This chapter's project will work with OpenCV 2.x or 3.x and Python 2.7 or 3.4. Note that OpenCV 2.x does not support Python 3.x. However, on most Linux systems, it is more convenient to install OpenCV 2.x (and use Python 2.7) because OpenCV 3.x does not have binary packages for most Linux systems yet.

The following subsections cover only the simplest ways to set up our dependencies on Windows, Mac, and several Linux distributions. Other approaches (and other Unix-like platforms) can also work. For example, advanced users may wish to configure and build OpenCV 3.0's source code on Linux systems that do not yet have prepackaged builds of OpenCV 3.x. For guidance on alternative setups, refer to one of Packt Publishing's dedicated books on OpenCV, such as Learning OpenCV 3 Computer Vision with Python by Joe Minichino and Joseph Howse.