opencv-python

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### Keep OpenCV Free

OpenCV is raising funds to keep the library free for everyone, and we need the support of the entire community to do it. [Donate to OpenCV on Github](https://github.com/sponsors/opencv) to show your support.

- [OpenCV on Wheels](#opencv-on-wheels)
  - [Installation and Usage](#installation-and-usage)
- [Frequently Asked Questions](#frequently-asked-questions)
- [Documentation for opencv-python](#documentation-for-opencv-python)
  - [CI build process](#ci-build-process)
  - [Manual builds](#manual-builds)
    - [Manual debug builds](#manual-debug-builds)
    - [Source distributions](#source-distributions)
  - [Licensing](#licensing)
  - [Versioning](#versioning)
  - [Releases](#releases)
  - [Development builds](#development-builds)
  - [Manylinux wheels](#manylinux-wheels)
  - [Supported Python versions](#supported-python-versions)
  - [Backward compatibility](#backward-compatibility)

## OpenCV on Wheels

Pre-built CPU-only OpenCV packages for Python.

Check the manual build section if you wish to compile the bindings from source to enable additional modules such as CUDA.

### Installation and Usage

1. If you have previous/other manually installed (= not installed via ``pip``) version of OpenCV installed (e.g. cv2 module in the root of Python's site-packages), remove it before installation to avoid conflicts.
2. Make sure that your `pip` version is up-to-date (19.3 is the minimum supported version): `pip install --upgrade pip`. Check version with `pip -V`. For example Linux distributions ship usually with very old `pip` versions which cause a lot of unexpected problems especially with the `manylinux` format.
3. Select the correct package for your environment:

    There are four different packages (see options 1, 2, 3 and 4 below) and you should **SELECT ONLY ONE OF THEM**. Do not install multiple different packages in the same environment. There is no plugin architecture: all the packages use the same namespace (`cv2`). If you installed multiple different packages in the same environment, uninstall them all with ``pip uninstall`` and reinstall only one package.

    **a.** Packages for standard desktop environments (Windows, macOS, almost any GNU/Linux distribution)

    - Option 1 - Main modules package: ``pip install opencv-python``
    - Option 2 - Full package (contains both main modules and contrib/extra modules): ``pip install opencv-contrib-python`` (check contrib/extra modules listing from [OpenCV documentation](https://docs.opencv.org/))

    **b.** Packages for server (headless) environments (such as Docker, cloud environments etc.), no GUI library dependencies

    These packages are smaller than the two other packages above because they do not contain any GUI functionality (not compiled with Qt / other GUI components). This means that the packages avoid a heavy dependency chain to X11 libraries and you will h