Installing PlantCV

Note

This guide describes typical installations of PlantCV. PlantCV can be installed from source for developers or users who want to test the latest features. Please see our Contributing Guide for more information.

Table of contents

  1. Supported platforms
  2. Server/command-line step-by-step guide
  3. Desktop installation step-by-step guide
  4. Detailed installation instructions
    1. Conda
    2. PyPI

Supported platforms

  • Linux 64-bit, x86 processors
  • macOS x86 (Intel) and M (ARM) processors
  • Windows 64-bit, x86 processors

Server/command line step-by-step guide

Use the server/command line installation if you plan to create PlantCV workflows and run workflows in parallel. Click through our step-by-step guide below to install PlantCV through conda.

Note

Once you have installed PlantCV, to get started see our guide to using PlantCV with Jupyter Notebooks and our guide to developing workflows in PlantCV.

Desktop installation step-by-step guide

This is a simple install option if you would just like to test out PlantCV. If you plan to use PlantCV for your analyses and run your workflows in parallel, we recommend using the command line installation above.

Click through our step-by-step guide below to install PlantCV through the JupyterLab Desktop app.

Detailed installation instructions

PlantCV requires Python (tested with versions 3.11, 3.12, and 3.13) and these Python packages. Additionally, we recommend installing JupyterLab.

Note

We recommend installing PlantCV in a virtual environment, which is a self-contained Python environment that includes PlantCV and its dependencies. Virtual environments are used to avoid conflicts between packages and can increase the reproducability of your work by isolating package versions for specific projects.

Stable releases of PlantCV are available through both the Python Package Index (PyPI) and conda through the conda-forge channel.

Installing Conda

First install conda if you do not already have it. We strongly recommend using Miniforge.

If you are new to conda environments, check out this Getting Started with Conda Guide.

Note

Additional instructions for Windows users:

Windows users will need to install a Linux terminal to install and use PlantCV. We recommend using Miniforge Prompt which comes with Miniforge.

Alternatively, Windows users can download Git for Windows. This option requires users to add conda to their .bashrc file. See this helpful guide for setting up conda in Git Bash.

Installing PlantCV with conda

Open Terminal (Mac) or Anaconda Prompt (Windows) and run the following:

conda create -n plantcv -c conda-forge plantcv

Or with optional (but recommended) dependencies:

conda create -n plantcv -c conda-forge plantcv jupyterlab ipympl nodejs

PyPI

Optionally, PlantCV can be installed from PyPi.

pip install plantcv

Or with optional (but recommended) dependencies:

pip install plantcv jupyterlab ipympl