Open source photography workflow application and RAW developer

Darktable for Mac

Darktable for Mac

  -  78.1 MB  -  Open Source
Darktable for Mac is an open source photography workflow application and RAW developer. A virtual lighttable and darkroom for photographers.

It manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable lighttable and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.

Raw is the unprocessed capture straight from the camera's sensor to the memory card, nothing has been altered. There are multiple alternatives in the open source world for raw development (ufraw, dcraw, rawtherapee) but Darktable tries to fill the gap between the excellent existing free raw converters and image management tools (such as e.g. ufraw, rawstudio, f-spot, digikam, shotwell).

It focuses on the workflow to make it easier for the photographer to quickly handle the thousands of images a day of shooting can produce. It's also one of the very few FOSS projects able to do tethered shooting.

The internal architecture of the app allows users to easily add modules for all sorts of image processing, from the very simple (crop, exposure, spot removal) to the most advanced (simulation of human night vision).

The user interface is built around efficient caching of image metadata and mipmaps, all stored in a database. The main focus lies on user interaction, both in terms of a smooth interface design as well as processing speed. High quality output is also one of goals.

All editing is fully non-destructive and only operates on cached image buffers for display. The full image is only converted during export. Raw image loading is done using rawspeed, high-dynamic range and standard image formats such as jpeg are also supported.

The core operates completely on floating point values, so Darktable for macOS can not only be used for photography but also for scientifically acquired images or output of renderers (high dynamic range).

Features and Highlights
  • Non-destructive editing preserves original images at all times.
  • Processes RAW files using 4x32-bit float buffers for high precision.
  • Fast performance via GPU acceleration and OpenCL support.
  • Fully color-managed with ICC profiles for various RGB spaces.
  • Cross-platform support: Linux, macOS, Windows, BSD, Solaris.
  • Search and sort images using tags, ratings, labels, metadata.
  • Supports standard, RAW, and HDR formats (JPEG, CR2, NEF, etc.).
  • Smooth, zoomable UI thanks to smart multi-level caching.
  • Tethered shooting with live view support for some cameras.
  • Available in 12+ languages; check updates for latest list.
  • Flexible export options: disk, web, email, Piwigo, HTML gallery.
  • Export formats include JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PPM, EXR, and more.
  • Uses XMP files and a database to store edits and metadata.
  • Exif metadata managed via libexiv2 for reading/writing.
  • Lua scripting enables task automation for advanced workflows.
How to Use

Open the app and import RAW or JPG photos to the library

Use the “Darkroom” mode to edit and enhance your images

Apply presets or manually adjust exposure, color, tone

Organize, tag, and rate your photos in the “Lighttable

Export edited images in your preferred file format

Customize the interface and modules for workflow needs

System Requirements
  • macOS 10.14 Mojave or later
  • 64-bit Intel or Apple Silicon (Rosetta or native)
  • Minimum 4 GB RAM (8+ GB recommended)
  • OpenCL-compatible GPU for better performance
  • At least 200 MB of free disk space
PROS
  • Full-featured RAW photo editing
  • Open-source and completely free
  • Non-destructive editing workflow
  • Advanced color correction tools
  • Customizable and modular interface
CONS
  • Slower performance on older Macs
  • Interface can feel overwhelming
  • Lacks AI-powered enhancements
  • Occasional bugs or stability issues
Also Available: Download Darktable for Windows

Why is this app published on FileHorse? (More info)
  • Darktable 5.2.0 Screenshots

    The images below have been resized. Click on them to view the screenshots in full size.

    Darktable 5.2.0 Screenshot 1
  • Darktable 5.2.0 Screenshot 2
  • Darktable 5.2.0 Screenshot 3
  • Darktable 5.2.0 Screenshot 4

What's new in this version:

The Big Ones:
The following is a summary of the main features added to darktable 5.2. Please see the user manual for more details of the individual changes (where available):
- View snapshots side-by-side with the current image, instead of as a partial overlay, by clicking the button next to "take snapshot". The center viewport is divided in two equal panels and can be zoomed and panned (by dragging while holding the "a" key) as before. The dividing line can not be moved and any click without "a" rotates the layout
- The metadata module is now fully configurable and allows to add and maintain any tags which are supported by exiv2
- Added a new module "raster mask import". After setting up a root folder containing PFM files, a file can be selected to be used as a raster mask, it is scaled to full image size. You can also define what combination of the RGB channels of that PFM file will be used for the raster mask
- Sigmoid module is now the default tone-mapper selected for new installation
- The export module has got a new section multi-preset export which allows to export the selected images with multiple presets in one single export run

UI/UX Improvements:
- Replaced the zoom range widget, which controls the number of thumbnails displayed on the thumbnail table, with a spin button. This makes it easier to set the exact value
- In the 4 ways tab in Color Balance RGB, ctrl+click now picks the actual color while regular click continues to pick the opposite color. This gives users more flexibility and control when selecting hues

Performance Improvements:
- Eliminated unnecessary GUI refreshes
- Improved user interface responsiveness for blending operations

Other Changes:
- Removed the levels and contrast brightness saturation modules (which were deprecated in 2023) from the deprecated modules group. Since this group would be empty after that, it has also been removed for now
- Due to an upstream issue, exporting JPEG XL in 16-bit float at quality 100 is not currently mathematically lossless
- Allow reading of files in Cineon format (developed by Kodak) and DPX format (developed by SMPTE) with .cin and .dpx file extensions
- The "prefer performance over quality" preference setting has been removed
- A workaround for old broken AMD OpenCL drivers that has been in place for 12 years has been disabled by default. Hopefully more recent drivers don't need it anymore and it caused problems with the translation of the user interface during startup, causing part of it to appear in English. If you have problems with OpenCL that you believe may be caused by this change, please do two things
- Add the line opencl_force_c_locale=anything to your config/darktable/darktablerc file
- If that solves your problem, please report the issue to GiHhub PR #18342, including information on the make of your GPU and the version of your drivers. We can then for the next release either by default re-enable the workaround for drivers that need them or warn people with antiquated drivers that they need to update
- Presets can now be arranged in sub menus, like styles can, by inserting | in their name between levels. The shortcuts dialog/preferences tab now show these collapsible hierarchies for styles and presets too (and the bug that style shortcuts were not translated is fixed)
- Give a hint for pending background work when darktable is closing
- Improved rendering output of Denoise Profile, Dither and Astrophoto Denoise on second window or in high quality processing mode
- Hide "reduce resolution of preview image" preference setting. This was a way to get better responsiveness on slow systems introduced in 2020, but at the same time it was making the color picker and mask support inaccurate (quality loss)
- Improved quality of inpaint opposed highlight recovery algorithm for sRAW images
- Reduced haze removal visible difference between exports and HQ darkroom processing
- For some images the algorithm fails to calculate correction parameters, this is reported via control log
- Lens info is now read from OM-System/Olympus image files taken with lenses without electronic data if this info is entered in the camera lens info settings dialog. The lens correction module will automatically find the lens, if it is supported by lensfun and the entered name matches the lensfun name, which can be seen in the lens selection drop down list
- Raster masks got internal improvements and now support the same refinement tools as all other masks including details threshold, feathering guide and radius, blurring radius and contrast. Some UI refinements for raster-masks
- The highlights module offers a raster mask with information about level above clip level
- Changing orientation (via the flip module) respects changes done in crop module
- The shown dimension while cropping now matches the default export dimension and keeps the exact chosen ratio
- In the history module item tooltip, fixed the formatting and scaling of the changes to match the values as seen in the modules themselves
- Added auto login to the piwigo export module. This can be enabled in the security section of the preferences
- Add 45x35 aspect ratio to the crop module, which is popular on IDs and passports
- Color assessment conditions: Changed total border width to relative scaling which should work well on small and big screens, independent of physical screen resolution, added pop-up window for parameterization and removed ISO12464 reference
- Improved visibility of masks in darkroom. This is controlled by the new hidden "darkroom/ui/develop_mask_mix" configuration option
- Add a new setting to change which images are taken into account for actions: By default, the image under the cursor takes priority. With
- this parameter enabled, the selected images will take priority, and the image under the cursor will only be taken into account to feed the information modules
- Added a tag icon on thumbnails to display the list of attached tags when hovering over it
- In the map view, it is possible to pan the entire track in one of the following ways: by double-clicking on the track segment list, by left-clicking on the list header, or by shortcut option

Fixed:
- Fixed sidecar writing if quitting from darkroom
- Fixed some rare race conditions while processing the pixelpipes
- Fixed collection filter presets based on capture time creating an empty widget
- Proper high quality demosaicing and details blending support for second window
- Fixed a bug that allowed NULL pointer dereference in tethering mode under certain conditions, which resulted in a crash
- Fixed darktable shutdown code so pending background jobs are properly finished and give a control log if there is pending work
- Fixed a crash in the import dialog when trying to add a new place to an empty places list
- Fixed bit-depth setting not saved in AVIF export presets
- Fixed reset button not working in the geotagging module. Also a loaded GPX track in the geotagging module is now properly removed
- Fixed darktable-cli crashing if the darktable database is locked
- Fixed image not properly layout in the print module after being rotated from Lighttable
- Fixed a bug where the changes in various edit fields are not saved correctly when the field loses the input focus
- Fixed incorrect reporting of whether a flash was fired in expansion variables $(EXIF.FLASH.ICON) and $(EXIF.FLASH) under certain
- conditions
- Fixed the edit style dialog to show all module's duplicates. Also when creating a new style we don't show the whole history but only the last version of each module
- Fixed a bug in xtrans demosaicers that could feed NaNs into the pixelpipe
- Fixed display of image using a composite module when the modules are reordered
- Many TIFF loader fixes and improvements
- Fixed crash on files for which libtiff would issue warnings or errors
- Fixed crash on files with missing SAMPLESPERPIXEL tag
- Enabled CMYK TIFF support
- Added support for loading TIFF with missing/undefined sample format Fixed reading of grayscale images with min-is-white interpretation made them not inverted)
- Fixed regression in support of many more exotic variations of the TIFF format, such as tiled encoding, planar layout uncommon bit depths (such as 12 or 14 bits, or less than 8)

Lua:
API Version:
- API version is now 9.5.0

New Features:
- Added apply_sidecar to dt_lua_image_t so that a sidecar file can be loaded and applied to an image in lighttable

Bug Fixes:
- Expanded width of preference boxes Lua Options so that long input is visible
- Add action support for Lua

Notes:
- When exporting to AVIF, EXR, JPEG XL, or XCF, selecting specific metadata (e.g. geo-tag or creator) is not currently possible. For AVIF, EXR, JPEG XL, and XCF formats, darktable will not include any metadata fields unless the user selects all of the checkboxes in the export module's preference options
- Starting with release 4.8, macOS versions older than 13.5 are not supported
- RawSpeed changes:
- OM System 14-bit high-resolution ORFs are now supported
- Canon EOS 5D Mark II crop was updated
- Fujifilm FinePix X100 crop was updated
- Samsung EX1 crop and white level were updated
- Sony ILCE-1M2 color matrix was updated
- Camera support, compared to 5.0

Base Support:
- Canon EOS R5 C (requires LibRaw 202502 and later)
- Fujifilm GFX100RF (compressed)
- Fujifilm GFX100S II (compressed)
- Nikon COOLPIX P1100 (12bit-uncompressed)
- Nikon Z5_2 (14bit-compressed)
- OM System OM-3
- Olympus SP510UZ
- Panasonic DC-G97 (4:3)
- Panasonic DC-G9M2 (4:3)
- Panasonic DC-GH6 (4:3)
- Panasonic DC-S1RM2 (3:2)
- Panasonic DC-S5M2 (3:2)
- Panasonic DC-S5M2X (3:2)
- Panasonic DC-S9 (3:2)
- Panasonic DC-TZ99 (4:3)
- Panasonic DC-ZS99 (4:3)
- Phase One IQ150
- Phase One P40+
- Sigma BF (DNG)
- Sony DSC-RX100M7A
- Sony ILCE-6100A
- Sony ILCE-6400A
- Sony ILME-FX3A
- Sony ZV-1A
- Sony ZV-E10M2
- White Balance Presets
- Fujifilm GFX100 II
- OM System OM-3
- Panasonic DC-S9
- Noise Profiles
- Fujifilm GFX 100
- Leica SL2
- OM System OM-3
- Panasonic DC-S1RM2
- Panasonic DC-S9
- Sony ILCE-1M2
- Missing Compression Mode Support
- Apple ProRAW DNGs
- CinemaDNG lossless (Blackmagic, some DJI, etc.) and lossy (Blackmagic)
- DNG 1.7 using JPEG XL (Adobe enhanced, Samsung Expert RAW)
- Fujifilm lossy RAFs
- Nikon high efficiency NEFs
- Phase One other than IIQ L
- Sony downsized lossless ARWs ("M" for full-frame, "S" for full-frame & APS-C)

Suspended Support:
- Support for the following cameras is suspended because no samples are available on https://raw.pixls.us
- Creo/Leaf Aptus 22(LF3779)/Hasselblad H1
- Fujifilm IS-1
- Kodak EasyShare Z980
- Leaf Aptus-II 5(LI300059)/Mamiya 645 AFD
- Leaf Credo 60
- Leaf Credo 80
- Olympus SP320
- Phase One IQ250
- ST Micro STV680

Translations:
- Czech
- German
- European Spanish
- Finnish
- French
- Hungarian
- Italian
- Japanese
- Dutch
- Brazilian Portuguese
- Russian
- Slovenian
- Albanian
- Ukrainian
- Chinese (Simplified)
- Chinese (Traditional)