How To Install Darktable 5.0.0 On Ubuntu, Linux Mint And Derivative Systems

As you may already know, Darktable is a free and open-source photography workflow application for image editing (that be used hand-in-hand with GIMP) with good support for Linux, Mac OSX, Solaris and Windows. It’s main purpose is to enhance a photographer’s workflow, permitting you to manage and adjust a large number of images efficient and easy.

Darktable operates in two modes: Lighttable (which allows you to export, sort and rename images) and Darkroom (which permits editing photos and raw files). The GUI looks very similar to Lightroom Classic, so if you have used that already, you might feel at home.

The Light Table is the image management section, permitting you to easily cull, organize, sort, tag and add metadata to your photos.

The Darkroom is where you edit your images. Here you can adjust the brightness and contrast to color calibration, apply hot pixel fixes and many others.

The latest version available is DarkTable 5.0, which comes with a huge list of changes, including:

The Big Ones

The following is a summary of the main features added to darktable 5.0. Please see the user manual for more details of the individual changes (where available).

• This development cycle has included a large number of changes which improve the user experience, as detailed in the next section.

UI/UX Improvements

• Added camera-specific styles for more than 500 camera models to more closely approximate the out-of-camera JPEG rendition. These styles only affect contrast, brightness, and saturation and do not attempt to match sharpening, denoising, or hue shifts. Also added a Lua script to auto-apply the appropriate style on import and manually apply styles to a collection of previously-imported images.
• Added an optional splash screen showing startup progress (including estimated time remaining during the scan for updated sidecar files) to dramatically reduce the time between invoking darktable and something appearing on screen when the user has a large library.
• The user interface now gives feedback while processing bulk image operations such as rating, tagging, applying styles, and edit history management (and undoing those operations), rather than silently freezing until the operation completes. While the operation is in progress, darktable will now show either a busy cursor (such as a stopwatch or spinner) or a progress bar with option to cancel the remainder of the operation.
• Paths for drawn masks now display two Bézier handles per control point, which can be moved individually. This allows for more precise control of the paths.
• Added a high-contrast theme with bright white text on a dark gray background.
• Enhanced tooltips for utility module headers to provide more information about the module.
• Added more new-user hints on an empty lighttable.
• Added two new error placeholder images to distinguish between missing, unsupported, and corrupted images. When attempting to edit such an image, an appropriate, more specific error message is displayed.
• When selecting a style in the export module, hovering on the style name in the popup menu displays a thumbnail previewing the effect of appending the style to the active image’s edit (first selected image in lighttable, center-view image in darkroom).
• Allow for selecting the utility modules to be displayed on the panels in the different views.
  • Right-click on the empty panel area below the modules to get a menu where they can be hidden or shown. This allows additional modules to be added to the darkroom, like metadata editor and styles.
  • This replaces the options in the “collections” and “recently used collections” modules’ preferences to show or hide the latter and show a “history” button in the former instead. Users that want the separate module will need to reenable it once via the new Right-click menu.
  • The menu also contains an option “restore defaults” that resets the selection and position of modules in the current view. In the preferences dialog, on the general tab, there’s a “reset view panels” button that resets all views, including visibility and width of the panels themselves.
• Added a global preference to swap the left and right side panels in the darkroom view.
• The first time a new user presses Tab, they will be warned that this will hide all panels and how to get them back. Hopefully this prevents some confusion or frustration.
• Drag&drop utility module headers to reposition them across the left and right panels (lighttable) as well as vertically (all views). Each view can have a different layout.
• Drag&drop of processing modules in the darkroom right panel has been improved to auto-scroll when reaching the top or bottom and to not get confused when images get dragged into the area. This functionality no longer requires Ctrl+Shift modifiers.
• Improved the message displayed at startup when the database is locked by another instance of darktable.
• Replaced the icon of the operator button in the color label filter for working with multiple selected color labels (union/intersection).

How to install Darktable 5.0.0 on Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 24.04, and Ubuntu 24.10 and derivative systems:

To install Darktable on Ubuntu, follow these steps:

(Optional) Step 0: Update Your System

Before installing any new software, it is recommended to update your system to ensure you have the latest packages and security updates. Run the following command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 1: Add the Darktable Repository

Darktable is not included in Ubuntu’s default repositories with the latest version, so you need to add the official Personal Package Archive (PPA) provided by the Darktable community. Execute the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/darktable

Press Enter when prompted to confirm adding the repository.

Step 2: Update the Package List

After adding the Darktable repository, update the package list to ensure your system recognizes the new software source:

sudo apt update

Step 3: Install Darktable

Now that the repository has been added and updated, install Darktable with:

sudo apt install darktable -y

Alternatively, you can launch it from the Applications Menu by searching for “Darktable.”

(Optional) Remove Darktable

If you want to uninstall Darktable, use the following command:

sudo apt remove --autoremove darktable

To completely remove Darktable, including all configuration files, use:

sudo apt purge darktable -y

Additionally, to remove the PPA repository, run:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/darktable

Finally, to clean up unnecessary dependencies, execute:

sudo apt autoremove -y

This is everything. Enjoy!

Popular free photo editing software for Linux and Ubuntu

• GIMP – One of the most powerful open-source photo editors, often considered a free alternative to Photoshop. It supports layers, masks, filters, and various plugins.
• Inkscape – A vector graphics editor ideal for creating illustrations, logos, and scalable designs. It is a great alternative to Adobe Illustrator.
• RawTherapee – A high-quality RAW image processor designed for photographers who need advanced color correction, noise reduction, and image enhancement tools.
• Darktable – A professional-grade photo workflow application and RAW developer, similar to Adobe Lightroom, with non-destructive editing capabilities.