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darktable
darktable 4.4.2 in darkroom view with the color balance module expanded and its mask shown as yellow area
Original author	Johannes Hanika[1]
Initial release	April 2009; 16 years ago (2009-04)[2]
Stable release	5.4.0[3]  / 21 December 2025; 38 days ago (21 December 2025)
Repository	github.com/darktable-org/darktable
Written in	C and GTK
Operating system	FreeBSD Linux macOS Solaris Windows
Platform	x86-64, ARM64
Size	8.72 MiB (source (tar.gz)) 108 MiB (Windows) 91 MiB (macOS)
Available in	18 languages[4][5]
Type	Photo post-production
License	GPL-3.0-or-later[6]
Website	www.darktable.org

Darktable (stylized as darktable) is a free and open-source photography application and raw developer. Rather than being a raster graphics editor like Adobe Photoshop or GIMP,^[7] it comprises a subset of image editing operations specifically aimed at non-destructive raw image post-production. It is primarily focused on improving a photographer's workflow by facilitating the handling of large numbers of images. It is freely available in versions tailored for most major Linux distributions, macOS, Solaris and Windows and is released under the GPL-3.0-or-later software license.^[6]

Darktable involves the concept of non-destructive editing, similar to that of some other raw manipulation software. Rather than being immediately applied to raster data of the image, the program keeps the original image data until final rendering at the exporting stage — while parameter adjustments made by a user display in real-time. The program features built-in ICC profiles, GPU acceleration (based on OpenCL), and supports most common image formats.

• Scene-Referred workflow
• Non-destructive editing with XMP Sidecar files
• Works fully in 32-bit float color precision
• Full implementation of color management
• Supports RAW, JPG, RGBE, PFM and more
• Modular architecture
• Organize images and search by parameters
• Translated into 19 languages
• Support for controlling cameras through darktable and directly saving to the PC (tethered capture)
• Find similar photos
• Support for geographical coordinates labels with display of photo locations on map
• An integrated mover for executing Lua scripts, optionally linked to hotkeys or specific events, such as when importing new images

Darktable has built-in ICC profile support for sRGB, Adobe RGB, XYZ and linear RGB color spaces.^[9]

Since version 2.6, darktable uses a “scene-referred” color workflow to get consistent results throughout varied lighting conditions and even across cameras and lenses.

Due to evolution, the human vision system makes significant adjustments of how a scene is perceived. Raw images from cameras have none of these corrections and therefore significant processing needs to be applied to make photos aesthetically appealing and meet the expectations of audiences. Other raw editors may use a so-called “display-referred” workflow to give photographers a decent looking template to start working from, meaning they already apply significant transformations, such as Gamma curves or LUTs to the image and the photographer can only make their own adjustments on top of the standard transformations. This is problematic, as the image has lost its linearity, this makes the edits of the photographer fundamentally unpredictable. Since a Gamma curve acts the most on the extremes of the image, that being bright highlights and deep shadows, these areas especially will be difficult to control, as the different transformations will be multiplied over each other. ^[10]

Darktable gives the photographer full control over the entire processing pipeline and by default, preserves linearity until the last step. This means that all adjustments happen in the correct scene-linear color space and only in the last step, a tone-mapping program applies a parametric Gamma curve, which again is under the user’s control. As all transformations are linear, the user can control the output more easily. Furthermore, the workflow itself is inspired by the color science of cinema, meaning it divides the workflow into primary/corrective and secondary/aesthetic color grading. The first modules in the standard pipeline are purely about color correction and getting a properly looking image, all cameras and lens combinations until this point will be matched very closely. After the image has been corrected (no tint, correctly exposed, etc.), on top of this correct image, the photographer makes their aesthetic adjustments. As all aesthetic effects are made on top of a similar “template”, these effects will have approximately the same look, even if lenses and cameras produce different, initial raw data. ^[11]

Support for drawn masks was added in Darktable version 1.4, allowing application of effects to manually specified areas of an image. There are five mask types available: brush, circle, ellipse, Bézier path, and gradient; all are resizable, allow fade-out radius for smooth blending and can have their opacity controlled. An arbitrary number of masks can be created and are collected into a "mask manager" on the left hand side of the darkroom UI.^[12]

