XN vx. Digikam

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Geos
Posts: 10
Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2017 11:52 pm

XN vx. Digikam

Post by Geos »

Any thoughts on XN vs. Digikam for photo management?
BuckSkin
Posts: 132
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2016 4:09 am

Re: XN vx. Digikam

Post by BuckSkin »

Geos wrote: Sat Aug 21, 2021 5:11 pm Any thoughts on XN vs. Digikam for photo management?
Good question !

I use BOTH as there are strengths and weaknesses in both.

XnView excells in writing IPTC and XMP and has much better templates.

digiKam displays lengthy text IPTC, such as Captions/Comments without clipping; XnView is better for displaying limited character fields.

XnView is best for writing GPS --- IF you already know the coordinates; if you need to find the coordinates on a satellite map, then digiKam is better.

digiKam keyword tagging and search by keyword tag is the best there is, FREE or paid for, period.

XnView excells at writing embedded jpeg comments and can do so in batch as well as one at a time.
dec
Posts: 24
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2022 4:18 am

Re: XN vx. Digikam

Post by dec »

i just found digiKam too difficult and clunky and confuising and time-consuming to understand and use.
i gave up on it, although it seems to have a lot of functionality

so here i am :-)

it is a pity that the devs don't seem to have any idea about how to design an easy to understand and use UI
BuckSkin
Posts: 132
Joined: Thu Aug 18, 2016 4:09 am

Re: XN vx. Digikam

Post by BuckSkin »

dec wrote: Tue Mar 21, 2023 5:28 am i just found digiKam too difficult and clunky and confuising and time-consuming to understand and use.
i gave up on it, although it seems to have a lot of functionality

so here i am :-)

it is a pity that the devs don't seem to have any idea about how to design an easy to understand and use UI
I agree that for a first-time user digiKam is quite confusing; and, I believe that most of that confusion comes from them using fifteen different terms that all simply mean a plain old folder.

Nowhere in digiKam is a folder called a folder; they are called "Albums", "Directories", and "Collections" just to name a few.

Another unfamiliar stumbling block is that digiKam does not offer a typical folder tree structure as soon as the program is opened, listing every last folder in the entire system; that in itself sorts of throws up a big roadblock right from the get-go.

However, once you get the hang of it, digiKam only sees --- and you only see in digiKam --- the folders you point it toward by first "Adding a Collection" which immediately shows up as an Album in the Albums pane ----- it's just a simple folder; nothing more and nothing less.

You can see it and all of it's subfolders; want to see some more = add some more "Collections"

Unless you add them as Collections, you will never see the Program Files folder, nor the AppData Roaming folder, nor 11,029 other unnecessary folders --- only ever the ones you enter as Collections (which immediately display as Albums); it's really quite ingenious actually.
dec
Posts: 24
Joined: Sun Aug 07, 2022 4:18 am

Re: XN vx. Digikam

Post by dec »

thank yopu for your comments :-)
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