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As an Amateur photographer, and being a GNU/Linux user, I need a great piece of software to manage my photo collection with over 13589 shots. That’s where those two applications comes in handy : F-Spot(gnome) & Digikam(kde).
I’m not a big fan of F-Spot, sadly for me, as it’s Gnome’s integrated photo management app. I’m a Digikam user, which forces me to have kde libs installed.
Digikam is an open source software, as a part of the KDE package.
It’s main purpose is obviously to help you manage your photo collection. You can organize them using one of the many tools provided, such as folders management, date and time (EXIF if available, otherwise, it will use the file’s creation date) or finally, via the Tag system.
Digikam’s user interface is presented using a 3 column display. Left column is used to show your collectioni (folder tree, dates, tags, saved searches).
The main column presents you with thumbnails of your photos or even the photo if you select it. This way you are able to see details of your pictures.
And finally, the third one shows you additional information such as EXIF recorded in the file, IPTC and even GPS (automatic on some cameras).
This same column allows you to add comments, tags and notes on your photos to help you retrieve them via the integrated Search Engine.
One of the other great function of Digikam is the possibility to use Kipi plugins such as uploading photos to a gallery2 server. You can also edit photos directly inside the tool, RAW photos are managed natively using Digikam
One Comment
F-spot has just about ruined my weekend. It drives me nuts. The fact that it re-duplicates files and then makes it practically impossible to repair. You either need to learn sqlite or go through your thousands of copies and manually delete things - and when you do you end up deleting all the copies and not just the extra ones. Please get better Fspot!. Actually don’t bother - I have perservered for a year and can’t be bothered with it anymore. (Well may be not quite - some of it I do like. Here’s hoping).