How can I quickly compare before and after edits in Darktable?

Asked 3/14/2020

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In Darktable, I know I can use the snapshot panel to compare an edited image with the original. Is there a faster way to check before/after while editing, either for the whole image or for individual modules?

photo-editing workflow darktable raw-processing

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

6y ago

2 Answers

The standard Undo and Redo keyboard shortcuts (Ctrl-Z and Ctrl-Y on Windows and Linux, CMD-Z and CMD-shift-Z on Apple) operate in Darktable - at least, they do running in Ubuntu : I haven't checked the other OSs. More Darktable shortcuts here.

If you're looking for a way to view the image with and without a specific module effect, each module has a "power switch" at its top left corner, so each module - or several - can be switched on or off.

More details on modules (including activating and deactivating them) here.

If you're looking to compare before and after side by side as two images, it looks like that isn't yet in the main distributions of Darktable, though there's a discussion about that here.

Originally by user68831. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user68831

6y ago

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

Darktable doesn’t appear to have a dedicated one-click global before/after view in the standard release beyond using snapshots. For quick comparison, the practical options are:

Use Undo/Redo to step back and forward through recent edits (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y on Windows/Linux, Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z on macOS).
Toggle individual modules on and off using the power switch at the top left of each module to see that module’s effect.

If you want a side-by-side before/after view, that wasn’t available in the main distributions mentioned in the community answers.

How can I quickly compare before and after edits in Darktable?

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