December 8, 2025
After downloading and installing, the First start. Darktable is powerful, but at first glance it can also be overwhelming – and maybe a bit dreary. Many users ask themselves at the first start: “Is that correct? Everything is gray in gray.”
Don’t worry, this is normal, but we can change it! The following page shows you the most important presets so that DarkTable not only looks better, but you can also get results faster and better.
1. Make yourself comfortable: the right theme
By default, DarkTable often starts in a very neutral gray, which is low-contrast and confusing for some users. If you’re wondering why the fonts are so small or the buttons are so hard to see: it’s the theme.
Darktable can be completely adjusted visually. You can increase contrasts, change colors or adjust the font size to make the work fun and protect your eyes.
- Go to the settings (gear icon).
- Choose the tab “General”.
- Under “css” Can you try different designs (e.g.. Darktable-Elegant-Darker for a modern look).
We have put together an overview of the best themes and how they look for you:
Darktable Themes & Preview
2. The right start: Scene-related workflow
First things first: DarkTable offers two basic ways of working. For the best quality and modern processing, you should ensure that you Scene-related workflow AGX (scene-referred) work.
This is in the default settings under processing > Automatically Apply Pixel Workflow Preferences to find. By default, this should be “scene-related”.
You can find out why this is so important and how it works here:
Default Workflow
3rd order in module chaos
Darktable has a large number of modules. Many of them are old or for special cases. In order not to lose track, it is advisable to reduce the view of the modules to the essentials.
We have created a preset (“DT Pro”) that shows you exactly the modules you need for 99% of your images – sorted by workflow and extras.
Module preset (DT PRO)
4. Working faster with shortcuts
Nothing accelerates image processing as much as using keyboard shortcuts. Instead of clicking through menus, you can rate, zoom or access modules with simple keystrokes.
Darktable keyboard layout – Pro
5. Use styles (styles)
If you want to use a specific look over and over again (e.g. black and white or a specific color scheme), you can save it as a “style” and apply it to other images with one click. This is your turbo for continuous shooting.
Styles (Styles) – your turbo for the workflow
6. Performance Boost: Activate OpenCL
Darktable can be very computationally intensive, especially if you like modern modules like “Dispel or Sharpen” Oder “denoisy (profile)” uses. If your computer stutters when zooming or the export takes forever, it’s often because Darktable only uses the processor (CPU) and ignores your graphics card (GPU).
The solution is called opencl. This allows DarkTable of your graphics card to help with the calculations. This can, for example, accelerate export by a factor of 10!
To check if OpenCL is active:
- Go to Settings (gear icon in the top right).
- Choose the tab “edit” (processing).
- Search for the point “Enable OpenCL Support”.
- Make sure there is a tick here.
Tip: If the option is greyed out, you will probably be missing the right drivers for your graphics card. Update your graphics card drivers (NVIDIA/AMD) and restart DarkTable. At startup, Darktable automatically checks whether the graphics card can be used.
