Matplotlib error: libfreetype.6.dylib

I’m trying to run the following python script (I’m using Vim):

import numpy as np;
import scipy as sp;
from scipy import misc;
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt;
image = misc.imread('test_image.jpg');
np.fliplr(image);
plt.imshow(image);

When I do, I get the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "test.py", line 4, in <module>
    import matplotlib.pyplot as plt;
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/pyplot.py", line 24, in <module>
    import matplotlib.colorbar
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/colorbar.py", line 29, in <module>
    import matplotlib.collections as collections
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/collections.py", line 23, in <module>
    import matplotlib.backend_bases as backend_bases
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/backend_bases.py", line 50, in <module>
    import matplotlib.textpath as textpath
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/textpath.py", line 11, in <module>
    import matplotlib.font_manager as font_manager
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/font_manager.py", line 53, in <module>
    from matplotlib import ft2font
ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/ft2font.so, 2): Library not loaded: @loader_path/../../../libfreetype.6.dylib
  Referenced from: /Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/matplotlib/ft2font.so
  Reason: image not found
shell returned 1

I tried reinstalling brew, reinstalling freetype, matplotlib, and numpy in brew, and I uninstalled MacPorts with no change in the error. Suggestions?

EDIT: After uninstalling MacPorts and then doing another reinstall of brew, I now get this error instead.

Fatal Python error: PyThreadState_Get: no current thread Command terminated

The error only appears when I import matplotlib, so I’m guessing the issue is with matplotlib. I will try to reinstall it with brew.

EDIT2: I’ve been trying from this page to no avail, but I think my error is probably related to that one.

Answer

Fixed it… sort of.

Fixed it.

I uninstalled with brew uninstall matplotlib and then installed with pip install matplotlib. The pip version now works. although I think something is wrong with my code because I don’t get an image output.

I uninstalled all of my installations of python and then installed ipython, which worked fine. Also, I was forgetting to add plt.show(); after my imshow(); commands… :-( …. but at least someone else has made this mistake before me …

Refer to this page for very thorough help with any matplotlib imshow issues:

matplotlib does not show my drawings although I call pyplot.show()