I installed matplotlib via pip but when I try to import matplotlib to PyCharm I get an error

Question

I'm trying to use matplotlib in python, specifically, in PyCharm IDE. I have Windows 10 and Python 3.8 and I checked that everything was up to date (like pip).

I installed matplotlib via pip with the command "pip install matplotlib", till then everything was okay because I didn't get any error in the cmd and it was successful.

The problem appears when I try to install the package into the project in PyCharm, and an error appears. I haven't found this error on any website and I've tried lots of things, like reinstalling python and PyCharm, installing the library with conda environment, also trying to install updated FreeType but I don't know how to do it...

Also, I noticed that when I import matplotlib in python.exe any error appears, so I thought the error might be in PyCharm, but this is just a speculation. Here's the error:

src/checkdep_freetype2.c(5): fatal error C1189: #error: "FreeType version 2.3 or higher is required. You may set the MPLLOCALFREETYPE environment variable to 1 to let Matplotlib download it."

I don't know how to install an updated FreeType version or setting the MPLLOCALFREETYPE to 1 as the error suggested.

If I can provide more information or more code please let me know, I don't know if I asked "correctly".

Update:

I've tried to write the command also in the terminal of venv and I think I get the same error, but with more detail, it mentions something regarding Microsoft visual studio. Here the error:

IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.18362.0\um" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.18362.0\winrt" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Windows Kits\10\include\10.0.18
362.0\cppwinrt" /Tcsrc/checkdep_freetype2.c /Fobuild\temp.win32-3.8\Release\src/checkdep_freetype2.obj
    checkdep_freetype2.c
    src/checkdep_freetype2.c(5): fatal error C1189: #error:  "FreeType version 2.3 or higher is required. You may set the MPLLOCALFREETYPE environment variable to 1 to let Matplotlib download
it."
    error: command 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2019\\Community\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.25.28610\\bin\\HostX86\\x86\\cl.exe' failed with exit status 2

    ----------------------------------------
Command "C:\Users\Samuel\PycharmProjects\untitled\venv\Scripts\python.exe -u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='C:\\temp\\pip-install-pzdo9qwp\\matplotlib\\setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize,
 'open', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" install --record C:\temp\pip-record-059s14h2\install-record.txt --single-version-e
xternally-managed --compile --install-headers C:\Users\Samuel\PycharmProjects\untitled\venv\include\site\python3.8\matplotlib" failed with error code 1 in C:\temp\pip-install-pzdo9qwp\matplotl
ib\```

Answer 1

Try:

sudo apt-get install libfreetype6-dev
sudo apt-get install pkg-config
sudo apt-get install libpng12-dev
sudo apt-get install pkg-config

Ref: https://hackaday.io/project/53896-weedinator-2019/log/153140-jupyter-notebook-3-days-to-get-a-photo-of-a-cat

Answer 2

Try updating your setuptools and pip to latest versions by clicking on the arrow up. Because I also updated pip through command prompt and it was not working. Has to do something with the PATH it is looking in. Works with latest version of PyCharm 2019.3.4 Professional and Python 3.8 on Windows 10.

Answer 3

I solved the problem just downloading another version of matplotlib.

python -m pip install -U matplotlib==3.2.0rc1```