What is digikam?
A Linux, Windows, and macOS application for managing digital photos, DigiKam is an advanced open-source photo management application. You can use digiKam's import capabilities to quickly move photos, raw files, and videos directly from your camera and external storage devices (SD cards, USB drives). Using import settings, the application allows you to organize photos, raw files, and videos on-the-fly.
Additionally, the application comes with powerful tools to tag photos and raw files, such as tags, ratings, and labels. Additionally, digiKam features powerful search capabilities, so you can easily find images based on various criteria. You can use filters to find items that match specific criteria quickly. To search photos, you can use tags, labels, ratings, data, location, and even particular metadata (EXIF, IPTC, and XMP).
A variety of advanced search options are available as well. DigiKam uses the Exiv2 library to fill the photo library with metadata. For raw images, digiKam utilizes the LibRaw library. A comprehensive set of editing tools is part of the software, and digiKam is actively maintained and regularly updated to support the latest camera models.
The application can also manage video files for cataloging purposes, and it uses FFmpeg and QtAv libraries to extract metadata. Essential tools include color adjusting, cropping, sharpening, curve adjusting, panorama stitching, and much more. The Lensfun Library is used to automate the lens correction process in digiKam.
In the digiKam Image Editor, one can quickly edit images, add new features to edit pictures, and batch process images. Standard tools include correcting red-eye or color.
Additionally, image enhancement tools such as color management, noise reduction, and special effects are included with the main application. In addition to working with all camera RAW formats and 16-bit color depths, digiKam Image Editor supports Exif/Makenote/IPTC/GPS/XMP metadata, color management, tagging/rating/commenting pictures, etc.
A standalone version named ShowFoto is also available. DigiKam does not include support for digiKam images but has all the image editing features.
Additionally, digiKam has a queue manager for batch processing on several images at once. The tool is perfect for playing back a typical photographer workflow already set up by the end-user.
On Batch Queue Manager, you can perform the same operations as in Image Editor. Still, you can chain operations together to process multiple files at once.
Does Digikam support AVIF?
digiKam 7.7.0 will support AVIF/AOM image format (read/write) in all bundles. It is supposed to be released in the following months in 2022.