Image Editing App Pixelmator Half Off Ahead of 3.2 Update

[IJ Reilly]

I just bought this app because of MR's post and because the reviews have been stellar. The reviews are accurate. The repair/heal tool is AMAZING. It took me less than 30 seconds to edit this photo from a busy Airshow I went to a few weeks ago. [I got rid of the woman to the left]

I cannot speak more highly about this app. It runs great on my late 2008 iMac. Great buy.

The heal tool in Pixelmator seems to work the same or similar way to the repair tool in iPhoto. I wonder if this isn't a CoreImage function. A lot of what Pixelmator does is implementation of these OSX-native filters, which is probably why it works so well on older Mac hardware (runs fine on a late 2007 iMac too). My understanding is Adobe has never implemented CoreImage because it is only available on the Mac platform. I am prepared to brag on this a little if anyone asks me why I use a Mac.

 

[phrehdd]

Before my comments - I'll just say I don't have Pixelmator on my computers.

Pixelmator is in my opinion a great tool for what it does and I often recommend it to friends who are getting into digital photography. I think it works quite well and creates a pleasant experience with enough "power" to get what most people want from their photos.

Given the latest move by Adobe, I wish that Pixelmator and others (like Corel) would find a way to make an as powerful, far less expensive photo editing software that people can buy outright. Or - perhaps they should be courting 3rd party plug in makers to help flush out its capabilities. There are a few high end plug ins that provide often superior results than the original product they are associated with - masking, resizing and printing and so forth. Pixelmator should try to take advantage of all these types of add ons to generate a product that in the end, is as good if not better than Photoshop (and perhaps strong in vector work as well).

CS6 Photoshop might be my last Adobe product that I wlll purchase (mostly used for digital image restoration and retouch work) and I would gladly switch to another product/maker if ease and power were on par. I'll just hope that over time, Pixelmator becomes that product.

 

[Parkin Pig]

It took me less than 30 seconds to edit this photo from a busy Airshow I went to a few weeks ago. [I got rid of the woman to the left]

You might want to spend a few more seconds on that - if you look closely you'll see a half person where the woman's head used to be.

Given the latest move by Adobe, I wish that Pixelmator and others (like Corel) would find a way to make an as powerful, far less expensive photo editing software that people can buy outright.

...I would gladly switch to another product/maker if ease and power were on par. I'll just hope that over time, Pixelmator becomes that product.

When a product is as polished as Photoshop, the scope for improvement becomes more restricted, and this could be the reason they've gone for the subscription model, because when you start to run out of new ideas, who's going to spend money on an upgrade?

Pixelmator has some catching up to do, and so is likely to close the gap over time.


I've been using Photoshop for years now (currently on CS5), but always been curious about Pixelmator. At this price I have no excuse not to try it, so it's time for a purchase, and I've got to say I'm really looking forward to getting to grips with it.

 

[Donka]

You might want to spend a few more seconds on that - if you look closely you'll see a half person where the woman's head used to be.

It partially copied a guy from the left of the image, the guy with his arms in the air. This is how this type of tool works and that is why I am so suspicious of the demo video. It reconstructed rock content when there is nothing similar elsewhere in the image.

 

[Parkin Pig]

It partially copied a guy from the left of the image, the guy with his arms in the air. This is how this type of tool works and that is why I am so suspicious of the demo video. It reconstructed rock content when there is nothing similar elsewhere in the image.

That is suspicious. Anyway, I've just bought Pixelmator (I had to at the current price). I'll be interested to see if the new version can perform the sort of magic shown in that video. But whether it does or not, it's still a bargain.

 

[Donka]

Yup, it's still an excellent piece of software. I'm looking forward to this update.

