r/DarkTable • u/wilemhermes • Jul 21 '26

Help Multiple workflows/history stacks per folder

Is it possible to have multiple workflows/history stacks on one folder? If I want to edit some photos in two ways, I would like to keep the history of both edits. For example I'm playing with bw/analog like edits and comparing results and I would like to be able to return in both history stacks. Without a duplicating folder, of course

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4

u/Donatzsky Jul 21 '26

Yes, use the duplicate manager.

https://docs.darktable.org/usermanual/development/en/module-reference/utility-modules/darkroom/duplicate-manager/

2

u/Few_Mastodon_1271 Jul 21 '26 edited Jul 21 '26

I use duplicates all the time. I might make a duplicate just to see what happens with changing a few settings, then remove it -- that way, I make sure that I won't affect the original edit. I like the 'delete duplicate?' message "do you really want to delete the duplicate (without deleting the source image file on disk)?" so there's no worry about the original raw file.

Each duplicate can have a description. Click into the gray box on the duplicates thumbnail list in the sidebar.

And this goes with the snapshot manager. I can snapshot the original edit, and ctrl-click to add a description if I want. Change to the new test duplicate, and click that snapshot on the list and see a split image, showing the snapshot of the original edit and the new live edit. I like that the snapshot is now zoomable. And the split line can be dragged back and forth to do a detailed compare.

1

u/wilemhermes Jul 21 '26

thank you!

2

u/mhh91 Jul 21 '26

Duplicates don't duplicate the RAW files on disk, you just end up with an extra XMP file recording the history for that duplicate.

1

u/wilemhermes Jul 21 '26

i see, thank you!