DigiKam is a open-source and free image organizer, Image Viewer, Post Production and tag editor written in C++(Qt) programming language using the KDE(K desktop environment) applications and inspired by photographers’ needs to view, tweak, enhance, organize, and share photographs across Linux systems.
Apart from enabling users to view, edit, and enhance image files, it features calendars, slideshows, a plugin subsystem, geotagging using bash scripting, and picture imports in several formats. It’s an Cross-Platform application available for Microsoft Windows, Linux and macOS.
DigiKam supports all major image file formats, such as PNG, TIFF and JPEG as well as over 200+ raw image formats and can organize collections of photographs in directory-based albums, or dynamic albums by timeline, date, or by tags. digiKam support multiple collections hosted from different media, as local, removable, or from the network.
With the help of plug-ins users can export albums to various online services including Flickr, Facebook, Picasa Web Albums, Google Earth’s KML files. digiKam provide plenty of tools to search items in your collections using simple criteria based on items properties as By Tags, By Labels (rating, color marks, flags), By Time Range using timeline histogram, By Geolocation using world maps, By faces (detection and recognition) etc.
Table of Contents
Key Features of digiKam
- digiKam is an open-source application that respects your freedom.
- Share creations to your web gallery, social media web services, etc.
- Import photos, raw files, and videos.
- Geotagging using bash scripting.
- digiKam can easily handle libraries containing more than 100,000 images.
- Search in your collections.
- Process raw files, edit JPEGs, publish photos to social media.
- Share and publish photos.
- Harness the power of XMP. View and edit metadata.
- Create calendar, slideshows, print, etc.
This article explains three methods of installing digiKam on Ubuntu 20.04.
Choose the installation method that is most appropriate for your environment.
Method 1: Installing digiKam as a Snap Package
The easiest way to install digiKam on Ubuntu 20.04 is by using the snap packaging system.
A snap package is a type of universal Linux package that you can enjoy irrespective of the distro. Its an self-contained software packages that include the binary all dependencies needed to run the application.
All you need is the snap service pre-configured, In the case of Ubuntu 20.04, it comes with snap pre-installed.
If snapd package is not already installed then you can install it by running following command.
$ sudo apt install snapdNote: Snap packages can be installed from either the command-line or via the Ubuntu Software application.
This is actually the Snap version of the digiKam. It can be used on any Linux distribution that has Snap support.
Open your terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type the following command to install the digiKam package.
$ sudo snap install digikamAt this step, you have successfully installed digiKam on Ubuntu 20.04 system.
If you are not comfortable with the command line, open Ubuntu Software, search for “digiKam” and install the application.
Type the following command to update digiKam package.
$ sudo snap refresh digikamMethod 2: Installing digiKam from Ubuntu apt repository
The digiKam is included in Ubuntu 20.04. Follow the step by step guide to install the application.
Step #1
Type the following command to update the apt sources.
$ sudo apt updateStep #2
Now execute this command to install the digiKam package.
$ sudo apt install digikamWith the help of && you can write both the commands in a single line. Something like this:
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install digikamThat’s It.
Method 3: Installing digiKam via PPA Repository
If you want to install the most recent version of digiKam, you can use the PPA repository.
Personal Package Archives (PPA) are software repositories designed for Ubuntu users and are easier to install than other third-party repositories. PPAs are often used to distribute pre-release software so that it can be tested.
Step #1
First of all open the terminal from system application launcher and type the following command to add the digiKam PPA to your system.
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/digikam[Optional] The PPA package for Ubuntu 18.04 require updated FFMpeg package, which is available by adding another PPA:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:savoury1/ffmpeg4Step #2
Then, execute the following commands to install digiKam package on your Ubuntu system.
$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install digikamOnce installed, launch it from your system application menu.
Starting digiKam
digiKam can be launched from the command line by typing digikam or In the Activities search bar type “digiKam” and click on the icon.
digiKam User Interface:
How to Uninstall digiKam from Ubuntu 20.04
For some reason, If you want to uninstall digiKam, refer following methods.
Method #1
If you have installed digiKam via Snap type the following command:
$ sudo snap remove digikamMethod #2
If you have installed the appication from default ubuntu apt respository then uninstall by running the below command:
$ sudo apt remove digikamMethod #3
If you have installed the digiKam appication through PPA then uninstall it by following one of the below procedures.
Procedure #1
It’s most likely that you added the PPA using add-apt-repository command. You can use the same command to remove the PPA as well. Just give it --remove option in the command.
$ sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:savoury1/digikamNote: Use this procedure only if you need to remove the PPA and not the applications installed by it.
Procedure #2
You must have noticed that in the above procedure we only talked about deleting or removing a PPA. What about the applications installed using these PPAs? Will they be removed as a result of removing the PPA? The answer is NO.
So this is when ppa-purge comes in picture. It not only disables the PPA but also uninstalls all the programs installed by the PPA or revert them to original version provided by your distribution.
So type the following command to install the ppa-purge package and uninstall the digiKam package.
$ sudo apt install ppa-purge && sudo ppa-purge ppa:savoury1/digikamConclusion
I hope that now you have a good understanding of How to install digiKam on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa.
If anyone does have any questions about what we covered in this guide then feel free to ask in the comment section below and I will do my best to answer those.