Problem loading true-type font with PIL

[Christian Stapfer]

After switching from Python 2.3 to 2.4 (Enought),
PIL throws an exception that did not occur formerly
(under Python 2.3) when executing

    ImageFont.truetype(font, size)

where font = "C:/Windows/Fonts/comic.TTF".

Here is the traceback that results:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "Gen\gen.py", line 808, in ?
    mylabeler = labeler.Labeler(szNavigFont, iNavigFontSize)
  File "E:\Homepage\Gen\labeler.py", line 11, in __init__
    self._font = ImageFont.truetype(font, size)
  File "C:\Python24\lib\site-packages\PIL\ImageFont.py", line 202, in 
truetype
    return FreeTypeFont(filename, size, index, encoding)
  File "C:\Python24\lib\site-packages\PIL\ImageFont.py", line 120, in 
__init__
    import _imagingft
ImportError: No module named _imagingft

A module seems to be missing: do I have to install something
in addition to PIL in order to be able to load true-type fonts?

Could someone (more knowledgeable than myself as regards PIL
and this true-type font loading business) please point me
in the right direction?

Many thanks in advance,
Christian Stapfer