Digikam as archive of historical photos

[Gord Restivo]

I asked Claude (Anthropic AI) to come up with a method. Seems somewhat
complex, but it would work.

Here's a practical method for handling uncertain dates in digiKam:

*Use a standardized date convention with metadata tags*

Since digiKam doesn't have built-in support for date uncertainty, you can
create a hybrid approach:

   1. *Set the date field to a "best guess" default* - For "circa 1958",
   set the date to July 1, 1958 (mid-year). For "between 1947-1949", use July
   1, 1948 (middle of the range). This allows chronological sorting while
   keeping photos roughly where they belong.
   2. *Create custom tags for uncertainty*
      - Create a tag hierarchy like: Date Quality/Circa or Date
      Quality/Range
      - Add specific tags: Date-Circa-1950s, Date-Range-1947-1949,
      Date-Unknown, Date-Approximate
   3. *Use the title or caption field* for the human-readable version
      - Add "circa 1958" or "1947-1949" to the title/caption
      - This is searchable and visible in many views
   4. *Optional: Use the rating or color label system*
      - Assign a specific color label (like yellow) to all photos with
      uncertain dates
      - This gives you instant visual feedback when browsing

*Why this works:*

   - Tags are fully searchable and filterable in digiKam
   - The date field keeps photos in approximate chronological order
   - You can quickly find all uncertain-date photos by filtering tags
   - The system is consistent and scalable

Would you like me to suggest a specific tagging structure for common date
uncertainty scenarios you encounter?

Here's a comprehensive tagging structure for date uncertainty in digiKam:
Tag Hierarchy

Create these tags under a main category called *"Date Certainty"*:

Date Certainty/
├── Exact
├── Approximate
│   ├── Circa-Decade (±5 years)
│   ├── Circa-Year (±1-2 years)
│   └── Circa-Season
├── Range
│   ├── Range-Narrow (1-3 years)
│   ├── Range-Medium (4-10 years)
│   └── Range-Wide (>10 years)
├── Partial
│   ├── Year-Only
│   ├── Month-Year-Only
│   └── Season-Year
└── Unknown
    ├── Unknown-Decade-Estimated
    └── Unknown-Completely

Date Field Rules

For each scenario, set the actual date field as follows:

*Circa dates:*

   - "circa 1958" → Set to *July 1, 1958* + tag Circa-Year
   - "circa 1950s" → Set to *July 1, 1955* (mid-decade) + tag Circa-Decade

*Ranges:*

   - "1947-1949" → Set to *July 1, 1948* (midpoint) + tag Range-Narrow
   - "1955-1965" → Set to *July 1, 1960* + tag Range-Wide

*Partial dates:*

   - "Summer 1962" → Set to *July 15, 1962* + tag Season-Year
   - "March 1971" → Set to *March 15, 1971* + tag Month-Year-Only
   - "1983" → Set to *July 1, 1983* + tag Year-Only

*Unknown:*

   - "Probably 1960s" → Set to *July 1, 1965* + tag Unknown-Decade-Estimated
   - No clue → Set to *January 1, 1900* + tag Unknown-Completely

Caption/Title Format

Add the actual uncertain date to the caption using a prefix:

   - [c. 1958] for circa
   - [1947-1949] for ranges
   - [Summer 1962] for partial dates
   - [196?] for unknown decade digit

Optional: Color Labels

Assign colors for quick visual identification:

   - *Green* = Exact dates
   - *Yellow* = Approximate/Circa
   - *Orange* = Ranges
   - *Red* = Unknown/Uncertain

This system lets you:

   - Sort chronologically with reasonable accuracy
   - Filter by certainty level
   - Search captions for specific date expressions
   - Visually identify uncertain photos at a glance



On Sat, Jan 24, 2026 at 11:25 AM <noname at fastmail.net> wrote:

> [I meant to reply to list]
>
> Hello Hanspeter,
>
> I also use digiKam for an archive of historical as well as current photos.
> I store my photos in digiKam by folder year, then sub-folder month, then
> sub-folder day, and like you, I have photos scanned from long ago where the
> month or day are unknown. Sometimes the specific year is not known
> precisely. These photos I store in the year folder. I use tags for every
> photo to contain the presumed year of the photo, so I can search quickly on
> the tags for a year.
>
> The search tab on the left side bar is very powerful and can easily search
> for photos between years using metadata, or caption contents, or tags, etc.
> It should be easy to set up searches like you want.
>
> Jay Rutherford
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 24, 2026, at 10:25, Hanspeter Halle wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> we want to used digikam for an archive of historical photos. For these
> an exact date can seldomly be given, only a time range can be guessed.
> It would be great, if this range A) could be specified in a compatible
> way and B) could be taken into account in searches. For example when
> searching for photos between 1950 and 1959 we would like to find those
> with a time range of 1945-1955 and those with 1958-1962. Has anybody a
> solution for this?
>
>
>
>
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