Darktable 5.4 adds new sharpening tool, multiple workspace support, and new tone mapper

Darktable 5.4 arrives as the latest release of the open source RAW photo editor, bringing several notable improvements for photographers. A new Capture Sharpening section in the demosaic module aims to recover image detail lost from in-camera blurring, such as that caused by diffraction or anti-aliasing filters.

The update also introduces a new tone mapping module based on Blender’s AgX display transform. This module stands out for providing more extensive controls, including direct adjustment of exposure white and black points. It allows users to set a custom pivot point on the tone curve, with the default at 18% mid-gray. Further adjustments cover contrast around this pivot, separate sliders for shadow and highlight contrast, and a feature to generate sections of constant contrast. The resulting color output is designed to provide gradual highlight desaturation and a natural look in mid-tones, similar to film response.

Following these feature enhancements, Darktable 5.4 now supports multiple workspaces. Users can create isolated workspace environments, each with independent settings and its own database. An in-memory option is also available for temporary work.

With this release, Wayland compatibility on Linux has been improved. Additionally, the update delivers user interface enhancements, performance improvements, and a range of other changes and bug fixes.