NAME¶

SYNOPSIS¶

    darktable [options] [IMG_1234.{RAW,...}|image_folder/]

Options:

    --cachedir <user cache directory>
    --conf <key>=<value>
    --configdir <user config directory>
    -d {all,cache,camctl,camsupport,control,dev,fswatch, input,lighttable,
        lua,masks,memory,nan,opencl, perf,pwstorage,print,sql}
    --datadir <data directory>
    --disable-opencl
    -h, --help
    --library <library file>
    --localedir <locale directory>
    --luacmd <lua command>
    --moduledir <module directory>
    --noiseprofiles <noiseprofiles json file>
    -t <num openmp threads>
    --tmpdir <tmp directory>
    --version

DESCRIPTION¶

The application is designed to ease editing and consistent processing of large photo sessions and provides an easy to use digital lighttable and a set of sophisticated post-processing tools.

Most processing is done in 32-bit floating point per channel mode in device independent CIE L*a*b* color space. darktable is also fully color managed, which gives you full control over the look of the photos.

The application relies on a modern plugin architecture thus making it easy for 3rd party developers to extend the existing capabilities of the application. All lighttable and darkroom features are implemented as plugins, so you can create your plugins reusing existing code. Most workflow specific things can also be scripted in Lua.

OPTIONS¶

IMG_1234.RAW or image_folder/

You may optionally supply the filename of an image or the name of a folder containing image files. If a filename is given darktable starts in darkroom view with that file opened. If a folder is given darktable starts in lighttable view with the content of that folder as the current collection. If there is already an instance of darktable running (using the same library) the image or folder will be opened there, using D-Bus to communicate between the two processes.

--cachedir <cache directory>

darktable keeps a cache of image thumbnails for fast image preview and of precompiled OpenCL binaries for fast startup. By default the cache is located in "$HOME/.cache/darktable/". There may exist multiple thumbnail caches in parallel - one for each library file.

--conf <key>=<value>

darktable supports a rich set of configuration parameters which the user defines in "darktablerc" - darktable's configuration file in the user config directory. You may temporarily overwrite individual settings on the command line with this option - however, these settings will not be stored in "darktablerc".

--configdir <config directory>

This option defines the directory where darktable stores the user specific configuration. The default place is "$HOME/.config/darktable/".

-d <debug option>

This option enables debug output to the terminal. There are several subsystems of darktable and debugging of each of them can be activated separately. You can use this option multiple times if you want debugging output of more than one subsystem.

A few of those debug options are:

--datadir <data directory>

This option defines the directory where darktable finds its runtime data. The default place depends on your installation. Typical places are "/opt/darktable/share/darktable/" and "/usr/share/darktable/".

--disable-opencl

Prevent darktable from initializing the OpenCL subsystem. Use this option in case darktable crashes at startup due to a defective OpenCL implementation.

-h, --help

Show the available command line options and exit.

--library <library file>

darktable keeps image information in an sqlite database for fast access. The default location of that database file is "$HOME/.config/darktable/library.db". You may give an alternative location, e.g. if you want to do some experiments without compromising your original library.db. If the database file does not exist, darktable creates it for you. You may also give ":memory:" as a library file in which case the database is kept in system memory - all changes are discarded when darktable terminates.

--localedir <locale directory>

The place where darktable finds its language specific text strings. The default place depends on your installation. Typical places are "/opt/darktable/share/locale/" and "/usr/share/locale/".

--luacmd <lua command>

A string containing lua commands to execute after lua initialization. These commands will be run after your "luarc" file.

If lua is not compiled in, this option will be accepted but won't do anything.

--moduledir <module directory>

darktable has a modular structure and organizes its modules as shared libraries for loading at runtime. With this option you tell darktable where to look for its shared libraries. The default place depends on your installation; typical places are "/opt/darktable/lib/darktable/" and "/usr/lib/darktable/".

--noiseprofiles <noiseprofiles json file>

darktable's profiled denoise module uses camera specific profile data that gets loaded from an external JSON file. With this option the file to be loaded can be changed to allow testing alternative profiles. The default profile file is "noiseprofiles.json" and is typically found in "/opt/darktable/share/darktable/" or "/usr/share/darktable/".

-t <num openmp threads>

darktable uses OpenMP to parallelize many computation steps and make use of all the available CPU cores. With this option you can specify the number of threads to use. Valid values are between 1 and 100.

--tmpdir <tmp directory>

The place where darktable stores its temporary files. If this option is not supplied darktable uses the system default.

--version

Show the darktable version along with some important build options and exit.

DEFAULT KEYBINDINGS¶

l

Switch to lighttable view

d

Switch to darkroom view

t

Switch to tethered capture view

m

Switch to map view

s

Switch to slideshow view

p

Switch to print view

.

