darktable-cli

TLDR

Export a RAW file to JPEG

$ darktable-cli [input.raw] [output.jpg]

Export with specific XMP sidecar

$ darktable-cli [input.raw] [preset.xmp] [output.jpg]

Export as 16-bit TIFF

$ darktable-cli [input.raw] [output.tiff] --bpp 16

Export with specific dimensions

$ darktable-cli [input.raw] [output.jpg] --width [1920] --height [1080]

Export all RAWs in directory

$ for f in *.raw; do darktable-cli "$f" "${f%.raw}.jpg"; done

Apply style during export

$ darktable-cli [input.raw] [output.jpg] --style "[style_name]"

SYNOPSIS

darktable-cli [options] input [xmp] output

darktable-cli is the command-line interface for darktable, enabling batch processing of RAW photographs without the graphical interface. It applies darktable's non-destructive edits stored in XMP sidecar files to produce final images.
The tool uses the same processing engine as the GUI application, ensuring identical results. If an XMP file exists alongside the input (same name with .xmp extension), its edits are automatically applied. Explicit XMP files can also be specified.
Common uses include batch export of edited photos, automated processing pipelines, server-side image processing, and generating different output sizes from the same RAW file.

PARAMETERS

--width pixels

Maximum output width.

--height pixels

Maximum output height.

--bpp bits

Bits per pixel (8, 16, 32).

--hq true|false

High quality resampling.

--upscale true|false

Allow upscaling.

--style name

Apply named darktable style.

--style-overwrite

Overwrite existing history with style.

--out-ext ext

Output format extension (jpg, tif, png, etc.).

--core

Pass options to darktable core.

--verbose

Enable verbose output.

CAVEATS

Requires OpenCL for GPU acceleration (same as GUI). Processing is single-threaded per image; use parallel for batch processing. Large RAW files require significant memory. XMP edits must be compatible with the darktable version used.

HISTORY

darktable was created by Johannes Hanika and first released in 2009 as an open-source photography workflow application, inspired by Adobe Lightroom. The CLI interface was added to enable scripted processing and integration with other tools. darktable has grown to become one of the premier open-source RAW processing applications.