DigiKam is a free, open-source digital photo management app available on Windows, macOS and Linux. The app has just been updated to version 7.7.0, adding numerous new features, bug fixes and camera support.
DigiKam 7.7.0 supports the AOM AV1 Image File Format (AVIF), an open-source video coding format. It’s similar to HEIF. The app also adds read/write support for the JPEG-XL image format in all supported bundles. JPEG-XL support first appeared in digiKam 7.6.0, but there were some issues with animated files, which have now been addressed.
The update uses an updated Libraw version, supporting the OM System OM-1 camera’s raw image files. More than 1,180 different cameras have raw file support in digiKam 7.7.0. The company also notes that the KDE framework has been updated to the latest 5.95 release and Qt 5.15 LTS is used in the Windows and macOS bundle.
9to5Linux reports that the latest version of digiKam includes improved support for SVG files, improved DNG file support, better GIF support and Flatpak support. The software also has a new ‘Ignore face’ button for unrecognized faces when using the app’s thumbnail view. Issues with detecting the Hugin open-source panorama photo stitching and HDR merging program have been addressed. There’s also improved reading of raw DNG files from Adobe Lightroom that have been converted to sRGB color space and TIFF file format.
There are also many bug and crash fixes. The team says that 84 bugs have been triaged.
Looking ahead, version 8.0.0 should be released as a beta test later this summer, and a full release is expected by the end of the year. The team is working on porting the git master branch to the new Qt6 framework. A couple of students are also working on improving the neural network for the application’s Image Quality Analyzer. This feature works to analyze images based on noise, focus, exposure and compression.
DigiKam 7.7.0 is available to download for free here. Click here for more information about the software, features, and capabilities.