Pixelmator Announces New 'Pixelmator Pro' Software Coming This Fall

[MacRumors]

The team behind the popular Pixelmator photo editing app for iOS and Mac today announced plans to unveil an all new pro-level app, Pixelmator Pro.

According to the Pixelmator Pro teaser site, the new software features a reimagined editing workflow, simplified editing tools, and intelligent image editing features powered by machine learning.

Pixelmator Pro is a powerful, beautiful, and easy to use image editor. Featuring an elegant and streamlined single-window interface, it puts all the focus on the images you edit, rather than what's around them. And with a design that is totally and completely Mac, it feels instantly familiar from the moment you first open the app. So image editing becomes simpler and more enjoyable than ever.

Pixelmator Pro takes advantage of the new Core ML framework built into macOS High Sierra to provide features like automatic layer naming based on layer content, automatic horizon detection, an improved repair tool for removing objects from photos effortlessly, and a quick selection tool that's better than ever.

The interface includes tools designed to make it easy to resize and rearrange layers, with a nondestructive Arrange Tool, smart spacing guides, and advanced alignment tools for aligning several objects with a click, plus there's a new painting engine powered by Metal 2 and dynamic paint blending technology.

Nondestructive color adjustment tools let you edit the colors in photos, there are a selection of effects that can be added to each layer and combined in Recipes, and there are shape tools, drawing tools, layer styles, and more. All in all, Pixelmator Pro includes more than 40 tools to work with.

Pixelmator Pro will be available sometime this fall. Prospective customers can sign up to get an email when the software launches on the Pixelmator Pro website.

Article Link: Pixelmator Announces New 'Pixelmator Pro' Software Coming This Fall

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Bad time for their website to go down.

Personally I'll stay away. After a few years of waiting for a Pixelmator interface which is not made up by miniscule icons in dark grey on a black background, I've given up on the company. Not all of us sit in a completely dark room with screen brightness on "Sun in your face" when we work.

 

[Glassed Silver]

I mean, any competition to Adobe is a boon, but I'll stick to Affinity I guess, even though their product pipeline communication is almost as bad as Apple's. (one word: DAM)

Glassed Silver:ios

 

[viettanium]

free update for existing Pixelmator user?

 

[miscend]

What no paid upgrades?

 

[v1597psh]

Look at the iCal icon in the dock. it says October 26. It might be the release date! Very excited!

 

[576316]

Argh. I really like Pixelmator but I use Windows as my daily driver now, and really missing Pixelmator. I can totally understand their mission being a macOS-only one, but damn it...is it too much to ask for a Windows release?!

 

[BrettArchibald]

I don't get why this new version is being promoted as a separate PRO application?
Is their current Pixelmator not *intended* to be used by professionals?
Why not just upgrade the existing version with the new features?
I suspect the reason why not is more due to marketing-decisions and the justification to charge a higher price for a separate app...

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Re: upgrades. As I see it this is just a teaser announcement. Upgrade pricing, if any, will come at the actual announcement. BUT c'mon Pixelmator is $30 or less. It's been on sale for as low as $15 AND it's very easy to get iTunes Gift Cards at 15-20% off. So my gut says there will be no upgrade pricing and I'm 100% OK with that -- you should be too. Devs need to make money on upgrades otherwise they have no incentive to update their programs. $30 is a freaking bargain for what Pixelmator does.

 

[576316]

$30 is a freaking bargain for what Pixelmator does.

Agreed. Pixelmator is an incredible tool, and it's damn cheap. Adobe would happily charge you that price every month for Photoshop.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

I don't get why this new version is being promoted as a separate PRO application?

Well we don't know if it is a separate application or a complete replacement yet. But I would guess if it isn't a replacement it's to prevent people from whining about a free or discounted upgrade. They can't do that if it's considered a totally brand new app. Also it would give Pixelmator a way to increase the price. They could sell "Pro" for, say $50, and keep Pixelmator at $30 or even reduce it to $20.

 

[djcerla]

Well we don't know if it is a separate application or a complete replacement yet. But I would guess if it isn't a replacement it's to prevent people from whining about a free or discounted upgrade. They can't do that if it's considered a totally brand new app. Also it would give Pixelmator a way to increase the price. They could sell "Pro" for, say $50, and keep Pixelmator at $30 or even reduce it to $20.

More like $99. Or $199.

 

[coolfactor]

I don't get why this new version is being promoted as a separate PRO application?
Is their current Pixelmator not *intended* to be used by professionals?
Why not just upgrade the existing version with the new features?
I suspect the reason why not is more due to marketing-decisions and the justification to charge a higher price for a separate app...

Yah, I'm afraid this will send the app down the same path as OmniGraffle... where users will end up with less certainty about which version is a better fit for them. I know that I can't justify the price for the "Pro" version of the app, even if I could really use that _one_ handy feature. Are the days of Pixelmator having the tremendous price advantage almost behind us?

