Dear all, why does an image lose quality when I export it from Darktable? Attached are the images for your review.
There are some modules, e.g. haze removal, where the darkroom preview, for complicated technical reasons, cannot fully reflect the exported result. Also, the preview in the darkroom is generated using a scaled-down version of the photo (in order to save on the processing, and thus make the UI more responsive).
You can:
- zoom to 100%
- or enable the high-quality processing option
in the darkroom. See darktable user manual - darkroom view layout, darktable user manual - high quality processing
Neither of those will completely solve the issue with haze removal, though.
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What’s that other program you are using? Different programs can show an image differently (due to differences in color management, e.g. using slightly different sRGB, not using display profiles, …).
Also, what is the “quality loss” you observe?
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I tried what you suggested. It improved a bit, but some loss is still noticeable. Please see the new attached image.
Well… I used MS Paint and then Affinity Photo.
The loss of quality I notice after export is in the colors and sharpness (contrast?).
The scaling (zoom) algorithms of your viewer can also affect the result. Try exporting at a resolution that fits on your screen without downscaling in the viewer, or zoom both the viewer and darktable to 100% to compare.
When you export a downsized version from darktable, you can enable / disable use high quality resampling.
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Thanks for sharing the image…I will have a little check later…looking on the screen here its really hard to see much…you might want to make DT black border too to better compare but more likely I would not use Paint…I am pretty sure its not color managed… how do you have DT set with respect to a display profile …do you use the OS or have you specified it?? The paint one might be a little darker and saturated but this likely is something due to previous comments or mine…
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