Switch between lighttable and darkroom views

Ctrl-q

Quit

F11

Switch between fullscreen and normal modes of the application's window

Esc

Leave fullscreen mode

Ctrl-h

Show/hide header

Tab

Show/hide sidebars

Lighttable mode

g, Shift-g

Navigate to top, bottom row

PageUp, PageDown

Navigate one page up, down

'

Scroll center

Down, Left, Right, Up

Scroll down, left, right, up

z

Preview image

Ctrl-z

Preview image with focus detection

F1, F2, F3, F4, F5

Color labels: toggle red, yellow, green, blue and purple

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Star rating

0

Strip all stars

r

Mark as rejected

l

Realign images to the grid

Alt-1

Zoom in on first visible image

Alt-2, 3

Adjust zoom

Alt-4

Zoom out completely

Ctrl-a

Select all images

Ctrl-Shift-a

Select no images

Ctrl-i

Invert selection

Ctrl-d

Duplicate image

Ctrl-g, Ctrl-Shift-g

Group/ungroup selected images

Delete

Remove image from collection

Ctrl-c, Ctrl-Shift-c

Copy all, selected history

Ctrl-v, Ctrl-Shift-v

Paste all, selected history

Space

Toggle selection of an image

Return

Select an image

Ctrl-e

Export currently selected images

Ctrl-k

Jump back to the previous collection

Ctrl-t

Open a popup to quickly tag an image

Ctrl-Shift-i

Import a folder

Ctrl-j

Jump to the filmroll of an image

Darkroom mode

Alt-1, 2, 3

Zoom to 1:1, fill, and fit, respectively

Ctrl-f

Show/hide filmstrip

Space, Backspace

Step to next, previous image

Ctrl-e

Export current image

Ctrl-c, Ctrl-Shift-c

Copy all, selected history

Ctrl-v, Ctrl-Shift-v

Paste all, selected history

o

Toggle show of over- and under-exposure

Ctrl-g

Toggle gamut check

Ctrl-s

Toggle softproofing

Enter

In Crop & Rotate module, commit the crop

[, ]

In Flip module, rotate 90 degrees ccw, cw

<, >

When drawing masks, decrease, increase brush opacity, respectively

{, }

When drawing masks, decrease, increase brush hardness, respectively

[, ]

When drawing masks, decrease, increase brush size, respectively

Tethered mode

Ctrl-f

Show/hide filmstrip

v

Toggle live view

Map mode

Ctrl-f

Show/hide filmstrip

Ctrl-z

Undo

Ctrl-r

Redo

Filmstrip (when the cursor is on top of the filmstrip)

F1, F2, F3, F4, F5

Color labels: toggle red, yellow, green, blue and purple

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Star rating

0

Strip all stars

r

Mark as rejected

Ctrl-d

Duplicate image

Ctrl-a

Select all images

Ctrl-Shift-a

Select no images

Ctrl-i

Invert selection

Ctrl-c, Ctrl-Shift-c

Copy all, selected history

Ctrl-v, Ctrl-Shift-v

Paste all, selected history

Slideshow mode

Space

Start/stop playback

SEE ALSO¶

OTHER INFO¶

<https://www.darktable.org/usermanual/> The complete darktable usermanual.

darktablerc.html An overview over all default config settings. The default place depends on your installation. Typical places are "/opt/darktable/share/doc/darktable/" and "/usr/share/doc/darktable/".

REPORTING BUGS¶

AUTHORS¶

* developers: Roman Lebedev, Pascal Obry, Tobias Ellinghaus, Stefan Schöfegger, Peter Budai, Ulrich Pegelow, johannes hanika, parafin, Alexandre Prokoudine, Aldric Renaudin, Edouard Gomez.

* translators: Pascal Obry, Ger Siemerink, Tobias Ellinghaus, Maurizio Paglia, Timur I. Davletshin, Alexandre Prokoudine, mepi0011, Báthory Péter, Jeronimo Pellegrini, Matjaž Jeran, shlomi braitbart, Aurélien PIERRE, Heiko Bauke, Josep V. Moragues, Marko Vertainen, Michel Leblond, Milan Knížek, Novy Sawai, Ragnar Wisløff, Tomasz Golinski.

* contributors (at least 4 commits): Aurélien PIERRE, rawfiner, edgardoh, Dan Torop, Ger Siemerink, Matthieu Moy, Maurizio Paglia, Andreas Schneider, Heiko Bauke, Rikard Öxler, Timur I. Davletshin, Benoit Brummer, Philippe Weyland, grand-piano, luzpaz, Mario Lueder, Robert Bridge, mepi0011.

* RawSpeed contributors (at least 1 commit): Stefan Löffler, Stefan Hoffmeister, parafin, Robert Bieber, Tobias Ellinghaus, Matthieu Volat, Shita Yuuma, Stefan Schöfegger, luz.paz.

And all those of you that made previous releases possible

This man page was written by Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre.prokoudine@gmail.com> and Richard Levitte <richard@levittr.org>. Additions were made by Tobias Ellinghaus <me@houz.org>.

HISTORY¶

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE¶

darktable is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GPL v3 or (at your option) any later version.