Darktable Complete

Hold the Easy Link key while darktable is in front and the link is made: the deck follows the app you are in. Then 135 darktable commands sit on real keys across 13 categories, with six Stream Deck + dials and a T9 keypad.

EASY LINK, BUILT IN

Nothing else to install. Hold the key about a second while darktable is in front and the deck binds it to this plugin's profile, which switches in whenever darktable takes focus and hands back your previous one when you leave. A short press never relinks. Lock, fail and clear cues play out of the box.

SIX STREAM DECK + DIALS

- Exposure: one click is one of darktable's finest exposure steps; a fast flick makes each worth about ten.

- Rotation: the same feel on perspective correction's rotation slider.

- Zoom: zooms the darkroom image and changes the lighttable thumbnail count. Press or tap fits the image to the window and long touch shows actual pixels (1:1), in the lighttable preview too with the bridge.

- Image Navigate: forward and back through darkroom images, one per click.

- History Scrub: undo and redo one step per click, in the darkroom, lighttable and map.

- Omni: the dial you assign. Pick up to three of 29 sliders, contrast and white balance among them, and press to move between them. It runs on the optional bridge below.

THE OPTIONAL LUA BRIDGE

Every Windows key and five of the six dials work with nothing installed. It installs and removes from any dial's property inspector. With it running the Omni dial works, and it plus Exposure and Rotation print the slider's real value on the touch screen.

EVERY COMMAND A KEY

The 13 categories: Darkroom Overlays; Darkroom View & Zoom; Darkroom Edit & Brush; Views; Panels; Lighttable Layout; Lighttable Preview & Zoom; Lighttable Navigate; Rate & Select; Labels, Filters & Timeline; History & Duplicates; Import, Export & Tags; Map, Slideshow & Tethering. Drop one on a key, pick the command, and the key wears its drawn art. Every shortcut comes from darktable 5.6.1's own shortcut file.

Four commands are press and hold on Windows: Full preview, Force pan and zoom, Preview while held, Preview with focus.

Every key is remappable: type the combination into the inspector or click Capture key and press it once. Works in Multi Actions, and the inspector flags commands that act in one view only.

A T9 KEYPAD ON THE DECK

Type values and names from the deck: 123 mode for digits, ABC mode multi-taps letters phone style, Enter accepts the suggested word, and every tap can click. It types into the field you last clicked.

SIX PROFILES IN THE BOX

- 15-key Stream Deck: Easy Link top-left, a color-coded category hub, each key opening that category's page with a Home key back, and a key that opens the keypad page. All 135 commands, nothing curated away.

- Stream Deck +: all four encoders filled with Exposure, Rotation, Zoom and Image Navigate, plus Easy Link and seven starter keys for the cull and edit loop.

- Stream Deck + XL: the keypad and the hub on every page, one page per category, and six dials. Its Omni dial already holds contrast and white balance, so nothing needs setting up.

- Stream Deck XL: the same keypad-and-hub layout, every command on its category page.

- Stream Deck Mini: nine cull keys over two pages.

- Stream Deck Neo: seven cull keys on one page.

All six install with the plugin and none grabs your deck: pick one from your list or let Easy Link bring it in.

SOUNDS, IF YOU WANT THEM

Any key can play a sound. 33 ship in the box, three of them the Easy Link cues, and nothing plays until you pick one. Pairs with our free Sound Sampler: record any sound on your PC and play it from any key. Your recordings show up in the Key Sound picker automatically.

REQUIREMENTS

Tested against darktable 5.6.1 on macOS 13 or newer and Windows 10 or newer. Requires the Stream Deck app 6.9 or newer. Dials and the touch strip need a Stream Deck + or a Stream Deck + XL. The plugin never steals focus, so keep darktable in front.

Darktable Complete 3.1.1.0: a macOS fix. Nothing changes on Windows.

On macOS, Easy Link checked which app was in front by starting a new helper process for every check, many times a minute. Each start left a connection open in the system's window server, and after enough of them macOS could end the whole login session. The plugin now keeps one small helper running and asks it instead, so no connections pile up.

The same helper also follows app switches correctly after its first read, so the deck changes profiles when you change apps.

Everything else is as in 3.1.0.0.