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Add to SafariWhen comparing Darktable vs PencilSheep, the Slant community recommends Darktable for most people. In the question“What are the best Linux image editing tools?” Darktable is ranked 3rd while PencilSheep is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Darktable is:
There are a lot of different modules.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Feature rich
There are a lot of different modules.
Pro Fast and Flexible
A very well considered UI makes edits fast and fluid. You can redo or undo any step without disturbing any other part of your edit. The UI doesn't get in the way.
Pro Good batch editing capabilities
Darktable allows applying the same set of operations to multiple images and saving your history stack as a style (you can pick exactly which modules).
Pro Edits are saved to a separate file
Original files are untouched by any edits. No worries on what was done before or if an accidental save occurs. All work is separate from the originals.
Pro Customizable
Darktable allows favoriting modules and remapping hotkeys.
Pro Allows for local adjustments
Most modules, by default, affect the whole image, but have the option to only be applied to masked-off areas (be those drawn masks, parametric ones, or a combination of the two).
Pro Supports tethered capture
On the camera set it to use USB Remote. Open Darktable, on the left side under Import, click scan for devices. The camera should appear. Click on tethered shoot. Next on the right side look for the gear icon above the battery n/a and click it. go to the session options tab, and change the base directory to the location you want to save photos. close that settings window and try taking a picture. It should come right up.
Pro Seems stable and light
This is an expectation though, since was not used/ tested long term.
Pro Simple to use, initiative
Pro Full set of image manipulation tools
Pro Cross platform
Cons
Con Can be overwhelming
There are a lot of different modules. You're going to need some time watching tutorials to understand how to get the best out of it.
Con For tethered capture on Linux you may need additional software installed that is not a dependency for Darktable
First make sure you have gphoto2 and libgphoto2.
Con No official Windows version
Whilst official builds exist for Linux and OSX, this isn't the case for Windows (though unofficial versions do exist).
Con Snap only
For Linux, the choice seems to have been to offer PencilSheep as snap only, sorry, no .deb, no .rpm, no nothing. If you do not have/ use snap (for many, including valid reasons), PencilSheep is beyond your reach.
Con Project no longer supported?
Although it is offered widely (including Google), the devs website seems dead. Hence, it is unclear whether it is still developed and supported actively.
