Centos 6/RHEL install Digikam Digital Photo & Image Processing

We have seen a wider range of Digital Image Processing apps become available on Linux as coders and developers find that there is a growing demand within the community for quality programs. Whilst Gimp and Cinepaint have been around for a while, digiKam is a relatively new kid on the block, packing considerable functionality within its multi colored GUI.

digiKam is an open source cross platform photo management program designed to import, organize, enhance, search and export your digital images to and from your computer. The design is inspired by photographers with real needs not addressed in other applications, and solutions which are implemented with aplomb.

Some of the features in the latest release of digiKam include:

• Designed from the ground-up for KDE4, using KDE4 technology:
• Hardware handling with Solid interface;
• More comprehensive multimedia file handling using Phonon interface;
• Easy Geolocation with Marble interface;
• Social Semantic Desktop synchronization using Nepomuk interface.
• XMP metadata support;
• TIFF/EP RAW metadata editing;
• Customizable file storage for the digiKam database, supporting remote albums;
• Support of multiple root album paths (no more importing into one giant album);
• Thumbnail-bar integration for easy navigation and editing;
• Supports the latest camera RAW files using LibRaw;
• New/revamped tools:
• Batch queue manager;
• Revamped camera import wizard;
• LensFun integration: auto-correction of lens distortion;
• Fuzzy searches based on hand-drawn sketches;
• Advanced searches using image meta-information, such as keywords and dates;
• User-friendly map searching that gives you the power to search for global photo locations;
• Advanced searches for duplicate and similar images;

Using two modes, View and Edit, it defaults to the View mode.

With Color, Enhance, Transform, Decorate and Filters tabs (accessed via Image, then Edit tab) in the Edit mode, I would recommend taking a look at the program if you are a photo enthusiast using Linux, as there will be features of it you are bound to like. As inferred in the opening paragraph, multiple themes are available from the settings menu and it can be made to suit the majority of color schemes, both light and dark. It is no Photoshop but has some pretty powerful and impressive features for a free program.

Having only basic photography skills I nonetheless managed to find some useful features in digiKam and I'm sure the more inquisitive, adventurous and professional user would find more.

Installing is easy on Centos 6/RHEL as it is in the Epel repo, so make sure you have it enabled and issue

$sudo yum -y install digikam digikam-devel digikam-libs

To obtain all packages, and run it with 

$ digikam

See Fluxbox key bindings if you are using Fluxbox, for shortcuts.

Example of a Charcoal Drawing simulation.

Digikam makes a useful addition to your Centos/RHEL box and is easy to install, being in the Epel repo.

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