digiKam 5.5.0 Released, See What’s New & How to Install

The digiKam photo management software 5.5.0 was released earlier today with several improvements in database interface.
According to the release note, digiKam 5.5.0 features:

• threads management improvements to prevent CPU overload.
• improvements to the similarity tool
• a garbage collection for the digiKam databases.
• the database shrinking support for SQLite
• enhancements in the batch queue manager Watermark tool.
• database patch: ability to ignore some kind of directories while scanning collections
• Improved face management and digiKam handbook
• This new digiKam version also includes latest libraw 0.18.2

Download / Install digiKam 5.5.0 in Ubuntu:

The Appimage packages are available for download in the link below:

Download digiKam

Make the Appimage file executable (sorry for the old pic.), then right-click and click Run the file to launch digiKam 5.

Don’t like the appimage? You can also install the most recent digiKam via a third-party PPA repository:

There may be a small delay for the new release being made into PPA, do CHECK the PPA link before doing following steps.

1. To add the PPA, open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:philip5/extra
Type your password when it prompts and hit enter.

2. If you have a previous release installed, now launch Software Updater and upgrade digiKam.

Or run commands in terminal one by one to check updates and install digiKam 5.5:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install digikam5

Uninstall:

To remove digiKam 5.x, run following command in terminal:
sudo apt-get remove digikam5 && sudo apt-get autoremove
And remove the PPA by going to Software & Updates -> Other Software tab.