@Pascal_Obry, @Igor64 : preview quality depends on darktablerc plugins/lighttable/low_quality_thumbnails=TRUE - see Full-size preview unusable to evaluate sharpness · Issue #7158 · darktable-org/darktable · GitHub
@Igor64 It turns out there’s another issue: even if you enable the use of embedded JPGs, they are not used. @AlicVB (maybe while investigating the issue above) has opened embedded jpeg not used for zommed preview · Issue #7162 · darktable-org/darktable · GitHub to track this (thanks!).
Thanks for deep invesigation, kofa.
Finally had time to use/try ART with more patience. I have instantly fell in love with ART’s way of presenting RAW previews. ART makes it ultra fast. <2s on my intel i5-8, compared to DT’s 40s-1min of full loaded processor work. And “Black&white RAW with highlights” - what a genius and fast mode! 
Even faster than color ones. User can focus on details, luma and hihglights.
And ART’s jpeg preview derived from RT - instant and not adding artifacts.
The only way ART is lacking to absolutely perfect preview, is RT’s “on mouse hover” inspect pointing behavior.
@priort Thanks for presenting ART to me. 
Pushed me to reinvent whole workflow, but effects are worth it.
What is ART best of all RAW processors I tried:
- culling/previews
- demosaicing methods. Especially ultra fast and detaly IGV one - now my bird shots got their real feather back
- “texture boost” module - good as an input for further processing in DT’s contrast equalizer
- really working “highlight reconstruction”. DT’s one looks like nonworking compared to RT’s/ART’s, no matter Lch or color reconstruct -(A)RT’s one the only that can reconstruct penguins’ blinking white chests taken in full sun.
I now extract full-res 16-bit TIFFs form ART and load them into RT for further processing:
- color fiddling (now I experiment processing non-touched ART’s tonal output with DT’s filmic)
- operations with masks
- gradients (lightyears better than RT’s/ART’s GND filter)
- framing
- watermarking
- DT’s genius export profiles/options that I can set for web/competition/publication/print separately (only something like “sharpening after scaling down” is lacking in DT)
Glad you found some useful information out of that. I too am re-evaluating and now that Art and RT have masking and a few other features I am looking to incorporate this perhaps more that DT. I have found RT to be very powerful but man the options are overwhelming at least for a new user. Now I have more experience they are a bit less intimidating but there is still a ton of settings that I can’t say I have mastered. ART offers a nicely condensed and modified experience and the tone mapping tools may be as good a filmic but I have to work with them more. The color toning module global and local edits is powerful in RT…you can achieve a lot just in that one module. I do have a lot invested in DT with presets and the like but the color management is also more organized IMO in RT with support for DCP and LCP files from Adobe in addition to ICC and internal profiles so I get how it all plays out. Also the auto-tone mapped tone curve based on the embedded jpg is a logical approach and offers what many people are looking for as a starting point. I haven’t checked but this might be available in ART as well…just not documented…Favorites Tab - RawPedia.
DT’s genius export profiles/options that I can set for web/competition/publication/print separately (only something like “sharpening after scaling down” is lacking in DT)
darktable has lua-scripts that do sharpening after export
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