RAW development with Vulkan darktable
Tutorial – Vulkan darktable
The RAW converter Vulkan darktable outpaces its competitors with a modern node-graph-based architecture and massive use of the GPU.
Open-source photographers have access to a massive selection of RAW developers, the two best-known and most mature representatives of this category being darktable [1] and RawTherapee [2]. Both are aimed at demanding amateur users and professional photographers and have an enormous range of functions.
Some time ago a RawTherapee fork named ART [3] saw the light of day. ART tries to make it easier for beginners and technically less-experienced users to get started. In addition, a new version of LightZone [4] was released a few months ago, after a gap of several years. PhotoFlow [5] and Filmulator [6] are also two interesting new programs.
This group has recently been joined by a completely new program: Johannes Hanika, the founder of the darktable project, is now working on a RAW converter, the biggest highlight of which is its processing speed. Because the tool uses the Vulkan programming interface [7], which was previously mainly used in computer games, he has dubbed the software Vulkan darktable, or vkdt for short. (See the "Interview with Johannes Hanika" box.)
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
US / Canada
UK / Australia
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Dash to Panel Maintainer Quits
Charles Gagnon has stepped away as maintainer of the popular Dash to Panel Gnome extension.
-
CIQ Releases Security-Hardened Version of Rocky Linux
If you're looking for an enterprise-grade Linux distribution that is hardened for business use, there's a new version of Rocky Linux that's sure to make you and your company happy.
-
Gnome’s Dash to Panel Extension Gets a Massive Update
If you're a fan of the Gnome Dash to Panel extension, you'll be thrilled to hear that a new version has been released with a dock mode.
-
Blender App Makes it to the Big Screen
The animated film "Flow" won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature at the 97th Academy Awards held on March 2, 2025 and Blender was a part of it.
-
Linux Mint Retools the Cinnamon App Launcher
The developers of Linux Mint are working on an improved Cinnamon App Launcher with a better, more accessible UI.
-
New Linux Tool for Security Issues
Seal Security is launching a new solution to automate fixing Linux vulnerabilities.
-
Ubuntu 25.04 Coming Soon
Ubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) has been given an April release date with many notable updates.
-
Gnome Developers Consider Dropping RPM Support
In a move that might shock a lot of users, the Gnome development team has proposed the idea of going straight up Flatpak.
-
openSUSE Tumbleweed Ditches AppArmor for SELinux
If you're an openSUSE Tumbleweed user, you can expect a major change to the distribution.
-
Plasma 6.3 Now Available
Plasma desktop v6.3 has a couple of pretty nifty tricks up its sleeve.