How to Install OpenCV (cv2) on PyCharm?

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OpenCV is a framework for image processing and image recognition—among other things. It’s a super powerful tool in your data science and machine learning toolbelt! But how to install it in your PyCharm environment? This article will show you how!

Problem Formulation: Given a PyCharm project. How to install the OpenCV library in your project within a virtual environment or globally?

Here’s a solution that always works:

  • Open File > Settings > Project from the PyCharm menu.
  • Select your current project.
  • Click the Python Interpreter tab within your project tab.
  • Click the small + symbol to add a new library to the project.
  • Now type in the library to be installed, in your example "opencv-python" without quotes, and click Install Package.
  • Wait for the installation to terminate and close all popup windows.

Here’s the installation process as a short animated video—it works analogously for OpenCV, just type in “opencv-python” in the search field instead:

Make sure to type in “opencv-python” because there are many other packages that are not required but also contain the term “opencv” (False Positives):

Install OpenCV Python PyCharm

You can check out part 1 of our OpenCV tutorial here:

[OpenCV Course 1/5] Working with Images

For parts 2-5 of the “Introduction to OpenCV Course”, please refer to the Finxter Computer Science Academy! ?

Feel free to check out the following free email academy with Python cheat sheets to boost your coding skills!

To become a PyCharm master, check out our full course on the Finxter Computer Science Academy available for free for all Finxter Premium Members:

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Feel free to check out our blog article with more coding jokes. 😉

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