Over multiple versions, masks have been refined and now additionally to being drawn, they can be controlled parametrically, or imported from external images. If a module warps the image, such as lens correction or perspective correction, said warping operations will be automatically applied to masks as well, meaning that for example a gradient tracking the horizon will be rendered correctly, even after significant perspective corrections are applied. ^[13] Parametric masks can be created by selecting any given R, G, B, and/or Lightness, Chroma and Hue value. They can be combined with drawn masks, such that the parameters are only evaluated in a certain area of the image. ^[14] Masks can also be blended with different logic operators, (exclusive, inclusive, etc.) ^[15] and blend modes (addition, multiply, average, etc.) ^[16]

Raw image formats, JPEG, HDR and PFM images can be imported from disk or camera, and exported to disk, Picasa Web Albums, email, and to a simple HTML-based web gallery as JPEG, PNG, JPEG XL, TIFF, WebP, PPM, PFM and EXR images.^[17] Images can be exported to Wikimedia Commons using an external plugin.^[18]

Darktable can be controlled by scripts written in Lua version 5.2. Lua can be used to define actions which Darktable should perform whenever a specified event is triggered. One example might be calling an external application during file export in order to apply additional processing steps outside of Darktable.^[19]

The histogram shows how many pixels in the image have a certain value. Left on the X-axis is 0% lightness, and right is 100% lightness. The Y axis represents how many pixels have said value.^[20]

Multiple histogram types are available, all with individually selectable red, green and blue channels: linear, logarithmic and waveform (new in version 1.4).^[12]

In this example, the histogram is set to a logarithmic scale. The sea and the sky show up clearly as the two cyan spikes, the darker spike represents the sea at about 50%-55% and the brighter spike the sky, with about 60%-75%.

The waveform monitor functions similarly to the histogram and shows the lightness of certain pixels. However, it also shows where the pixels are located. Left on the X-axis of the waveform monitor is also left in the image, while right on the monitor, is right on the image. The Y-axis shows brightness, but for every channel. If an area is white, it means this area is color neutral, if red, green and blue show up separately, it means this area has a colorful tint. Furthermore, it is possible to infer which color tint, if Green and Blue are at the same level, but Red is below the two, it means this area has a cyan tint.

In this waveform, the sky and sea are heavily cyan, as clearly shown by the big bars around 60%. The buildings themselves are bright and red and orange, as can be seen in the red spikes above the big bar. The shadows in the image approach neutral tint as they get darker and are fully neutral when they reach black.

The RGB parade works identically to the waveform monitor, but it shows the three channels side-by-side instead of overlaid over one another.

The RGB parade shows the exact same information as the waveform, but side-by-side.

The Vectorscope works purely with color. The centre is neutral, while the outer ring represents maximum chroma for a given color. The Vectorscope can also overlay samples taken directly from the image with the color picker, display guides for color harmonies and work in different color spaces.

The colour scheme of the image becomes clearly visible. The buildings are orange and red, the sea is cyan and the trees are green.

Darktable 2.4.2 as it appears after installation

Darktable 4.4.2 in lighttable view

Darktable 4.4.2 in darkroom view

Darktable has two main modes: "lighttable" and "darkroom". Each represents a step in the image development process. Two more modes are tethering and a map view. Upon launching, lighttable opens by default, where image collections are listed. All panels in all modes can be minimized to save screen real estate.^[21]

The left panel is for importing images, displaying Exif information, and filtering. Rating and categorizing buttons are at the top, while the right-side panel features various modules such as a metadata editor and a tag editor. A module used to export images is located at the bottom-right.

The second mode, "darkroom", displays the image at center, with four panels around it; most tools appear on the right side. The left panel displays a pannable preview of the current image, an undo history stack, a color picker, and Exif information. A filmstrip with other images is displayed at the bottom, and can be sorted and filtered using lists from the upper panel. The latter also gives access to the preferences configuration. Darktable's configuration allows custom keyboard shortcuts and personalized defaults.

The third mode allows tethering through gPhoto to cameras which offer suitable support.^[22]

The fourth mode can display maps from different online sources and geotags images by drag-and-drop. It also uses maps to show images already geotagged by a camera.