 

[epic-retouching]

I own this software and I can say it is no where near as practical as PS. However it is good for moms and dads or little kids. Very simple to use. I have not touched it in over a year. I regret buying it, forgot how much I paid but at least it wouldn't have been much. I will check out this new repair tool when the update hits though, close inspection of the video shows some imperfections in the background. They have been able to get away with a lot using sand background because of the organic texture it is hard not to do a good job. Wait to try this on a text background and you will have a bit of manual fixing to do.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I own this software and I can say it is no where near as practical as PS. However it is good for moms and dads or little kids. Very simple to use. I have not touched it in over a year. I regret buying it, forgot how much I paid but at least it wouldn't have been much. I will check out this new repair tool when the update hits though, close inspection of the video shows some imperfections in the background. They have been able to get away with a lot using sand background because of the organic texture it is hard not to do a good job. Wait to try this on a text background and you will have a bit of manual fixing to do.

I'm not a mom, dad, or a little kid, and I find it to be very useful, and a terrific bargain besides. I think you are confusing simplicity of use with a lack of power. A common mistake.

 

[Okta]

I'm not a mom, dad, or a little kid, and I find it to be very useful, and a terrific bargain besides. I think you are confusing simplicity of use with a lack of power. A common mistake.

I agree, I have been doing Graphic Design on Photoshop for over 7 years and I think Pixelmator is a great alternative. For $15 or even $30 the value is absolutely incredible.

For anyone who isn't a professional this is more than adequate. Pixelmator is a great application, I wish I would have known about it earlier.

 

[IJ Reilly]

I agree, I have been doing Graphic Design on Photoshop for over 7 years and I think Pixelmator is a great alternative. For $15 or even $30 the value is absolutely incredible.

For anyone who isn't a professional this is more than adequate. Pixelmator is a great application, I wish I would have known about it earlier.

My last version of Photoshop was 5.5, or something like that. Ancient history. But I'd been looking for something else for a long time. I'd been making due with iPhoto, Seashore, and the trial version of Pixelmator 1.x for a couple of years (it wasn't hard to keep it going), but decided it was well worth the buy now. Now I am hoping to find more plugins for it. That's the area where Photoshop still has a big edge.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

My last version of Photoshop was 5.5, or something like that. Ancient history. But I'd been looking for something else for a long time. I'd been making due with iPhoto, Seashore, and the trial version of Pixelmator 1.x for a couple of years (it wasn't hard to keep it going), but decided it was well worth the buy now. Now I am hoping to find more plugins for it. That's the area where Photoshop still has a big edge.

Plugins for Pixelmator? I've seen none.

 

[Okta]

My last version of Photoshop was 5.5, or something like that. Ancient history. But I'd been looking for something else for a long time. I'd been making due with iPhoto, Seashore, and the trial version of Pixelmator 1.x for a couple of years (it wasn't hard to keep it going), but decided it was well worth the buy now. Now I am hoping to find more plugins for it. That's the area where Photoshop still has a big edge.

Thats true, depending on your application plugins do exist

http://support.pixelmator.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9445

That said this is a $30 program (if your patient $15), the fact that it can do pretty much everything photoshop can (and some things better) is an incredible value. The last photoshop program's retail was well over $1000, I had CS2 and that was it. Creative Cloud is a little more affordable but in two months you already spent more on it than Pixelmator would cost for life.

Its not a perfect program however for everyone aside from Professionals I feel this program is more than adequate, even then depending on the application this might work just fine.

For Web Design and UI Design Sketch is an amazing program used by the industry (Apple, Google, Facebook) for $50-75.

 

[IJ Reilly]

Plugins for Pixelmator? I've seen none.

As pointed out, they do exist.

Thats true, depending on your application plugins do exist

http://support.pixelmator.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=9445

That said this is a $30 program (if your patient $15), the fact that it can do pretty much everything photoshop can (and some things better) is an incredible value. The last photoshop program's retail was well over $1000, I had CS2 and that was it. Creative Cloud is a little more affordable but in two months you already spent more on it than Pixelmator would cost for life.

Its not a perfect program however for everyone aside from Professionals I feel this program is more than adequate, even then depending on the application this might work just fine.

For Web Design and UI Design Sketch is an amazing program used by the industry (Apple, Google, Facebook) for $50-75.

Pixelmator would be doing themselves a favor is they provided a listing for the Quartz Composer plugins that work with Pixelmator. As is stands now, you have to search around quite a bit.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

As pointed out, they do exist.



Pixelmator would be doing themselves a favor is they provided a listing for the Quartz Composer plugins that work with Pixelmator. As is stands now, you have to search around quite a bit.

