open a .jpg image in python using matplotlib.image in python 3.6

Question

I am trying to open a JPG image using matplotlib in Python. Editor 'Spyder', Python3.6, WIndows 7

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import matplotlib.image as mpimg
import numpy as np

# Read in the image and print some stats
image = mpimg.imread(r'C:\Users\xxx\Python Code\mountain.jpg')
print('This image is: ',type(image), 
     'with dimensions:', image.shape)

But I am getting the following error... It says that except '.png' no other image format is supported.

Error :-- image = mpimg.imread(r'C:\\Users\\xxx\\Python Code\\mountain.jpg')

  File "C:\temp\Continuum\anaconda3\lib\site-packages\matplotlib\image.py", 
line 1284, in imread
    'more images' % list(handlers))

ValueError: Only know how to handle extensions: ['png']; with Pillow 
installed matplotlib can handle more images.

I went through various documentations. Which says that, in order to open a '.jpg' image, 'Pillow' must be installed. If native matplotlib call fails to open a image then it automatically falls back on 'pillow'. (correct me if I am wrong)

So I installed 'Pillow'. But I am still getting the error.

Can you tell me what am I Missing ? (Strange thing is this same code is running in another computer. I have no way to verify what library is installed in that machine)

Answer 1

Matplotlib requires PIL( Python Imaging Library ) to work with .jpg format. To use it you need to install Pillow ( which is the fork of PIL ).

Installation Using PIP

pip install pillow 
      or 
pip3 install pillow

Installation Using Conda

conda install pillow

Answer 2

You have to install PIL. Make sure you are using anaconda python distro. Go to this link or write this command to install PIL directly

 conda install -c anaconda pillow