Darktable 2.4.0 Released! How to Install it in Ubuntu

darktable-logo

A new major release of the open-source photography workflow software, Darktable 2.4.0, was released earlier today.

Darktable 2.4 comes with hundreds of issues closed. There are various new features and changes, and the biggest of them is support for Microsoft Windows.

The big changes in Darktable 2.4:

  • A new module for haze removal
  • The local contrast module can now be pushed much further, it also got a new local laplacian mode
  • Add undo support for masks and more intelligent grouping of undo steps
  • Blending now allows to display individual channels using false colors
  • darktable now supports loading Fujifilm compressed RAFs
  • darktable now supports loading floating point HDR DNGs as written by HDRMERGE
  • We also added channel specific blend modes for Lab and RGB color spaces
  • The base curve module allows for more control of the exposure fusion feature using the newly added bias slider
  • The tonecurve module now supports auto colour adjustment in RGB
  • Add absolute color input as an option to the color look up table module
  • A new X-Trans demosaicing algorithm, Frequency Domain Chroma, was implemented.
  • You can now choose from pre-defined scheduling profiles for OpenCL
  • Speaking of OpenCL, darktable now allows to force-use OpenCL for a specific pixelpipe
  • XMP sidecar files are no longer written to disk when the content didn’t actually change.

How to Install Darktable 2.4.0 in Ubuntu:

You can install Darktable in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04, Ubuntu 17.10 and higher either via traditional Ubuntu PPA or using the Snap (run in sandbox) package.

Install Darktable via PPA:

CHECK the PPA link before doing following steps, since the new packages may not ready when you try to install them.

1. To add the PPA, open terminal emulator (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pmjdebruijn/darktable-release

Type in the password when it prompts and hit Enter.

darktable-ppa

2. To upgrade from a previous release, launch Software Updater (Update Manager) and install the available updates:

upgrade-darktable

Or run commands in terminal to install or upgrade the software:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt install darktable

3. (Optional) To remove the PPA, launch “Software & Updates” utility and navigate to “Other Software” tab.

And remove darktable via following command if you want:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove darktable

Install Darktable via Snap package:

A snap is an universal Linux application with all its dependencies bundled. It runs in sandbox and is isolated from other system software.

Darktable is available as Snap. You can simply open Ubuntu Software, search for and install Darktable:

darktable-ubuntusoftware

Besides the traditional package (the last one), you can see two new darktable packages. They are snaps maintained by different maintainers.

Check the package version and select install one. (I chose “darktable-empanada”). Or simply run command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

snap install darktable-empanada --classic

darktable-snap

The snap co-exists with traditional Darktable package. So you may have two shortcut icons in the application launcher.

About ml

ml is a part time stay-at-home dad who've been using Ubuntu Desktop for a few years. He writes in the free time and wishes to share some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers.