I’m pretty new to Darktable (DT) so my terminology may lack precision. By settings I mean everything I’ve done, in the process of developing an image, to put it in its’ current state. I’m thinking this should mean whatever is stored in the sidecar (.xmp format) file. The idea being that the development process amounts to fiddling with lots of different settings (?) that alter the resulting image. There are points in the process where one might be sufficiently satisfied that they’d want to be able to return to that state, after making subsequent questionable changes, and start over.
In Rawtherapee (RT) this can be done by saving the current instance of the processing profile (i.e., sidecar file) content. There are different ways to do this. For example, another unique sidecar file can be created by the user which can be later restored. This can be done as often as is desired. Another method is to save the contents to the clipboard which allows it to be later recovered. Of course, the clipboard can only be used for a single instance.
I think RT leaves an existing sidecar file (i.e., processing profile) in tact until the editor is exited whereas it looks like DT is constantly updating it (i.e., based on inspecting the file’s properties). I have reviewed the User Manual and read about the History Stack but at present that looks more complicated and error prone than what I’m thinking should be possible.
I’m having a real hard time figuring out how something like save/restore processing profile, which is pretty simple, can be done in DT. Hopefully, DT has a simple way to do something like that even though it has been hard to find. At the same time, I would like to say that I give DT considerable praise for what looks to be an excellent User Manual. I’d be most grateful if someone could either explain (if very simple) of refer me to some written explanation if need be.