Old plugin palette with 14 active plugins, of which 2 are set as favorites (in red)

Current plugin palette used in Darktable 1.2

As of December 2019,^[update] darktable includes 67 image adjustment modules, which it divides into 5 groups.^[17] By default, only the modules relevant and compatible with the current workflow are displayed. The hidden modules can be searched for by using the search bar, or by activating the “modules: all” preset next to the group headers. Modules receive input from the module below them, then process them and pipe the output into the module above them. The changes the user makes are updated in real time. ^[23] There are only four mandatory modules, as these are technically necessary to make an image, that can be loaded and displayed by other non-raw editing programs: raw black/white point, demosaic, input color profile, output color profile.

An example workflow will look like this, it starts from the bottom and stops at the top:

• Tone-mapping program (filmic rgb, sigmoid, agx)
  • Used for ensuring that all details, from deep shadows and bright highlights can be displayed and likening the image to human vision. After this module, it is a regular display-referred image.
• color balance rgb
  • Used for aesthetically changing tones and contrast.
• contrast equaliser
  • Adding local contrast or definition for edges.
• rgb primaries
  • Used for changing how the color of the image looks.
• color calibration
  • Neutralizes the image, such that aesthetic transformations stay consistent between light sources and cameras/lenses. Up to and including this module, the user has done exclusively primary/corrective color grading. After and excluding this module, the user will do exclusively secondary/aesthetic color grading.
• input color profile
  • Assigns a standard color profile. Before this module, Darktable works with the embedded color profile of the raw file, or a generic raw color profile.
• diffuse or sharpen (Preset: sharpen demosaicing|AA filter)
  • As demosaicing is a type of diffusion, in this example the user chooses to sharpen the image by using this module, as it features a general formula for simulating physical diffusion processes and therefore can reverse or exacerbate them.
• exposure
  • Sets the exposure of the image.
• orientation
  • Sets the orientation of the image.
• lens correction
  • Uses either embedded metadata from the raw file, or the lensfun database for correcting distortion, transverse chromatic aberrations and vignetting.
• denoise (profiled)
  • This module maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio of the image. By default, it uses wavelets and a noise profile of the sensor for this operation.
• demosaic
  • As every “color” camera only records a big matrix of separate Red, Green and Blue pixels, this “mosaic” pattern will be turned into meaningful color information by this module.
• highlight reconstruction
  • As sensors can only record a certain range of tones, highlight reconstruction can be used to recover details that are too bright to be recorded. The user can choose different statistical methods for achieving this.
• white balance
  • In the default scene-referred workflow, white balance is only used to assign a D65 white point to the image, this makes the demosaicing process more accurate. The image will be neutralised with the color calibration module.
• raw black/white point
  • Values below the black level will be ignored, values above the white point are handled by the highlight reconstruction module.

The basic group includes modules which are required at minimum to make a presentable image, such as exposure, contrast, cropping, etc.

• local contrast
• tone-mapping program (filmic rgb, agx, sigmoid)
• crop
• tone equaliser
• exposure
• orientation
• rotate and perspective
• highlight reconstruction

Modules related to contrast and lighting include: fill light for modifying the exposure based on pixel lightness; levels to set black; tone curve; zone system; filmic; local contrast; global tone mapping and tone mapping.

The color group includes modules, which manipulate color either aesthetically or correctively.

• color balance rgb

The color calibration module is used to make the image perfectly neutral and corrected in its color. It features different programs for full Chromatic Adaptation Transformation, which can approximate how a given color would have looked under a different light source. By default, it is the first module immediately after “input color profile”.

Darktable automatically computes a standard illuminant by reading the metadata of the raw file. The user can manually select an area of the image, which is supposed to be neutral, a gray card, for example. Darktable will then compute the illuminant of the neutral area and its spectrum, which is then used to neutralize this light source and apply corrections for its color metamerism. To make this process even more accurate, users can photograph a color chart under the light source they wish to neutralize. Darktable will then compute a correction matrix with the channel mixer, which is similar to loading a matrix based ICC profile.

