bug in the code, but rather an issue with how Pillow was installed in your environment.

⚠️ Do not update Pillow to the latest version.
The correct Pillow version is already specified in the requirements.txt. Upgrading to a newer version will break the code, since recent versions of Pillow have removed or changed APIs such as draw.textsize(). This would require major refactoring of the image drawing logic.

---

Recommended Solution

To fix the _imagingft error without upgrading Pillow, follow these steps:

1. Ensure system-level build dependencies are installed (needed for FreeType support):
   On Debian/Ubuntu-based systems, run:

sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev libjpeg-dev zlib1g-dev

2. Uninstall and reinstall Pillow using your requirements.txt, but force a source build to include FreeType:

pip uninstall Pillow
pip install --no-binary :all: -r requirements.txt

3. Verify FreeType is enabled in your environment:

from PIL import features
print(features.check('freetype'))

This should return True. If it returns False, the installation is still missing the necessary FreeType bindings.