Tkinter error: Couldn't recognize data in image file

Your code seems right, this is running for me on Windows 7 (Python 3.6):

from tkinter import *
root = Tk()

canv = Canvas(root, width=80, height=80, bg='white')
canv.grid(row=2, column=3)

img = PhotoImage(file="bll.jpg")
canv.create_image(20,20, anchor=NW, image=img)

mainloop()

resulting in this tkinter GUI:

with this image as bll.jpg:

(imgur converted it to bll.png but this is working for me as well.)

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More options:

• This answer mentions, tkinter is working only with gif images. Try using a .gif image.
• If this is not working, use PIL as stated in this answer.

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Update: Solution with PIL:

from tkinter import *
from PIL import ImageTk, Image
root = Tk()

canv = Canvas(root, width=80, height=80, bg='white')
canv.grid(row=2, column=3)

img = ImageTk.PhotoImage(Image.open("bll.jpg"))  # PIL solution
canv.create_image(20, 20, anchor=NW, image=img)

mainloop()

I was getting the same issue. I have windows and Python 3.6. So I found two solutions for this either you use/convert to .png image (with the same function you have used):

photo = PhotoImage('xyz.png')
l = Label(image = photo)
l.pack()

or if you want to read .jpg file only then use PIL library to read and display an image like this:

from PIL import ImageTk, Image
img = ImageTk.PhotoImage(Image.open("xyz.jpg"))  
l=Label(image=img)
l.pack()

Install PIL/Pillow with:

pip install Pillow

or:

sudo pip install pillow

from PIL import Image
from PIL import ImageTk
import tkinter

image = Image.open('bll.jpg')
image = image.resize((20, 20))
image = ImageTk.PhotoImage(image)

canv = Canvas(root, width=80, height=80, bg='white')
canv.grid(row=2, column=3)

img = PhotoImage(file=image)

Also using .PNG instead of .JPG is better for Tkinter.