Darktable is a popular open source Adobe Lightroom alternative and it’s just issued a new feature release in time for the holiday season.
Users of the “virtual lighttable and darkroom” will find a more stable tethering view (with histogram support re-enabled) in Darktable 3.4, as well as a new module grouping feature and handy presets to get started with.
“The module grouping feature allows users to create their own groups of modules. A number of pre-defined module groups are included as presets […] as well as a new default module group tab layout (technical / grading / effects), which beter organizes the modules according to their purpose,” (sic) Darktable devs explain.
A new “focus peaking” button has also been introduced to UI (this was previously accessible through a keyboard shortcut). For those not familiar with the tool it helps you “…to visualize the depth of field in an image by materializing the sharp edges”.
The app has a whole should feel faster in use as several modules have been “reworked to get better performance on CPU“, including the Liquify, Shadows and Highlights, RAW Denoise, and High Pass ones.
Other changes in Darktable 3.4 include:
- Various GUI tweaks ‘to ensure seamless integration’
- Improved colour picker
- New colour calibration module replaces colour mixer
- Faster wavelet algorithm
- Enhanced bilateral filter
- Read support for 16-bit (half) float TIFFs
- New tooltips in the darkroom history stack module,
- New tooltips for processing modules
- Importing pictures from memory cards no longer uses gPhoto API
- Reset button in history module deletes the history stack
- Ability to set maximum output pixel dimensions in export module
- Filmic RGB module has new graph views
- Pixel workflow preference change no longer requires a restart
- Additional denoise (profiled) module preset
For more details on Darktable 3.4 and all of its new features check our the new, updated online manual. For a comprehensive rundown of what’s new in Darktable 3.4 specifically you can pore over the detailed Github release notes.
DarkTable is free, open source software available for Windows, macOS, FreeBSD, and Linux. The best place to download it is the project website.
The latest version of the app will likely be available to install from Flathub in the near future, while the Darktable OBS should provide traditional installer packages for most major distributions (not yet updated).