Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

digiKam VS IrfanView

Compare digiKam VS IrfanView and see what are their differences

digiKam logo digiKam

Professional Photo Management with the Power of Open Source

IrfanView logo IrfanView

IrfanView ... one of the most popular viewers worldwide.
  • digiKam Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30

digiKam is an advanced open-source digital photo management application that runs on Linux, Windows, and MacOS. The application provides a comprehensive set of tools for importing, managing, editing, and sharing photos and raw files.

  • IrfanView Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-23

digiKam features and specs

  • Open Source
    digiKam is free to use and its source code is open, allowing users to modify and improve the software to suit their needs.
  • Comprehensive Image Management
    digiKam offers a robust set of tools for organizing, tagging, and sorting large photo collections, making it easier to manage a vast number of images.
  • Advanced Editing Features
    The software provides advanced photo editing tools including color correction, red-eye removal, and other retouching tools, which are useful for both amateur and professional photographers.
  • Raw Image Support
    digiKam supports a wide range of raw image formats, enabling professional photographers to process high-quality images directly within the software.
  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    The software runs on multiple operating systems including Windows, macOS, and Linux, providing flexibility for users regardless of their preferred OS.
  • Extensive Metadata Options
    Users can add, edit, and manage extensive metadata including geotagging, which helps in organizing and finding photos based on various metadata fields.
  • Batch Processing
    The ability to process multiple photos at once can save a lot of time for users working with large volumes of images.
  • Plugin Support
    digiKam supports plugins that can extend its functionality, providing even more features and customization options.

Possible disadvantages of digiKam

  • Steep Learning Curve
    The extensive feature set and complex user interface can be overwhelming for new users, requiring a significant amount of time to learn and master.
  • Performance Issues
    Users have reported that the software can be slow, especially when dealing with very large photo libraries or performing complex tasks.
  • Limited Tutorials and Documentation
    Compared to other popular photo management software, digiKam has fewer tutorials and less extensive documentation, which can make troubleshooting more difficult.
  • Occasional Stability Issues
    Some users experience crashes and bugs, which can interrupt workflow and potentially result in data loss if not saved properly.
  • Less User-Friendly
    While powerful, the user interface can be less intuitive compared to other popular photo management applications, which might deter some users.
  • Limited Integration with Cloud Services
    digiKam offers less integration with popular cloud storage and photo sharing services compared to other photo management applications, which can be a drawback for users who rely heavily on the cloud.
  • Resource Intensive
    The software can be demanding on system resources, requiring a powerful computer to run smoothly, especially when handling raw files or high-resolution images.
  • Inconsistent User Experience
    There may be inconsistencies in user experience across different operating systems, with some features potentially working better on one OS compared to another.

IrfanView features and specs

  • Lightweight
    IrfanView is known for its small size and low resource usage, making it fast and efficient even on older systems.
  • Wide Format Support
    Supports a vast array of image formats, including BMP, DIB, JPEG, GIF, PNG, PCX, TIFF, and many more, along with some multimedia formats.
  • Batch Processing
    Includes powerful batch processing capabilities for converting and processing multiple images at once.
  • Plugins
    Supports a variety of plugins for extended functionality, allowing users to add features such as support for additional file formats and enhanced editing tools.
  • User-Friendly
    Offers an intuitive and straightforward interface that is easy to navigate for both beginners and advanced users.
  • Free for Personal Use
    IrfanView is free for non-commercial use, making it an excellent choice for personal projects.

Possible disadvantages of IrfanView

  • Outdated Interface
    The user interface may appear dated compared to more modern photo editing software, potentially affecting user experience.
  • Limited Advanced Editing
    While IrfanView offers basic editing tools, it lacks advanced photo editing features that are available in other software like Adobe Photoshop.
  • Windows-Only
    Natively available only for Windows operating systems, limiting its availability for MacOS and Linux users.
  • Commercial Use Requires License
    Although free for personal use, commercial use requires the purchase of a license, which might be a consideration for businesses.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While the basic features are user-friendly, some advanced functionalities may have a steeper learning curve for new users.

digiKam videos

The Power of DigiKam (Wow Factor)

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How to Organize your Pictures with Digikam (intro tutorial)
  • Tutorial - How To Organize Photos On Linux With Digikam

IrfanView videos

Review of irfanview photo editing software

More videos:

  • Review - IrfanView 4.37 - review by SoftPlanet
  • Tutorial - Irfanview Tutorial

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to digiKam and IrfanView)
Photos & Graphics
46 46%
54% 54
Image Editing
33 33%
67% 67
Photo Editing
49 49%
51% 51
Photography
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare digiKam and IrfanView

digiKam Reviews

15 Best Google Picasa Alternatives You Should Use (2022)
Apart from the popular image formats like JPEG and PNG, DigiKam can also handle RAW files, making editing and processing of the image smooth. Then there are some great features like facial recognition, smart categorization, geo-tagging, and slideshow creator that just come for free. So make sure to give this one a try.
Source: techdator.net
10 Best Google Picasa Alternatives You Should Use
DigiKam is another powerful photo management software that is free and open-source. It’s available on Windows, macOS, and Linux so that is great. The software is generally used by professionals to organize all their digital media assets, but I would recommend it to everyone looking for a capable Picasa alternative. DigiKam can easily handle large bulk of images (more than...
Source: beebom.com
13 Free Alternatives Image and Photo Organizer For Microsoft Windows 10
digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application for Linux, Windows, and Mac-OSX. The people who inspired digiKam’s design are the photographers like you who want to view, manage, edit, enhance, organize, tag, and share photographs under Linux systems. digiKam is an advanced digital photo management application, which makes importing and organizing digital photos...
5 Best Linux Photo Management Software
digiKam is mainly developed for KDE, but works just as well on other desktop environments. It comes with a lot of features with an interface that works nicely. The main features of digiKam includes:
Source: itsfoss.com

