Darktable 5.6.1 was released on August 27, 2026, as a technical maintenance update focused on stability, memory optimization, and cross‑platform compatibility improvements across Linux, Windows, and Apple macOS systems.
The release enhances the RAW processing pipeline by improving ONNX model handling, adding automatic retry for interrupted downloads, and ensuring full metadata preservation for AI‑generated images, including EXIF, geotags, ratings, and color labels.
The AI RAW denoise module now explicitly rejects Fujifilm Super CCD sensors to prevent incorrect processing results caused by unsupported training data.
On Linux systems, Darktable 5.6.1 introduces native Wayland support in the official AppImage, while maintaining automatic fallback to X11 for environments with incomplete OpenCL or Vulkan implementations.
Fedora users benefit from major fixes related to AMD GPUs running Mesa Rusticl, eliminating pixel corruption and reducing OpenCL buffer allocation failures that previously caused crashes in modules such as denoise and sharpen.
The update resolves multiple stability issues in wavelet decomposition, path masks, and raster masks, which were more visible on Linux distributions using modern toolchains like GCC 14 and Clang 18.
Export reliability is improved through corrections in JPEG 2000 YCbCr 4:2:0 decoding and PNG 16‑bit color handling, addressing inconsistencies found across different libpng and openjpeg versions on Linux and macOS.
On Apple macOS, Darktable 5.6.1 provides separate builds for x86_64 and ARM64, ensuring optimized performance on Apple Silicon devices by improving integration with Metal and OpenCL layers.
The update reduces crash frequency on macOS when applying 3D LUTs or running AI modules, thanks to adjustments aligned with recent Apple Clang and SDK changes.
Windows users receive a fix for AMD OpenCL devices that were previously disabled, restoring full GPU acceleration for AI and pixelpipe operations.
Package distribution is updated across platforms, with Linux builds available through OBS, PPA, Flatpak, and community repositories, while macOS users receive synchronized .dmg installers for both Intel and Apple Silicon architectures.
