The Darktable Handbook: Curse & Blessing for Beginners

December 20, 2025

Why you shouldn’t be discouraged by the official manual

Many people who come from Lightroom or Capture One (or other editing software) and open the official darktable manual for the first time feel overwhelmed.

Terms like “scene-referred workflow” , “unbounded floating point order”, “gamut mapping” hit you. Or you’re looking to brighten the image and find five different modules that theoretically can do that.

Don’t panic; it’s not your fault.

The encyclopedia problem

The official manual is technically brilliant. But it’s exactly that: a technical dictionary.

Imagine you want to learn Spanish and you’re simply given an English-to-Spanish, Spanish-to-English dictionary…that is a difficult way to learn a new language.

• When looking at the darktable manual, the manual is like the English-to-Spanish dictionary: it contains every existing word (including outdated 18th-century terms).
• What you need is a language course that tells you: “Learn these 3 phrases to ask for directions.”

The manual tells you precisely what each individual controller does mathematically. But it rarely explains to you when you should use it and, above all, when not to.

The “Legacy” Trap

Darktable is over 10 years old and has moved from a “display-referred workflow” (referred to in the manual as “legacy”) to a modern “scene-referred workflow”. Each workflow contains a certain set of modules available in the darkroom. In order not to destroy old edits, almost all modules from the legacy workflow are still available in the software, and the manual lists them all.

It is often difficult for a beginner to realize that modules like “Shadow and Highlights” or “Base Curve” are typically no longer used in the modern workflow (since Darktable 3.x/4.x).

How darktable.info helps you

This is exactly where we start. We are not the encyclopedias, we are your travel guide.

1. We filter for you: We don’t show you all 100 modules, but the 10-20 that you really need.
2. We explain the “why”: Instead of mathematical formulas and jargon, you get practical examples.
3. We give an order: You learn a structured workflow instead of losing yourself in the chaos of possibilities.

Our advice on how to use the manual

So should you ignore the official manual? Absolutely not! It’s the ultimate reference if you want to go deep.

But use it correctly:

•  As a reference book: If you want to know exactly what a certain controller does in Color Balance RGB module.
•  Not as a tutorial: Don’t try to learn Darktable by reading the manual from start to finish.

Start by following our Quick Start guide for beginners and the Modern standard workflow . Once you’re comfortable with those, the manual will suddenly become much easier to understand.