Indeed some of those plugins may not work in 10.9. so one has to test them. I've seen these before.

 

[RMo]

Went ahead and bought this because it looks like it has a better repair tool than Acorn and I've been looking for a decent editor for Mac. I did notice, however, that Acorn is also on sale now and looks just about as nice. In fact, Acorn looks better since I don't need a magnifying glass to use its UI like I do with the tiny, dark icons on the black UI of Pixelmator, particularly in the tools palette. (I can't be the only person having problems with this, can I?)

I'd get both but I only want to try one at a time. There are very few apps I use that aren't OSS, so this was somewhat of a splurge for me.

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Went ahead and bought this because it looks like it has a better repair tool than Acorn and I've been looking for a decent editor for Mac. I did notice, however, that Acorn is also on sale now and looks just about as nice. In fact, Acorn looks better since I don't need a magnifying glass to use its UI like I do with the tiny, dark icons on the black UI of Pixelmator, particularly in the tools palette. (I can't be the only person having problems with this, can I?)

I'd get both but I only want to try one at a time. There are very few apps I use that aren't OSS, so this was somewhat of a splurge for me.

The good thing about Pixelmator is the vast community behind it, tons of vids and sites for this great app. As for Acorn, you could count the number of vids on Youtube on one hand.

 

[imacken]

Can someone please confirm if Pixelmator supports CMYK or not? There seems to be conflicting info on this.

 

[CrickettGrrrl]

Can someone please confirm if Pixelmator supports CMYK or not? There seems to be conflicting info on this.

No it does not. You can soft proof an image but that is all.

 

[imacken]

No it does not. You can soft proof an image but that is all.

Probably a show-stopper for me then as I supply all my ads to papers and mags, and they require CMYK.

 

[CrickettGrrrl]

Probably a show-stopper for me then as I supply all my ads to papers and mags, and they require CMYK.

What about supplying the printer with a PDF? I recently purchased Acorn so I'm not well-versed in it yet, but I just checked and it does allow exporting files in CMYK. I believe Acorn is still on sale, $35 off regular price.

 

[imacken]

What about supplying the printer with a PDF? I recently purchased Acorn so I'm not well-versed in it yet, but I just checked and it does allow exporting files in CMYK. I believe Acorn is still on sale, $35 off regular price.

Thanks for that. I use Illustrator and Photoshop to send CMYK pdfs, but am looking for replacements as I am pretty annoyed with the whole subscription model thing from Adobe.
Pixelmator looks interesting. I might buy it anyway and have a look.

 

[CrickettGrrrl]

Thanks for that. I use Illustrator and Photoshop to send CMYK pdfs, but am looking for replacements as I am pretty annoyed with the whole subscription model thing from Adobe.
Pixelmator looks interesting. I might buy it anyway and have a look.

Yes, I know what you mean, I've been investigating alternatives too. At $15 at the moment, you ought to look into getting Acorn as well since it does export CMYK.

 

[epic-retouching]

I'm not a mom, dad, or a little kid, and I find it to be very useful, and a terrific bargain besides. I think you are confusing simplicity of use with a lack of power. A common mistake.

I'm sorry if it offended you but I do have solid ground to stand on with my experience and profession. Pixelmator is not a PS replacement. Sorry again

 

[IJ Reilly]

I'm sorry if it offended you but I do have solid ground to stand on with my experience and profession. Pixelmator is not a PS replacement. Sorry again

I'm not offended, I just think you made an absurd statement. It's a common mistake around here to say that if a person doesn't need the most powerful app on the shelf that they are a non-serious user.

 

[Donka]

I'm sorry if it offended you but I do have solid ground to stand on with my experience and profession. Pixelmator is not a PS replacement. Sorry again

Surely that depends on how you use PS in the first place? I know of a professional photographer who typically uses Lightroom but for the rare occasional when he needs to do pixel editing, he uses Pixelmator over an ancient version of Photoshop. The resultant file is still dropped back into Lightroom so he still has all his usual exporting options for print etc.
Everyone's usage is different of course and I apologise for calling you Surely!