hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr4087.txt

Episode: 4087
Title: HPR4087: Getting started with the digiKam photo management software
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr4087/hpr4087.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-25 19:25:24

---

This is Hacker Public Radio Episode 4,087 for Tuesday 2 April 2024.
Today's show is entitled, Getting Started With The Digicom Photo Management Software.
It is hosted by Henrik Hemrin and is about 7 minutes long.
It carries a clean flag.
The summary is I will give you some suggestions to getting started with Digicom based on my experience.
Welcome to Hacker Public Radio, my name is Henrik Hemrin.
Today I will talk about Getting Started With The Digicom Photo Management Software.
In Episode 4071 I talked about my migration from Adobe Photoshop Elements and Lightroom
to Digicom.
I listed three criteria in my selection of software that Digicom meets.
One, its free and open source software, two, its available on multiple platforms, MacOS,
Linux and Windows.
We metadata, including face tagging can be migrated from Photoshop Elements will help
off Lightroom Classic.
And in my addition, the most obvious criteria is that Digicom is indeed a great software
for photo management.
Today I will give you some suggestions to getting starting with Digicom based on my experience
and my opinion.
You find the Digicom website at digicom.org.
Digicom is spelled with a K and not a C.
On the documentation page you find a good and exhaustive documentation.
The big use manual can be read online or downloaded as an e-pub book.
I suggest you browse the manual before you install Digicom.
My second suggestion is that you go to the support page on the Digicom site and look
at the mailing list subscription section.
You can browse the mailing list archive online, but I really recommend you to also join
the mailing list.
It's a very active mailing list where also the main developers participate actively.
Many questions are specific and may not be of interest to you, but I have found that
I learn a lot about Digicom, its capabilities and other ways of working with photos than
I have thought of.
Of course I also learn about issues.
I have asked some questions myself and also contributed with answers.
I highly recommend you to join the mailing list.
Thirdly, before you install Digicom, I suggest you copy a couple of photos into a new
sample folder.
When you start the Digicom for the first time, a guide starts to help you to configure
initial settings.
One configuration is to tell Digicom where your photos are located.
I suggest you use this sample folder.
After on, you will add your real photo folders and you can also, at the same screen, delete
the sample folder from Digicom.
I suggest you this procedure because then you can consider settings in more detail first,
which includes the settings for metadata import into Digicom.
Thirdly, consider also where you want to store the Digicom databases.
Myself, I created a folder for them at the top level of my home catalog, but you can
store them wherever you want to.
Now you are ready to install Digicom and take a look at your photos in your sample folder.
First, go to the Digicom settings.
There are a lot of settings.
In this talk, I will focus only on the metadata settings.
Digicom stores what you do in its own databases.
That is mandatory.
In the settings, it's possible to select what should be written to metadata and not.
Data settings also have settings for associated files, which most of all is about XMP side
course.
You can select that Digicom should read from associated files.
This is important to decide before your photo collection is imported to Digicom.
If you forget, it is still possible to read metadata again after you change settings.
Then there is an option if Digicom should write to side course or not.
And if yes, if it should write to both side course and the object or only to side course
if the object is right protected.
Next I want to highlight the tick box if associated files should be compatible with commercial
programs.
This may need a further explanation.
The fault in Digicom is to have separate XMP side course for each type of photo file.
For example, if you have a photo stored both as jpeg and raw, they will have separate
side course in Digicom.
This indeed has its advantages, but is in my knowledge not according to XMP sidecar standard.
According to standard, which Digicom refers to as commercial, the jpeg and raw share the
same sidecar, for example, Adobe Lightroom uses a commercial method.
Example to clarify, Digicom sidecars file syntax, photo1.jpeg.xmp and photo1.raw.xmp.
In comparison to standard commercial file syntax, photo1.xmp Digicom is extremely flexible
and let me as a user configure it in very many details.
The drawback with freedom is that I must understand what I want.
The fault settings are often okay, but I highly recommend you to spend an hour or two to review
all settings, not only metadata, before you start to use Digicom for your real photos.
If there is something you don't understand, go to the documentation and do not hesitate
to consult the Digicom mailing list.
Finally, I welcome you to comment this hacker public radio episode.
Thank you for listening, take care and goodbye.
You have been listening to Hacker Public Radio at Hacker Public Radio does work.
Today's show was contributed by a HBR listener like yourself.
If you ever thought of recording podcasts, you click on our contribute link to find out
how easy it may be.
Posting for HBR has been kindly provided by an honesthost.com, the Internet Archive
and our things.net.
On the Sadois status, today's show is released under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License.