digiKam stands alone - for me it's a FOSS game-changer
I've been using digiKam a bit more to edit images for Web publication. I still find it awkward as hell, I haven't yet figured out the "right" way to sharpen a photo, and I'm puzzled as to why you can't edit an image's metadata and the image itself at the same time.
But edit the image's metadata — including the all-important IPTC data that each and every photojournalist in the world embeds into JPEGs — you can.
Every single other free, open-source image editing application in Linux/Unix not only doesn't edit that metadata, they cheerfully erase it entirely if and when you deign to modify and save an image while using them.
What is digiKam's "secret"? It's the Kipi plugins that allow editing of metadata in JPEGs. The developers of digiKam and the Kipi plugins both deserve my thanks.
So thus far digiKam stands alone as the one application that allows me to do my work on images in Linux (and the BSD projects, if I so choose).
And it only took digiKam and 62 other packages to bring this functionality to Ubuntu.
Was it worth it? You bet.
Will I consider the full KDE desktop environment solely because this single application does what I need it to do? Yes.
Would I like to see this same ability to edit IPTC metadata in Krita, KDE's "traditional" paint/image editor? Yes.
All I can say is that I'm ready to try the KDEnlive video editor. If I can figure it out, and it works, that's it — I'm turning to KDE.
Not that you absolutely need to run KDE to use these or any KDE apps. But it couldn't hurt.
Then ... I'm not all that big on office suites these days (I hardly ever need them), but if KOffice 2 fixes some of the glaring issues in the previous release ... it would be another positive in KDE's favor.
And ... a text editor with highlighting that isn't a dog of an app. K3b and Amarok ...
My only dilemma will be what distro to use with KDE: Debian, Kubuntu, Slackware, Fedora, OpenSuse ...
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Steven Rosenberg aims to learn what he does not know. He writes about it here.
Steven Rosenberg aims to learn what he does not know. He writes about it here.
"Every single other free, open-source image editing application in Linux/Unix not only doesn't edit that metadata, they cheerfully erase it entirely if and when you deign to modify and save an image while using them."
Ubuntu!?
Have a look at MaPiVi (available from Repository).
Edit>IPTC/IIM Info>Edit> On the Options tab it has IPTC dialog layout Simple or Professional...
I used to be a KDE user (Kubuntu and others) but became an Ubuntu refugee while KDE-4 was improving. I constantly distro-hop and try out different window managers. I think that KDE has really improved in the past six months and they have another upgrade coming in January. Kubuntu is still a good choice for cutting edge kde developments and the wonderful Debian variety of software. I still find rpm distros slow and clunky, but I have my eye on Arch Linux and even more so Chakra Linux. Since you like BSD so much, I would think that Arch might appeal to you.
Still you may find the suggestion above works fine and be perfectly content with Ubuntu.
Choices..choices..choices!
Steven,
I would stay clear of Kubuntu and give openSUSE a try. They have a great implementation of KDE and a great package manager with zypper. The installer is also very flexible and allows for a net-install. I would also find it interesting if you tried Slackware although you would most likely want to run Slackware Current since that is where KDE 4.3.2 is residing.
Thanks,
Mike
You should try Debian testing (Squeeze) with KDE4.3.1. I'm running it on an extra computer at work, and it's been nice and solid. I've been very skeptical of KDE4, but it's starting to grow on me as I learn more about it, although I prefer a lighter weight DE most of the time, such as LXDE, which I also have installed on the same machine, as well as Xfce, and IceWM. Actually, I've ended up using Dolphin while in LXDE a lot, instead of PCMan File Manager. The speed of LXDE and the options of Dolphin, not a bad combo!
Although it's probably not open source, we find Picasa to be an excellent editor. It runs on Linux with the same power that it runs on a Mac and better than windows. If it weren't available, I don't know that I ever would have switched (GIMP is nice, but overpowered for our simple needs). Plus if I'm not mistaken it resolves your complaint of removing metadata.
I did try Picasa recently. It wouldn't resize or crop JPEGs to exact pixel dimensions, I didn't like the way it combed the drive for images, and I wasn't super-crazy about the way it handled metadata.
And it felt a bit funky due to it being a Windows app running under WINE.
I need to resize, crop, make the file size smaller for the Web, edit and preserve the IPTC metadata ... and sharpen. That's about it.
MaPIVI - I don't know how I never heard about this before, I'm extremely anxious to give it a try.
Like many or most Linux image-editing apps, it's pretty much a front-end for the standard tools out there, meaning ImageMagick and other libraries and such. ... but the IPTC capability makes it stand way, way out.
I will be trying it as soon as I boot up the Ubuntu laptop Monday morning. ... It could save me from all of this KDEness. We shall see.
Debian Squeeze? I could very well go in that direction. I'm running Lenny on a couple of machines, and it wouldn't be much of a leap to go to Testing. My last experience with Testing was less than harmonious, but I'm an optimist.
It may be worth giving it another shot with version 3. Although it does comb the drive still on initial startup.
http://picasa.google.com/linux/