Darktable 4.2 RAW Image Editor Released with JPEG-XL, WebP, and New Camera Support

The open-source RAW image editor also brings a new Sigmoid display transform module and a completely revamped snapshot module.
Darktable 4.2

Darktable 4.2 open-source and cross-platform RAW image editor is now available for download as the second major update in the 4.x series, bringing new features, new image and camera support, and numerous bug fixes.

This release introduces read and write for JPEG-XL images, read-only support for WebP images, support for embedded ICC profiles in exported WebP files, support for the JFIF (JPEG File Interchange Format) file extension, as well as support for updating existing pictures in Piwigo exports.

Also new in Darktable 4.2 is a Sigmoid display transform module that can be used as a drop-in replacement for the filmic and base curve modules, two new algorithms in the highlight reconstruction module (inpaint opposed and segmentation based), and a new pipe routine for the duplicate manager to calculate previews.

The Snapshot module has been completely revamped to use a dynamically generated view via a new pixelpipe functionality, which results in a significantly faster interface. Furthermore, this release adds the ability to preview the effect of a user-generated style on an image before applying it and improves the Lens Correction module to also extract lens correction information data for correcting lens distortions.

A new animation effect has been added when expanding/collapsing modules, a new drop-down menu has been added to the top filter bar to make it easier to add and remove filters, the range rating filter widget’s UI has been revamped for better readability, and the slideshow was rewritten for a better user experience.

Among other noteworthy changes, Darktable 4.2 adds support for manipulating shapes on tablets, adds support for regional date/time format in thumbnail tooltips, improves profile support for AVIF and EXR formats, adds the ability to fetch color-space for PNG files from the cICP chunk, and introduced balanced “OpenCL vs CPU” tiling.

“This makes it possible to use CPU tiling if there is not enough memory on the OpenCL card (which would require a lot of tiles to be handled on the card). In the end, the large number of tiles plus the overlapping area would make the use of the OpenCL code path slower (or much slower) than handling the image without tiling on the CPU,” explain the devs.

On top of that, light patterns are now set for Behringer b-control midi rotors (BCR2000/BCF2000), it’s now possible to scroll through the presents of a module using keyboard shortcuts, the panel sizes now adjust according to the screen resolution, and it’s now possible to assign keyboard shortcuts to the “currently focused” processing module.

Numerous bugs were addressed in this release to improve various functions of the software, such as Lab conversion in TIFF imports, highlights visualization in all recovery modes, navigation window zoom indicator label display, or the selection of unaltered images. For more details on these fixes, check out the full changelog.

Darktable 4.2 also adds base support for new cameras and their image formats, including:

  • Canon EOS M2
  • Fujifilm FinePix HS50EXR
  • Fujifilm FinePix S6000fd
  • Fujifilm X-H2 (compressed)
  • Fujifilm X-H2S (compressed)
  • Fujifilm X-T30 II (compressed)
  • Fujifilm X-T5 (compressed)
  • Leica D-LUX 6 (4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 1:1)
  • Leica M Monochrom (Typ 246) (dng)
  • Nikon 1 J4 (12bit-compressed)
  • Nikon 1 S1 (12bit-compressed)
  • Nikon Coolpix P7700 (12bit-compressed)
  • Nikon D1H (12bit-uncompressed)
  • Nikon D2H (12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
  • Nikon D3S (14bit-compressed, 14bit-uncompressed, 12bit-compressed, 12bit-uncompressed)
  • Nikon Z 9 (14bit-compressed)
  • Olympus E-10
  • Olympus E-M10 Mark IIIs
  • Olympus E-P7
  • Olympus SP570UZ
  • Panasonic DMC-G2 (4:3, 3:2, 16:9, 1:1)
  • Pentax K2000
  • Pentax K200D
  • Ricoh GR II
  • Samsung NX mini
  • Samsung NX10
  • Samsung NX11
  • Samsung NX20
  • Samsung NX2000
  • Samsung NX5
  • Sony DSLR-A380
  • Sony DSLR-A560
  • Sony ILCE-7RM5

In addition, it adds a white balance preset for the Fujifilm X-T5 camera, as well as noise profiles for the Fujifilm X-E4, Fujifilm X-T5, Leica M (Typ 240), Nikon Z 9, Olympus E-500, and Panasonic DMC-FZ330 cameras.

Darktable 4.2 is available for download right now from the project’s GitHub page, but GNU/Linux users will only find a source tarball that needs to be compiled. Alternatively, you can install Darktable from the software repositories of your distribution or as a Flatpak app from Flathub.

Last updated 1 year ago

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