Install OpenCV 3 and Dlib on Windows ( Python only )

We already have a post for installing OpenCV 3 on Windows which covers how to install OpenCV3 from source for working with both C++ and Python codes. However, many readers have faced problems while installing OpenCV 3 on Windows from source. This post is for those readers who want to install OpenCV on Windows for writing Python code only.

Step 1: Install Anaconda (a python distribution)

Download and install Anaconda 64-bit version from https://www.continuum.io/downloads.

It is advised to install Anaconda for Python 3.

While installing Anaconda make sure that you check both options:

1. Add Anaconda to my PATH environment variable
2. Register Anaconda as my default Python

Step 2 : Create Virtual Environment

Open the command prompt and execute the following command.

1	conda create --name opencv-env python=3.6

You should get an output as shown below:

Press Enter and the environment will be installed and you should get an output as shown below :

Step 3 : Download and Install OpenCV

3.1. Download the pre-built binary

Open this link in a new tab. You should get a window as shown below :

Download the file named “opencv_python-3.3.1+contrib-cp36-cp36m-win_amd64.whl”. Note that it is for OpenCV 3.3.1 + contrib modules for python version 3.6 and windows with x64 architecture. If you have a 32-bit architecture, then download “opencv_python-3.3.1+contrib-cp36-cp36m-win32.whl”.

Keep in mind that this file may change when new versions of OpenCV come out.

3.2. Activate the environment

Change to the Download directory and execute the following commands.

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cd C:\Users\YOUR_USERNAME\Downloads # See how the (opencv-env) appears before the prompt after this command. activate opencv-env

3.3. Install OpenCV and other important packages

Continuing from the above prompt, execute the following commands

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pip install numpy scipy matplotlib scikit-learn jupyter pip install opencv_python-3.3.1+contrib-cp36-cp36m-win_amd64.whl pip install dlib

3.4. Test your installation

Open the python prompt on the command line by typing python on the command prompt

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import cv2 cv2.__version__ import dlib dlib.__version__

You should get the following output