Pixelmator Updated With Improved 16-Bit Color, Locking Layers and an All-New Repair Tool

Jessica Lares said:

Because when you're screwing with changing widths, opacities, and the like, you will end up messing up everything else most likely. It's just a safety.



Aperture

Click to expand...

Damn. I was hoping that Pixelmator together with some nifty import script would suffice.
So you don't pp in Aperture? Only pixelmator?

I have been using Mac applications for almost 30 years. I have never seen a value like Pixelmater:

1) Powerful
2) Fast
3) Cheap
4) Engaged & Responsive development team
5) Functionality expansion every few months

Pixelmator is simply a no-brainer must have App...

Okay, so the video showing the new repair tool does seem to be a little too good to be true but in use, the new repair is actually very powerful with impressive results - better than I was expecting.

Now, I would love to the see a Pixelmator version hit the iPad. I know it won't be able to offer the same kind of power as a desktop equivalent but it seems all the best image editing apps for iPad are all from smaller, less well known developers and I genuinely see a gap here for a bigger, more established name.
Some of the apps for iPad are very capable indeed but I would love to have a similar product experience between the Mac and iPad with a single app.

Acorn is kicking some butt. http://forums.flyingmeat.com/discussion/110/acorn-4-5-beta

Used it to remove the ugly moon from Apple's "Earth and Moon" wallpaper and it did a flawless job and even added some stars behind the moon! This is my first exposure to photo editing software beyond iPhoto, and it's amazing!

Traverse said:

Used it to remove the ugly moon from Apple's "Earth and Moon" wallpaper and it did a flawless job and even added some stars behind the moon! This is my first exposure to photo editing software beyond iPhoto, and it's amazing!

Click to expand...

The Pixelmator healing tool works similarly to other healing tools (including the one in iPhoto). It uses some sort of near-neighbor method of sampling to decide how the selected area should be filled. In some cases it works with almost magical perfection. Other times, it creates weird distortions or obvious edits that you end up undoing immediately. It seems to work best on large areas of relatively flat color or texture, such as sky, or space (as you found).

These are useful tools, and Pixelmator's implementation is good, but they still take some effort to use properly.

IJ Reilly said:

The Pixelmator healing tool works similarly to other healing tools (including the one in iPhoto). It uses some sort of near-neighbor method of sampling to decide how the selected area should be filled. In some cases it works with almost magical perfection. Other times, it creates weird distortions or obvious edits that you end up undoing immediately. It seems to work best on large areas of relatively flat color or texture, such as sky, or space (as you found).

These are useful tools, and Pixelmator's implementation is good, but they still take some effort to use properly.

Click to expand...

Pixelmator's implementation works far better than iPhoto though - iPhoto can't handle any kind of complexity at all where as Pixelmator is a lot more clever in how it works.

Donka said:

Pixelmator's implementation works far better than iPhoto though - iPhoto can't handle any kind of complexity at all where as Pixelmator is a lot more clever in how it works.

Click to expand...

Yes, I think you are right. My version of iPhoto isn't current but unless Apple has improved their healing tool significantly, I am finding Pixelmator's implementation to be more effective in more situations. Still, a tool to be used with care and frequent undos.

IJ Reilly said:

The Pixelmator healing tool works similarly to other healing tools (including the one in iPhoto). It uses some sort of near-neighbor method of sampling to decide how the selected area should be filled. In some cases it works with almost magical perfection. Other times, it creates weird distortions or obvious edits that you end up undoing immediately. It seems to work best on large areas of relatively flat color or texture, such as sky, or space (as you found).

These are useful tools, and Pixelmator's implementation is good, but they still take some effort to use properly.

Click to expand...

Thank you for the insights, I am just getting into photography. I've used iPhoto's tools, but have found their results to often be disappointing. For example, edge blurriness or color distortion.

On sale for $16.

Pixelmator Update 3.2.1 http://www.pixelmator.com/blog/2014/09/11/pixelmator-update-3-2-1/

IJ Reilly said:

Yes, I think you are right. My version of iPhoto isn't current but unless Apple has improved their healing tool significantly, I am finding Pixelmator's implementation to be more effective in more situations. Still, a tool to be used with care and frequent undos.

Click to expand...

That's been my experience as well. My idea for Pixelmator is to us on photos of myself of friends at music festivals. It's usually fixing the colors, brightness, red eye , golden eye( that I currently cannot fix ), and removing/blurring unwanted items out of the image. With the thousands of people at these events, there is usually some joker who photobombs my picture in the background, so I have to erase them

I use Aperture for library and editing right now, does anyone know if Pixelmator integrates with Aperture, ala "use external editor" to edit in Pixelmator, and then it brings you back into Aperture when you are done?

jagooch said:

I use Aperture for library and editing right now, does anyone know if Pixelmator integrates with Aperture, ala "use external editor" to edit in Pixelmator, and then it brings you back into Aperture when you are done?

Click to expand...

Yes it does. You can set this in Aperture preferences. This is how I have it set up and use Aperture for library management, general editing and exporting. I edit in Pixelmator when I need pixel level editing or things like the repair brush.

Donka said:

Yes it does. You can set this in Aperture preferences. This is how I have it set up and use Aperture for library management, general editing and exporting. I edit in Pixelmator when I need pixel level editing or things like the repair brush.

Click to expand...

Thanks! It works well. I did get burned because I edited a base layer the way I wanted it, added a duplicated later and a mask to do some further editing, and now can't get back to just the edits that I did on the base layer.

Luckily I still have the original version from Aperture so I can redo by base layer edits. Still, I've learned my lesson to save every "set" of edits I do in Pixelmator as a separate image since once you add additional edits and save, you cannot go back when you reopen the tiff file.

Just a work to the wise. It will take me some time to get used to Pixelmator, but at least I won't be overwhelmed as I was with Photoshop. Plus I don't like the idea of monthly subscriptons for something that I only use occasionally.

Is Pixelmator good for a novice user that has never edited photos before? How much of a learning curve is there?

JTravers said:

Is Pixelmator good for a novice user that has never edited photos before? How much of a learning curve is there?

Click to expand...

For a first time user, I think it may take a bit to get used to as some things are done a little differently from other similar apps but there are some excellent, short video tutorials on their site which cover most of what you would be looking to do.

JTravers said:

Is Pixelmator good for a novice user that has never edited photos before? How much of a learning curve is there?

Click to expand...

Tons of vids on Youtube.