[Digikam-users] DNG on Linux/Digikam.

[Andrew Goodbody]

On 25/01/12 14:08, Mark Hayes (Hotmail) wrote:
> Whilst my jury is still out on whether I want to use DNG, I'd like to
> ask some questions about the maturity of DNG on Linux.  I know that
> the DNG converter is part of Kipi plug-ins but I believe that it was
> written by Gilles.

I believe that the DNG converter is based on the SDK from Adobe, or at 
least uses code from it, but I guess it was integrated into kipi-plugins 
by Gilles.

> So my question is about the embedded jpg files that come with (or can
> be inserted into) DNG files.  I seem to remember from Krogh's book on
> Digital Asset Management (The DAM book), he talks at length about the
> ability to use PIE-ware (Parametric Image Editing Software) to 'touch
> up' a DNG file, and have the resulting adjusted JPG embedded back
> into the DNG file as an additional JPG, and to even update the DNG
> file so that it shows the changed JPG as the thumbnail for the DNG.

I would like digikam to be able to do this but I do not believe that it 
can at present. I would very much appreciate that when edits are made to 
a raw file of any variety that these edits can be saved as a recipe 
somewhere, either in the raw file itself if the user choose and it is 
supported, or else in a sidecar file as well as in the database.

> Is this sort of thing possible in Linux?  Can this be achieved in
> Digikam?  What is the current state of play in terms of DNG on
> Linux?

Possible in Linux - I expect so, using exif tools of some sort. In 
digikam, not as far as I know.
As for the current state of play for DNG in Linux. Well there is no one 
answer as there are more than one program that will work with DNG and so 
the support will vary. I am not sure that it is advanced as you would 
like it to be though. But if any one knows otherwise that would be good 
to hear.

> Many thanks,
>
> Mark.

Thanks for the interesting thoughts,
Andrew