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

When this dev speaks the net explodes. Looking forward to this. Watch the vid.

 

[lunarworks]

Bad time for their website to go down.

Personally I'll stay away. After a few years of waiting for a Pixelmator interface which is not made up by miniscule icons in dark grey on a black background, I've given up on the company. Not all of us sit in a completely dark room with screen brightness on "Sun in your face" when we work.

Small icons let you have more screen space for photo editing, and dark controls let your eyes focus on the photo better.

 

[zantafio]

it's going to be hard to beat Affinity Design/Photo

 

[MrChurchyard]

Argh. I really like Pixelmator but I use Windows as my daily driver now, and really missing Pixelmator. I can totally understand their mission being a macOS-only one, but damn it...is it too much to ask for a Windows release?!

Yes—if for instance they make heavy use of CoreML, replicating those features on Windows would be punitive. Their entire app is heavily based on Cocoa, I doubt a lot of their code can be easily repurposed as cross-platform—a port would be tough to do.

 

[swm]

More like $99. Or $199.

or a subscription based ****up, for the worst case.
anyway, for a product that may last 2-3 years with continuous bugfixes/improvements, charging $99 is pretty reasonable.

 

[uncle808us]

The green Apple slime parts and another greedy head arises from the mirky Apple waters. Apple theory never fix the old. re-package add something small call it new raise the price.Pitiful!!

 

[reallynotnick]

I'm curious as to how this app will pan out in price and support. I had been wanting to buy Pixelmator for awhile but my old Mac didn't support most of the tech that made it great. Now that I have a more modern Mac I'm interested in either picking this up or their older app, guess I'll just have to wait a little longer to see how this shakes up.

 

[simonmet]

Argh. I really like Pixelmator but I use Windows as my daily driver now, and really missing Pixelmator. I can totally understand their mission being a macOS-only one, but damn it...is it too much to ask for a Windows release?!

As stated in this article, Pixelmator relies on a lot of core OS X (sorry “macOS”) technologies, so it can’t translate to Windows without pretty much rebuilding the app from scratch with equivalent Windows technologies, where they exist, or rebuilding them where they don’t.

You’d then have the ongoing drain of maintaining cross-platform comparability which would impact cost, rate of development, stability and bugginess all negatively for Mac users.

Pixelmator is just one of those fantastic Mac-only apps that shows what the Mac platform is capable of when in the hands of some switched-on Mac developers.
[doublepost=1504616431][/doublepost]

The green Apple slime parts and another greedy head arises from the mirky Apple waters. Apple theory never fix the old. re-package add something small call it new raise the price.Pitiful!!

Do you know how long Pixelmator has been out without asking users to pay for a single update, of which there’ve been many?

I can’t even remember how many years it’s been since I bought it. Pixelmator is about as good to the customer as you can get yet you find a way to call them greedy slime? Unbelievable!

I have no need for a Pro image editor but if I did I’m sure Pixelmator Pro will offer very good value and support.

 

[johannnn]

Love how many great app there are nowadays (Pixelmator, Luminar, Affinity Photo & Designer etc). For almost all people the Adobe suite is finally not needed

 

[cmChimera]

Re: upgrades. As I see it this is just a teaser announcement. Upgrade pricing, if any, will come at the actual announcement. BUT c'mon Pixelmator is $30 or less. It's been on sale for as low as $15 AND it's very easy to get iTunes Gift Cards at 15-20% off. So my gut says there will be no upgrade pricing and I'm 100% OK with that -- you should be too. Devs need to make money on upgrades otherwise they have no incentive to update their programs. $30 is a freaking bargain for what Pixelmator does.

And also they've had plenty of free upgrades, and are not suggesting something like subscription pricing.

 

[joueboy]

After been stucked exclusively on MacOS for a long time, they eventually started adapting Tim's motto name things Pro and that should work better and sell more. I would have thought Pixelmator is better than that and should have made their product available to other platforms. I really hope they'll take off and hope for the best for the team. For now I'm happy for the Lightroom and Photoshop combo for $10 a month.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

More like $99. Or $199.

Well we can all speculate on price. But based on what Pixelmator is saying itself I seriously doubt it will be anything near $199: “The target audience is pretty much everyone,” Pixelmator’s Andrius Gailiunas tells The Verge.

If this is for "everyone" then that means consumers. They are not paying $199 for an app I can guarantee. I highly doubt they are paying $99 given you can get PS Elements AND Premiere for $79 or less and that is all a casual consumer needs.

The original Pixelmator is $30. An updated version at best isn't going to be more than $60 and that is reaching. Pixelmator's real competitor is Affinity Photo which is $50. That is where I got my $50 from. Where are you getting your Space Station prices?