macos - Error installing Python Image Library using pip on Mac OS X 10.9

Question

I want to install PIL on Mavericks using pip but get this error.

_imagingft.c:73:10: fatal error: 'freetype/fterrors.h' file not found
#include <freetype/fterrors.h>
         ^
1 error generated.
error: command 'cc' failed with exit status 1

My Command Line Tools are installed and up to date and every hint I found didn't help. How can I get this to compile?

EDIT: I just checked, freetype is also already installed via homebrew

Answer 1

Instead of symlinking to a specific version of freetype2, do this:

ln -s /usr/local/include/freetype2 /usr/local/include/freetype

This saves you the trouble of recreating the symlink whenever you upgrade freetype2.