Preserving tags between darktable and digikam

Software
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1

I am starting out developing my workflow on Linux with digikam for management and darktable for processing.

I notice now that tags I apply in digikam to raw files when I first import disappear again when I export the raw image to a JPEG from darktable.

In digikam’s exif I also see many keywords options floating around… so that is very confusing. In darktable, the tags area does not show the tags I applied in digikam… and darktable apparently overwrites digikam’s tags and does not leave them intact either.

Can someone help me understand which tags persist between digikam and darktable?

2

I remember I answer this here Utilizzare digikam contemporaneamente su Win 10 e Linux Mint 21 - #2 by boredphoto

3

Very useful thank you. On windows I was not really a fan of xmp files since they tend to clutter the folder (especially keeping xmp’s on jpegs as well).
I will do sidecars for raw I think (I may need to redo my whole previous database on capture one I guess).

Is there a way to avoid doing xmp’s on jpegs in digikam… I only process raw in darktable… so there an xmp makes sense… but for jpg it seems superfluous if darktable reads the raw correctly and would then export the tags correctly.

4

You should be able to avoid xmp for jpg files, if you are in darktable and want the tags in the jpg, you need to export the file as a jpg

5

That would be my workflow… But if the jpegs are then read in digikam and I change anything there, I assume that would trigger a new sidecar from digikam for the jpeg right?

6

Honestly, I use darktable for tagging; i’ve tried DigiKam several times and always end up uninstalling it. dt has, for me, the clearest use of tags, which i use heavily. I can cull, edit, and tag in one sweep - just have to remember to export to get updated tags into the jpegs. Also, it’s really easy to export and import the tag files, which I do from time to keep my thousands of hierarchical tags up to date.

that said, i think if update a tag outside dt there are two scenarios:

  1. the tags are in an XMP file - then you need to force dt to read the updated XMP. One way to do that is the reread ALL the XMP files at startup which can take a loooong time. Or you could delete and reimport.
  2. the tags are embedded in the jpeg. Then I think you need to delete and re-import the file.
7

Interesting. I do that with Capture One on windows… But CO and digikam allow me to use the folder structure which I already have on the drive. In DT that does not seem possible with the film rolls approach.
Or did I miss something in DT?

8

When you import, select ‘add to library’, which doesn’t copy files. I haven’t tried doing this with a folder outside the dt base folder. If the folder is not in the tree, you might have to toy with moving things around. dunno.

9

Yep that’s what I do now actually but with digikam getting it from camera first into the folder structure and renaming/tagging there… But that makes digikam my first port of call for DAM.