# Pillow Documentation
# Source: https://pillow.readthedocs.io/en/latest/about.html
# Path: about.html

Contents Menu Expand Light mode Dark mode Auto light/dark, in light mode Auto
light/dark, in dark mode Skip to content

[Pillow (PIL Fork) 12.1.0.dev0 documentation](index.html)

[ ![Light Logo](_static/pillow-logo-dark-text.png) ![Dark
Logo](_static/pillow-logo.png) Pillow (PIL Fork) 12.1.0.dev0 documentation
](index.html)

  * [Installation](installation/index.html)
    * [Basic installation](installation/basic-installation.html)
    * [Python support](installation/python-support.html)
    * [Platform support](installation/platform-support.html)
    * [Building from source](installation/building-from-source.html)
    * [Old versions](installation/building-from-source.html#old-versions)
  * [Handbook](handbook/index.html)
    * [Overview](handbook/overview.html)
    * [Tutorial](handbook/tutorial.html)
    * [Concepts](handbook/concepts.html)
    * [Appendices](handbook/appendices.html)
      * [Image file formats](handbook/image-file-formats.html)
      * [Text anchors](handbook/text-anchors.html)
      * [Third-party plugins](handbook/third-party-plugins.html)
      * [Writing your own image plugin](handbook/writing-your-own-image-plugin.html)
      * [Decoders](handbook/writing-your-own-image-plugin.html#decoders)
      * [Writing your own file codec in C](handbook/writing-your-own-image-plugin.html#writing-your-own-file-codec-in-c)
      * [Writing your own file codec in Python](handbook/writing-your-own-image-plugin.html#writing-your-own-file-codec-in-python)
  * [Reference](reference/index.html)
    * [`Image` module](reference/Image.html)
    * [`ImageChops` (“channel operations”) module](reference/ImageChops.html)
    * [`ImageCms` module](reference/ImageCms.html)
    * [`ImageColor` module](reference/ImageColor.html)
    * [`ImageDraw` module](reference/ImageDraw.html)
    * [`ImageEnhance` module](reference/ImageEnhance.html)
    * [`ImageFile` module](reference/ImageFile.html)
    * [`ImageFilter` module](reference/ImageFilter.html)
    * [`ImageFont` module](reference/ImageFont.html)
    * [`ImageGrab` module](reference/ImageGrab.html)
    * [`ImageMath` module](reference/ImageMath.html)
    * [`ImageMorph` module](reference/ImageMorph.html)
    * [`ImageOps` module](reference/ImageOps.html)
    * [`ImagePalette` module](reference/ImagePalette.html)
    * [`ImagePath` module](reference/ImagePath.html)
    * [`ImageQt` module](reference/ImageQt.html)
    * [`ImageSequence` module](reference/ImageSequence.html)
    * [`ImageShow` module](reference/ImageShow.html)
    * [`ImageStat` module](reference/ImageStat.html)
    * [`ImageText` module](reference/ImageText.html)
    * [`ImageTk` module](reference/ImageTk.html)
    * [`ImageTransform` module](reference/ImageTransform.html)
    * [`ImageWin` module (Windows-only)](reference/ImageWin.html)
    * [`ExifTags` module](reference/ExifTags.html)
    * [`TiffTags` module](reference/TiffTags.html)
    * [`JpegPresets` module](reference/JpegPresets.html)
    * [`PSDraw` module](reference/PSDraw.html)
    * [`PixelAccess` class](reference/PixelAccess.html)
    * [`features` module](reference/features.html)
    * [PIL package (autodoc of remaining modules)](PIL.html)
    * [Plugin reference](reference/plugins.html)
    * [Internal reference](reference/internal_design.html)
      * [File handling in Pillow](reference/open_files.html)
      * [Limits](reference/limits.html)
      * [Block allocator](reference/block_allocator.html)
      * [Internal modules](reference/internal_modules.html)
      * [C extension debugging on Linux, with GBD/Valgrind](reference/c_extension_debugging.html)
