diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 5ad181a5e..f57cab57f 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -17,3 +17,4 @@ docs/docs/python/classes.txt
 docs/docs/python/functions.txt
 docs/docs/python/constants.txt
 **/.vscode
+**/venv
diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index da1ec8700..79cc041d2 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -37,12 +37,22 @@ vcpkg install dlib
 
 ## Compiling dlib Python API
 
-Before you can run the Python example programs you must compile dlib. Type:
+Before you can run the Python example programs you must install the build requirement.
+```bash
+python -m venv venv
+pip install build
+```
 
+Then you must compile dlib and install it in your environment. Type:
 ```bash
-python setup.py install
+python -m build --wheel
+pip install dist/dlib-<version>.whl
 ```
 
+Or download dlib using PyPi:
+```bash
+pip install dlib
+```
 
 ## Running the unit test suite
 
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..2fd725a0d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+[build-system]
+requires = ["setuptools", "wheel", "cmake"]
+build-backend = "setuptools.build_meta"
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8e4330986..c32c210e2 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -6,14 +6,10 @@ This file basically just uses CMake to compile the dlib python bindings project
 located in the tools/python folder and then puts the outputs into standard
 python packages.
 
-To build the dlib:
+To build dlib:
     python setup.py build
 To build and install:
     python setup.py install
-To package the wheel (after pip installing twine and wheel):
-    python setup.py bdist_wheel
-To upload the binary wheel to PyPi
-    twine upload dist/*.whl
 To upload the source distribution to PyPi
     python setup.py sdist 
     twine upload dist/dlib-*.tar.gz
@@ -39,7 +35,7 @@ import multiprocessing
 from distutils import log
 from math import ceil,floor
 
-from setuptools import setup, Extension
+from setuptools import find_packages, setup, Extension
 from setuptools.command.build_ext import build_ext
 from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 
@@ -234,7 +230,7 @@ setup(
     # We need an older more-itertools version because v6 broke pytest (for everyone, not just dlib)
     tests_require=['pytest==3.8', 'more-itertools<6.0.0'],
     #install_requires=['cmake'], # removed because the pip cmake package is busted, maybe someday it will be usable.
-    packages=['dlib'],
+    packages=find_packages(exclude=['python_examples']),
     package_dir={'': 'tools/python'},
     keywords=['dlib', 'Computer Vision', 'Machine Learning'],
     classifiers=[
@@ -248,13 +244,6 @@ setup(
         'Operating System :: Microsoft :: Windows',
         'Programming Language :: C++',
         'Programming Language :: Python',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 2',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.6',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 2.7',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.4',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.5',
-        'Programming Language :: Python :: 3.6',
         'Topic :: Scientific/Engineering',
         'Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Artificial Intelligence',
         'Topic :: Scientific/Engineering :: Image Recognition',