IrfanView Reviews

20+ Picasa Alternatives And Best Similar Apps Like Picasa 2022
The only con we have regarding IrfanView is that its interface looks very dated and doesn’t fit well with modern OS designs. Despite that, it’s one of the best Picasa alternatives you can use today if you want some neat image organization and an image editor packed with features, in a package that’s free to use.
15 Best Google Picasa Alternatives You Should Use (2022)
If you have an old rig that can’t handle new powerful tools and are looking for a lightweight photo management app, then IrfanView will be an excellent choice for you. It is just 3MB in size so that it won’t take any space on your computer and in terms of resources also it is pretty lightweight.
Source: techdator.net
10 Best Google Picasa Alternatives You Should Use
IrfanView is a free photo viewer and organizer for Windows which happens to be very light both in size and resource requirements. This makes it a great software for users who are using older generations of Windows PC and want something lean and light. Coming just at 3 MB, IrfanView doesn’t take any space on your computer and can run on any device. One of the biggest benefits...
Source: beebom.com
10 Best Photo Viewer For Windows 10 [2020]
The community can build plugins that can be used to add more functionality to the app, check IrfanView plugins page for more about this. The app is available in 32 bit and 64 bit both variant and look and feel of the app can be customized with skins.
7 Best Photo Viewer Apps for Windows 10 in 2019
It creates slideshows within no time. One of the coolest things about IrfanView is it opens in a flash. It’s super fast and reliable. It supports batch processing.IrfanView app has got a good development team and we see new features added to it every couple of months.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, digiKam should be more popular than IrfanView. It has been mentiond 9 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

digiKam mentions (9)

  • How to tag and store pictures downloaded from the internet?
    Digikam seems ideal for this https://digikam.org/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • What are your favorite methodologies for organizing digital life
    I have all of my photos (with the exception of smartphone photos... ugh) in a nicely constructed set of folders \photos\yyyy\yyyymmmdd\ then the folder made by the camera, etc. I've got a small python script to generate the folders. I use Digikam[1] to do facial recognition and tagging on them. It's finally gotten to the point where it doesn't crash all the time writing metadata, and the facial recognition is... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • are there any free self-hosted DAMs like Adobe Experience Manager [AEM]?
    I use digikam for my own personal library. I’m not sure if it’s able to be run from a server, but I know you can hook up a NAS to it to manage it. Can tag photos, rank, organize, etc. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Looking for a simple Photo manager/DAM for not photos advice?
    Check out digiKam. It has photo editing tools as well, but the main focus is photo management. Also it is free and open source. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Looking for a way to tag my photo collection with keywords
    But with that many photos, I'd suggest a more fully featured digital asset management (DAM) program. Lightroom (paid), DigiKam, or DarkTable (both free) are good choices. PhoTool's IMatch (paid) also uses exiftool and is extremely powerful with regards to metadata. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

IrfanView mentions (3)

  • Presenting two slides from a presentation at once on two different monitors
    It doesn't sound like you need animations or other effects here, just still images. If that's so, you could: Export the slides to high resolution images (at least high enough to match the highest resolution your projectors are capable of). Use a PC to drive each projector; the cheapest, oldest PC in the place will be more than adequate. Run a program that can fill the screen with an image (and if needed, switch... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Is there a way to convert "photographed text" in to just "text" in a .pdf file?
    Scantailor (https://scantailor.org) is the tool for self-scanned books that exist in images (png, jpg, etc). However, I usually use Irfanview with PDF plugin (https://irfanview.com - download both Irfanview and the Plugins from this home page) I have elsewhere in r/PDF shown how you can do batch splitting of two-page scans, clean up muddy pages (yellowed or browned) . In the Reddit search box, search for... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • University is rough sometimes...
    From there, open your favorite image editor (I use & recommend irfanView BTW 😁) & paste it there. Then save it (I HIGHLY recommend saving it as a JPEG file). Source: about 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing digiKam and IrfanView, you can also consider the following products

XnView MP - XnView is a free software that allows you to view, resize and edit your images. It supports more than 500 different formats!

ACDSee Photo Studio - ACDSee becomes ACDSee Photo Studio — ACDSee Photo Studio Standard 2018 continues the ACDSee legacy

FastStone Image Viewer - FastStone Image Viewer is a fast, stable, user-friendly image browser, converter and editor.

JPEGView - JPEGView is a small and fast viewer/editor for JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF and TIFF images.

Shotwell - Shotwell is an open source photo organizer designed for the GNOME desktop environment.

ImageGlass - You can use Image to view your digital images and photos of many different formats.