      * [Arrow support](reference/arrow_support.html)
  * [Porting](porting.html)
  * About
  * [Release notes](releasenotes/index.html)
    * [Versioning](releasenotes/versioning.html)
    * [12.1.0 (unreleased)](releasenotes/12.1.0.html)
    * [12.0.0 (2025-10-15)](releasenotes/12.0.0.html)
    * [11.3.0 (2025-07-01)](releasenotes/11.3.0.html)
    * [11.2.1 (2025-04-12)](releasenotes/11.2.1.html)
    * [11.1.0 (2025-01-02)](releasenotes/11.1.0.html)
    * [11.0.0 (2024-10-15)](releasenotes/11.0.0.html)
    * [10.4.0 (2024-07-01)](releasenotes/10.4.0.html)
    * [10.3.0 (2024-04-01)](releasenotes/10.3.0.html)
    * [10.2.0 (2024-01-02)](releasenotes/10.2.0.html)
    * [10.1.0 (2023-10-15)](releasenotes/10.1.0.html)
    * [10.0.1 (2023-09-15)](releasenotes/10.0.1.html)
    * [10.0.0 (2023-07-01)](releasenotes/10.0.0.html)
    * [9.5.0 (2023-04-01)](releasenotes/9.5.0.html)
    * [9.4.0 (2023-01-02)](releasenotes/9.4.0.html)
    * [9.3.0 (2022-10-29)](releasenotes/9.3.0.html)
    * [9.2.0 (2022-07-01)](releasenotes/9.2.0.html)
    * [9.1.1 (2022-05-17)](releasenotes/9.1.1.html)
    * [9.1.0 (2022-04-01)](releasenotes/9.1.0.html)
    * [9.0.1 (2022-02-03)](releasenotes/9.0.1.html)
    * [9.0.0 (2022-01-02)](releasenotes/9.0.0.html)
    * [8.4.0 (2021-10-15)](releasenotes/8.4.0.html)
    * [8.3.2 (2021-09-02)](releasenotes/8.3.2.html)
    * [8.3.1 (2021-07-06)](releasenotes/8.3.1.html)
    * [8.3.0 (2021-07-01)](releasenotes/8.3.0.html)
    * [8.2.0 (2021-04-01)](releasenotes/8.2.0.html)
    * [8.1.2 (2021-03-06)](releasenotes/8.1.2.html)
    * [8.1.1 (2021-03-01)](releasenotes/8.1.1.html)
    * [8.1.0 (2021-01-02)](releasenotes/8.1.0.html)
    * [8.0.1 (2020-10-22)](releasenotes/8.0.1.html)
    * [8.0.0 (2020-10-14)](releasenotes/8.0.0.html)
    * [7.2.0 (2020-06-30)](releasenotes/7.2.0.html)
    * [7.1.2 (2020-04-25)](releasenotes/7.1.2.html)
    * [7.1.1 (2020-04-02)](releasenotes/7.1.1.html)
    * [7.1.0 (2020-04-01)](releasenotes/7.1.0.html)
    * [7.0.0 (2020-01-02)](releasenotes/7.0.0.html)
    * [6.2.2 (2020-01-02)](releasenotes/6.2.2.html)
    * [6.2.1 (2019-10-20)](releasenotes/6.2.1.html)
    * [6.2.0 (2019-10-01)](releasenotes/6.2.0.html)
    * [6.1.0 (2019-07-02)](releasenotes/6.1.0.html)
    * [6.0.0 (2019-04-02)](releasenotes/6.0.0.html)
    * [5.4.1 (2019-01-06)](releasenotes/5.4.1.html)
    * [5.4.0 (2019-01-01)](releasenotes/5.4.0.html)
    * [5.3.0 (2018-10-01)](releasenotes/5.3.0.html)
    * [5.2.0 (2018-07-01)](releasenotes/5.2.0.html)
    * [5.1.0 (2018-04-02)](releasenotes/5.1.0.html)
    * [5.0.0 (2018-01-01)](releasenotes/5.0.0.html)
    * [4.3.0 (2017-10-02)](releasenotes/4.3.0.html)
    * [4.2.1 (2017-07-06)](releasenotes/4.2.1.html)
    * [4.2.0 (2017-07-01)](releasenotes/4.2.0.html)
    * [4.1.1 (2017-04-28)](releasenotes/4.1.1.html)
    * [4.1.0 (2017-04-03)](releasenotes/4.1.0.html)
    * [4.0.0 (2017-01-01)](releasenotes/4.0.0.html)
    * [3.4.0 (2016-10-03)](releasenotes/3.4.0.html)
    * [3.3.2 (2016-09-29)](releasenotes/3.3.2.html)
    * [3.3.0 (2016-07-01)](releasenotes/3.3.0.html)
    * [3.2.0 (2016-04-01)](releasenotes/3.2.0.html)
    * [3.1.2 (2016-04-01)](releasenotes/3.1.2.html)
    * [3.1.1 (2016-02-04)](releasenotes/3.1.1.html)
    * [3.1.0 (2016-01-04)](releasenotes/3.1.0.html)
    * [3.0.0 (2015-10-01)](releasenotes/3.0.0.html)
    * [2.8.0 (2015-04-01)](releasenotes/2.8.0.html)
    * [2.7.0 (2014-12-31)](releasenotes/2.7.0.html)
    * [2.6.0 (2014-10-01)](releasenotes/2.6.0.html)
    * [2.5.2 (2014-08-12)](releasenotes/2.5.2.html)
    * [2.3.2 (2014-08-12)](releasenotes/2.3.2.html)
    * [2.3.1 (2014-03-14)](releasenotes/2.3.1.html)
  * [Deprecations and removals](deprecations.html)

