What are the big improvements coming in DT 5.6?

Terry · June 7, 2026, 3:43am

I should know the answer myself, but what are the big improvements and new modules coming in DT 5.6? I believe AI masking and denoising, but what else?

kofa · June 7, 2026, 4:58am

github.com/darktable-org/darktable

RELEASE_NOTES.md

master

We're proud to announce the new feature release of darktable, 5.6.0!

The github release is here: [https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/releases/tag/release-5.6.0](https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/releases/tag/release-5.6.0).

To build from source, do not use the autogenerated tarball provided by GitHub on the release page, download our tar.xz file instead. If you're just building for yourself without creating a package for some distribution, then using source code cloning in git is an even more convenient way.

The checksums are:

```
$ sha256sum darktable-5.6.0.tar.xz
??? darktable-5.6.0.tar.xz

$ sha256sum darktable-5.6.0-x86_64.dmg
??? darktable-5.6.0-x86_64.dmg

$ sha256sum darktable-5.6.0-arm64.dmg
??? darktable-5.6.0-arm64.dmg

$ sha256sum darktable-5.6.0-arm64-13.5.dmg
??? darktable-5.6.0-arm64-13.5.dmg

This file has been truncated. show original

Will be updated, but already has some info.

Ulrich_from_Germany · June 7, 2026, 6:01am

I know by now I will love this version. Thank you to all involved!

Photoniker · June 7, 2026, 1:51pm

Saw the Github announcement already a few days ago and got very excited. Can’t wait to get my hands on it. Does anyone know, if all the AI functionality will be working in the AppImage or flatpak version? Also the new colorharmonizer module sounds great. Thanks to all the devs involved!

mino · June 7, 2026, 2:23pm

Even though I knew most of the small-bigger changes that are coming reading through the WIP-Changelog made me excited. It really is awesome what strides darktable takes with each major release.

Huge thanks and kudos to everyone contributing to the development !

mino · June 7, 2026, 7:14pm

The AI features will definitely work in the AppImage (as they do in the nightly builds) and I suppose they will in the flatpak, too.

gwbarn · June 7, 2026, 9:29pm

In Quick Access Panel, “go to full version…” now reliably scrolls to the correct module.

Sorry this one’s still happening for me. Maybe not as badly as it used to, but it’s still consistently happening (at least with my custom module groups)
(Currently on DT-5.5.0-1465)

Terry · June 8, 2026, 3:06am

That is so true. DT is far from stagnant. I know not everyone embraces AI and I don’t want to restart a debate on that here, but the inclusion of AI for denoising and masking is the big one for me in the 5.6 release. The progress that has been made in the short time it was introduced in DT5.5 has been really impressive. It went from clunky to useful in my inexperienced hands. I suspect when it gets into the mainstream 5.6 it will only get better and better based upon feedback from users. There could also be some nice stuff coming in DT5.8 that is being experimented with at the moment. Thanks again to all the old and new developers and maintainers for your hard work.

kofa · June 8, 2026, 4:17am

This is not the place to report issues. Please go to GitHub.