The digiKam Handbook

Gerhard Kulzer (gerhard_at_kulzer_dot_net)

Gilles Caulier (caulier_dot_gilles_at_gmail_dot_com)

Elle Stone (jrle1_at_twcny_dot_rr_dot_com)

Oliver Doerr (oliver_at_doerr-privat.de)

Ralf Hoelzer (kde_at_ralfhoelzer.com)

Joern Ahrens (joern.ahrens_at_kdemail_dot_net)

Revision 0.10 (2009-03-05)

Legal Notice

digiKam logo

digiKam is a KDE Photo Management Application with support for Digital Cameras.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Background

About digiKam
New Features of the KDE4 version
Reporting Bugs
Support
Getting Involved

Getting Started

Supported File Formats

Still Photograph Formats
Moving Image Formats (Videos)

Supported Digital Still Cameras

Supported Plugins

2. Using digiKam

The Main digiKam Window

Introduction to the Main Window
Albums View
Image View
Calendar View
Tags View (Keywords)
The Timeline
Searches View
Fuzzy Searches/Duplicates
Map Searches

The digiKam Light Table

digiKam sidebar

Introduction to the right sidebar
Properties
The Metadata Tabs
Colors
The Geolocation Tab
Comments & Tags
Tag Filters

Digital Asset Management (DAM) with digiKam

Introduction
Build a system to organize and find your photographs
Protect your authorship and copyleft/right
Protect your images from data corruption and loss
A typical DAM workflow with digiKam

Using a Digital Camera With digiKam

Introduction to Camera Interface
Getting information about photographs from the Camera
Downloading photographs to your computer
Selecting a Target Album
Deleting photographs from the camera
Automatic Renaming
Camera Information Based Operations
Uploading Photographs to your camera
How to use a GPS device with digiKam

digiKam Configuration

The Setup Section
The Theme Setup

3. The Image Editor

Introduction to Image Editor

The Image Editor Window
Restoring Your Original Photograph
Undoing/Redoing Actions
Moving Between Photographs
Changing the View
Printing Images

Photographic Editing - Workflow

Image Editing/Workflow Tools
Processing RAW image files, RAW work-flow
Color editing tools
Image enhancement
Image transformation tools
Adding decorative elements
Special Effects (Filters)

RAW File Treatment and Color Management

Introduction
The sRGB color space
Calibrating and profiling your monitorRGB?
The camera profile and issues with raw file development
The PCS: color profiles point to real colors in the real world
The Working Space
Printer profiles, rendering intents, and soft-proofing
A few definitions and comments
The Universal Translator: your camera profile, the Profile Connection Space, and LMCS

4. Menu Descriptions

The main digiKam window

The Album Menu
The Tag Menu
The Image Menu
The Edit Menu
The View Menu
The Tools Menu
The Import Menu
The Export Menu
The Settings Menu
The Help Menu

The Image Editor

The File Menu
The Edit Menu
The Color Menu
The Enhance Menu
The Transform Menu
The Decoration Menu
The View Menu
The Filter Menu
The Settings Menu
The Help Menu

5. Credits and License

A. Installation

How to Obtain digiKam
Requirements
Compilation and Installation

List of Examples

2.1. The Album Properties Dialog
2.2. Selecting a tag and applying a new one
2.3. Tagging Image with context menu, or with drag&drop from either sidebar
2.4. The Timeline View in Action
2.5. Quick Search Tool Dialog in Action
2.6. Quick Search Tool Dialog in Action
2.7. Search View from Main Window
2.8. Fuzzy search for similar image
2.9. The Map Searches tab
2.10. The Light Table in Action
2.11. Sidebar File Properties
2.12. The Histogram Viewer in Action
2.13. An Image Histogram in All Colors Mode
2.14. An Over Exposed Photograph
2.15. A Correctly Exposed Photograph
2.16. An Under Exposed Photograph
2.17. The Geolocation tab
2.18. sidebar Comments & Tags example
2.19. The Camera Client Window
2.20. The Camera Item Properties Sidebar Tab
2.21. The Target Album Selection Dialog
2.22. Files Renaming Options
2.23. On the fly Operations Options
2.24. Albums Auto-creation Options
2.25. The Camera Folder Selection Dialog
3.1. The Image Editor Window
3.2. The Apply Texture Tool in Action
3.3. Normalize Colors Correction Preview
3.4. Equalize Colors Correction Preview
3.5. Auto Levels Correction Preview
3.6. Stretch Contrast Correction
3.7. The Brightness Contrast Gamma Tool in Action
3.8. Original versus Vivid filter
3.9. The neon filter
3.10. The Color Balance Tool in Action
3.11. The Hue Saturation Lightness Tool in Action
3.12. The Black & White Filter tool in Action
3.13. The Sharpen Tool in Action
3.14. The Red Eyes Correction Tool in Action
3.15. The Blur Tool in Action
3.16. The Resize Tool Dialog
3.17. The Current Image Selection in Image Editor
3.18. The Aspect Ratio Crop Tool Dialog
3.19. Image Composition Example Using Rules of Third
3.20. Photograph Composition Example Using Harmonious Triangles
3.21. Image Composition example using Golden Spiral
3.22. Image Composition example using Golden Spiral Sections
3.23. Photograph Composition Example Using Golden Triangle
3.24. Image Composition example using Golden Sections