The color calibration module is significantly more accurate than white balance, as white balance only ensures that R=G=B on neutral surfaces; the lens, demosaicing, the effect of color metamerism from different light sources, and even the other colors other than neutral, are ignored by white balance. ^[24]

This module is a channel mixer, used for defining how the colors of the image look. By default, it is the first secondary color grading module. The benefit of using this module in favor of other techniques, is that users can quickly and easily get aesthetic results. Even when colors have their appearance modified, the relationships between colors remain the same, for example, if the photographer shifts the blue primary towards cyan, yellow gets shifted towards orange. If the intensity of blue gets increased, yellow has its intensity increased by an equal amount. ^[25]

The color equaliser is used to adjust a colors' hue, saturation and brightness, based on its current hue. As an example, it can be used to correct skin tones, if the color grade from the RGB primaries module has made them unappealing. It is best to make small changes with this module and a general color grade with the RGB primaries module. If changes with this module are too strong, it will amplify noise and make color transitions impossibly harsh.^[26]

The correction group hosts modules for correcting problems with the capture itself.

• sharpen
• retouch
• liquify
• haze removal

This module does not require raw data and can be used together with the lens correction module, however it requires manual user input for correcting TCA.^[27]

This module corrects chromatic aberrations instead of the lens correction module and needs a bayer sensor to function. It will conflict with the TCA correction from the lens correction module, therefore this module is only useful if a given lens profile lacks TCA information.^[28]

Darktable uses the lensfun database to correct lens distortion, transverse chromatic aberrations and vignetting. If the raw file has embedded correction data, darktable will use these in favor of lensfun. The user can choose which data they want to use for correction or take manual control over this process.^[29]

The astrophoto denoise module averages each pixel with its neighbourhood. The weight of the averaging pixels depends on its similarity of the pixel being denoised. This module works similar to the denoise (profiled) module, in non-local means mode.^[30]

With this module, the user can import .pfm masks, created with another program. As masks in darktable are distorted by warping modules such as lens correction or rotate and perspective, the imported masks must be directly derived from the raw data, without any corrections.^[31]

This module detects pixels, which have failed to record meaningful data(which show up as pure, white single pixels) and corrects them by averaging their neighbours.^[32]

This module denoises using a noise profile. As digital camera sensors have heavier noise in darker areas and lighter noise in brighter areas, it is possible to calculate the optimal amount of blur, which maximises the signal-to-noise ratio, meaning it reduces the most noise, while preserving the most details. The module also differentiates between chroma and luma noise. By default, this module uses wavelets to determine the coarseness of the noise and then blurs it in accordance with the noise profile of the sensor. The user can choose to modify the amount of denoising a certain coarseness receives. Alternatively and mostly on heavier noise images, the user can also choose non-local means, which average each pixel with other surrounding pixels in the image. Here, the user can again choose the parameters for the function, how big the neighbourhood-patches for the considered pixels are, to give the central pixel more weight, etc. ^[33]

In this group, modules that are used for special effects are located.

• watermark
• framing
• vignetting
• grain
• contrast equaliser
• blurs
• censorise
• diffuse or sharpen
• graduated density
• composite
• enlarge canvas

In 2011, the Darktable team participated in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC). The main goals were to remove libglade dependency from Darktable and to make room for more modularity. The input system for handling shortcuts was also rewritten and incorporated into version 0.9.^[34][35]

Darktable is released under the GPL-3.0-or-later as free software.^[36] The current version of Darktable works on Linux, macOS and Windows. Many Linux distributions include Darktable in their default repositories, including Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, Arch Linux, and Gentoo Linux.

Darktable also runs on Solaris 11,^[37] with packages in IPS format available from the maintainer.^[38]

Darktable is available in multiple languages, but the availability of various locales has varied across Darktable releases. Darktable is notable for using all-lowercase literals in every language by default. Since version 4.4.0, a new locale called "en@truecase" allows users to apply conventional casing to English.^[39]

• Comparison of raster graphics editors
• Adobe Lightroom
• Capture One
• Rawstudio
• RawTherapee
• UFRaw

• Вейч, Ник (2010). "Darktable". Linux Format, русская редакция (in Russian). 130 (4). Saint Petersburg, Russia: 97. ISSN 1062-9424.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Darktable.

• Official website