Back to top

[ View this page ](_sources/about.rst.txt "View this page")

# About¶

## Goals¶

The fork author’s goal is to foster and support active development of PIL
through:

  * Continuous integration testing via [GitHub Actions](https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/actions)

  * Publicized development activity on [GitHub](https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow)

  * Regular releases to the [Python Package Index](https://pypi.org/project/pillow/)

## License¶

Like PIL, Pillow is [licensed under the open source MIT-CMU
License](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/python-pillow/Pillow/main/LICENSE)

## Why a fork?¶

PIL is not setuptools compatible. Please see [this Image-SIG
post](https://mail.python.org/pipermail/image-sig/2010-August/006480.html) for
a more detailed explanation. Also, PIL’s bi-yearly (or greater) release
schedule was too infrequent to accommodate the large number and frequency of
issues reported.

## What about PIL?¶

Note

Prior to Pillow 2.0.0, very few image code changes were made. Pillow 2.0.0
added Python 3 support and includes many bug fixes from many contributors.

The last PIL release was in 2009 (1.1.7) and [no future releases are
expected](https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/issues/1535). In January
2020, [the PyPI moderators exhausted the PEP 541 process for contacting the
PIL project owner](https://github.com/python-
pillow/Pillow/issues/1535#issuecomment-570308446) and the [PIL project on
PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/PIL) was transferred to the [Pillow
team](https://github.com/python-pillow/Pillow/graphs/contributors). The Pillow
team has no plans to update the PIL project on PyPI.

[ Next Release notes ](releasenotes/index.html) [ Previous Porting
](porting.html)

Copyright (C) 1995-2011 Fredrik Lundh and contributors, 2010 Jeffrey A. Clark
and contributors.

Made with [Sphinx](https://www.sphinx-doc.org/) and
[@pradyunsg](https://pradyunsg.me)'s [Furo](https://github.com/pradyunsg/furo)

On this page

  * About
    * Goals
    * License
    * Why a fork?
    * What about PIL?