As you may know, digiKam is a powerful and versatile open-source digital photo management application designed for photographers, hobbyists, and professionals alike. Available for Linux, Windows, and macOS, digiKam offers an extensive set of features that allow users to import, manage, edit, and share digital photos and raw files efficiently.
Key Features
Import and Organization
One of digiKam’s standout features is its robust import functionality. Users can seamlessly transfer photos, raw files, and videos from cameras, SD cards, USB drives, and other external storage devices. The application also provides customizable import rules that allow automatic processing and organization of files upon import.
Once imported, files are organized into albums and sub-albums, making it easy to navigate extensive photo libraries. Additionally, digiKam offers powerful tagging tools that allow users to assign tags, ratings, and labels to images. These metadata attributes enable quick and efficient filtering and searching.
Advanced Search and Filtering
Finding specific photos within large collections is effortless with digiKam’s advanced search capabilities. Users can locate images based on:
- Tags, labels, and ratings
- Date and time
- Location (geotagging support)
- Specific metadata (EXIF, IPTC, or XMP)
For more refined searches, multiple criteria can be combined, making it easy to pinpoint exact images within a vast collection. The application relies on the Exiv2 library to manage metadata, ensuring comprehensive compatibility with various file formats.
RAW File and Video Support
digiKam excels at handling raw files, thanks to the integration of the LibRaw library. This ensures compatibility with over 900 different raw image formats from various camera manufacturers. Additionally, the application supports video file management, allowing users to catalog and play videos using FFmpeg and QtAv libraries. Metadata extraction from video files is also supported, enhancing organization and searchability.
Powerful Image Editing Tools
Beyond photo organization, digiKam includes a comprehensive suite of image editing tools. These tools range from essential adjustments like cropping, color correction, and sharpening to advanced features such as:
- Curves adjustment
- Panorama stitching
- Automatic lens correction using the Lensfun library
- Batch processing for applying edits to multiple images simultaneously
Users can also leverage the Light Table feature to compare images side by side, making it easier to select the best shots from a series.
Plugin Support and Extended Functionality
digiKam extends its core functionality through a plugin-based architecture called DPlugins (digiKam Plugins). These plugins enhance the application with additional features, including:
- Importing and exporting images to remote web services
- Advanced editing tools and filters
- Automated batch processing
This modular approach allows users to customize digiKam according to their specific needs and workflows.
Photo Sharing and Publishing
Sharing photos is effortless with digiKam’s built-in export tools. Users can generate HTML galleries for web display or directly publish images to various online platforms, ensuring seamless sharing with friends, family, or clients.
The latest version available – DigiKam 8.6.0
The digiKam development team has released version 8.6.0, introducing significant updates to the popular open-source photo management software. This latest version brings improvements in facial recognition, automatic tagging, image quality assessment, and red-eye correction, making it more powerful and efficient than ever.
Enhanced Facial Recognition
One of the most notable upgrades in digiKam 8.6.0 is the complete overhaul of the facial recognition system. The team has refined the face detection mechanism, reducing false positives and enhancing accuracy. The new classifier now employs K Nearest Neighbor (KNN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithms to improve facial recognition performance.
Additionally, outdated models such as SSD, YOLO, and OpenFace have been removed, and the system now relies on YuNet for face detection and SFace for feature extraction. With these optimizations, users can experience a 25%-50% increase in processing speed, particularly when utilizing full CPU capabilities.
Automatic Tagging with AI Integration
The automatic tagging system has been revamped, incorporating deep learning models to analyze image content and generate relevant keywords. This feature not only simplifies organization but also enables users to translate generated keywords into their preferred language, making searching and categorization much more efficient.
Improved Image Quality Assessment
The image quality assessment engine has been refined to analyze individual images based on sharpness, noise levels, and exposure. With this update, users can quickly filter out lower-quality images, ensuring that their collections remain filled with high-quality content.
Red-Eye Correction Tool
The red-eye correction tool has been enhanced to detect and fix red-eye effects automatically, improving the quality of portrait photos. This update eliminates the need for manual corrections, saving users time and effort.
Internal Component Updates and Bug Fixes
digiKam 8.6.0 also includes updates to its internal components, ensuring compatibility with the latest technologies and boosting overall stability and performance. Several bugs from previous versions have been addressed, making the software more reliable and efficient.
Future Development Plans
The digiKam team is committed to integrating more AI-driven features and enhancing the software’s capabilities. Future versions are expected to focus on performance optimization and extended image management functionalities.
How To Install digiKam on Ubuntu 24.10, Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04 And Derivative Systems vis Snap
What is Snap?
Snap is a package management system developed by Canonical, the creators of Ubuntu. It allows applications to be packaged with all their dependencies, simplifying installations and minimizing compatibility issues across different Linux distributions.
One of Snap’s key benefits is that applications run in a sandboxed environment, enhancing security and stability. Additionally, Snap packages are updated automatically in the background, ensuring users always have the latest version of an application without requiring manual updates.
However, Snap applications may take up more disk space due to their bundled dependencies and may have slightly slower startup times compared to traditional DEB packages.
Prepare Snap, if needed
On Ubuntu, Snap is pre-installed. If you are using a Linux distribution where Snap is not integrated by default, install it with the following command:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapdAfter installing Snap, enable and start the Snap service:
sudo systemctl enable --now snapdInstall digiKam via Snap
Since digiKam is officially available as a Snap package, installing it on Ubuntu is straightforward. Open a terminal and run:
sudo snap install digikamThis command will download and install the latest version of digiKam from the Snap Store.
Optional: Uninstall digiKam Using Snap
If you need to remove digiKam, use the following command:
sudo snap remove digikamHow To Install digiKam on Ubuntu 24.10, Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04 And Derivative Systems vis FlatPak
What is Flatpak?
Flatpak is another widely used package management system that provides a consistent and secure way of distributing applications across different Linux distributions. Unlike Snap, which is developed by Canonical, Flatpak is an open-source project maintained by the Freedesktop community.
Flatpak applications run in an isolated, sandboxed environment, preventing interference with system files and improving security. Additionally, Flatpak enables applications to run on any Linux distribution that supports Flatpak.
A major advantage of Flatpak is its decentralized nature. Instead of relying on distribution-specific repositories, users can download applications from Flathub, the main Flatpak repository. However, just like Snap, Flatpak applications can take up more storage space due to their bundled dependencies.
Setup Flatpak and Install digiKam
If you prefer to install digiKam using Flatpak, first ensure that Flatpak is installed on your system. If it is not installed, set it up with:
sudo apt install flatpakNext, add the Flathub repository, which hosts the digiKam Flatpak package:
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepoOnce Flatpak is installed and Flathub is added, install digiKam with:
flatpak install flathub org.kde.digikamOptional: Uninstall digiKam Using Flatpak
To remove digiKam if installed via Flatpak, use:
flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.kde.digikam
