Pixelmator Pro 2.0 Launches With All-New Design and Native Apple M1 Support

[MacRumors]

Popular image editor app Pixelmator Pro has released version 2.0 ahead of schedule, bringing an all-new design for macOS Big Sur and native support for Macs powered by Apple's new M1 chip.

The new design features a simplified Effects Browser that makes it easier to find and apply effects, and new compact layouts for the sidebars and presets.

There's also a new Workspaces feature that lets users customize the look of Pixelmator, with presets optimized for photo editing, design, illustration, and painting.

With native support for Apple's new M1-powered Macs, Pixelmator Pro 2.0 takes advantage of the chip's 16-core Neural Engine for accelerated machine learning. This allows for features like Super Resolution, which intelligently increases the resolution of images while preserving details, to work up to 15x faster.

The editing engine is powered by Metal, which makes it easy for the app to take full advantage of the unified memory architecture in Apple's system-on-a-chip. There's also a new app icon that aligns with Apple's docked apps, and a new unified toolbar with switches and menus that look native to the macOS 11 Big Sur aesthetic.

Pixelmator 2.0 is a Universal app, so it runs natively on both M1 and Intel-based Macs. The image editing app is a free upgrade for existing Pixelmator Pro users, otherwise it costs $39.99 and can be downloaded directly from the Mac App Store.

Article Link: Pixelmator Pro 2.0 Launches With All-New Design and Native Apple M1 Support

 

[Marbles1]

>This allows for features like Super Resolution, which intelligently increases the resolution of images while preserving details, to work up to 15x faster.

How on earth does this work?
How can you increase the size of an image, but 'preserve' details? Won't everything just be scaled up? You can't introduce resolution where there's no more data.

 

[Serban55]

My God...cant wait to try this
This will make my 2019 Dell Xps ancient

 

[FSMBP]

Cannot praise this app enough - good UI, good light-alternative to Photoshop. I hate subscription apps and this is a steal for $40 for a hobbyist.

Waiting for a iMac M1X to run Pixelmator on...

 

[ruka.snow]

>This allows for features like Super Resolution, which intelligently increases the resolution of images while preserving details, to work up to 15x faster.

How on earth does this work?
How can you increase the size of an image, but 'preserve' details? Won't everything just be scaled up? You can't introduce resolution where there's no more data.

It is a wee bit like how you can delete a object in Photoshop. It does not always work but has a good guess and a library of what it 'expects' to find.

 

[-BigMac-]

>This allows for features like Super Resolution, which intelligently increases the resolution of images while preserving details, to work up to 15x faster.

How on earth does this work?
How can you increase the size of an image, but 'preserve' details? Won't everything just be scaled up? You can't introduce resolution where there's no more data.

Lmao exactly. Its like the james bond movies “enhance, enhance” pulling detail out of thin air haha

 

[FSMBP]

>This allows for features like Super Resolution, which intelligently increases the resolution of images while preserving details, to work up to 15x faster.

How on earth does this work?
How can you increase the size of an image, but 'preserve' details? Won't everything just be scaled up? You can't introduce resolution where there's no more data.

I think they us Machine-Learning to extrapolate edge-detail to make it less jagged-fuzzy. It's not like "Enhance" and the picture is magically clearer, but it makes it better.

 

[sfwalter]

>This allows for features like Super Resolution, which intelligently increases the resolution of images while preserving details, to work up to 15x faster.

How on earth does this work?
How can you increase the size of an image, but 'preserve' details? Won't everything just be scaled up? You can't introduce resolution where there's no more data.

Machine Learning. I guess thru the power of guessing what pixels they should add

 

[adamw]

Got to get this, as I need native photo editing on my Apple Silicon M1 Mac mini.

 

[FaustsHausUK]

I wish I could like Pixelmator. I worked in Photoshop for 20 years, and most other image editors make me feel cack-handed as their tools operate differently. Pixelmator, Acorn and Affinity all confuse me.

 

[IVYHILL]

Really wish they’d release this for iPad Pro.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

Tried it a bit on my "old" MBP, seems ok.

Cannot wait to try something difficult on the M1 MacBook Air...

 

[oneMadRssn]

I hate subscription apps and this is a steal for $40 for a hobbyist.

Ditto. It's odd the article didn't mention that this is a free upgrade too. It's not like people that bought Pixelmator Pro 1 need to buy 2.0 again.

 

[Okasian]

I think they us Machine-Learning to extrapolate edge-detail to make it less jagged-fuzzy. It's not like "Enhance" and the picture is magically clearer, but it makes it better.

Machine Learning. I guess thru the power of guessing what pixels they should add

Topaz Labs’ Gigapixel AI software does something similar. So it’s definitely possible.

 

[trash eighty]

I wish I could like Pixelmator. I worked in Photoshop for 20 years, and most other image editors make me feel cack-handed as their tools operate differently. Pixelmator, Acorn and Affinity all confuse me.

I know what you mean, decades of Photoshop muscle memory are difficult to change. I have tried Pixelmator in the past and it is OK, i might try the Pro version out some time soon.

 

[jlocker]

I can not wait to try this on my 2019 MacBook Pro 16! with the Intel i9 chip and the AMD 5500M!

 

[icwhatudidthere]

I wish I could like Pixelmator. I worked in Photoshop for 20 years, and most other image editors make me feel cack-handed as their tools operate differently. Pixelmator, Acorn and Affinity all confuse me.

Adobe switching to subscription apps was all the incentive I needed to find out I could still learn new tricks.

 

[guzhogi]

Really wish they’d release this for iPad Pro.

Pixelmator has an iPad app: https://www.pixelmator.com/ios/. Might not have 100% parity with the Mac version, but it's something.

 

[leman]

How on earth does this work?
How can you increase the size of an image, but 'preserve' details? Won't everything just be scaled up? You can't introduce resolution where there's no more data.

They use a lot of high resolution images with all kind of content and train a system to recognize resemblances. It can then try to "guess" what the "original" high-res image might have been. Of course you will not get the real original image, but it will produce something that looks very realistic.

 

[zduhac]

Ditto. It's odd the article didn't mention that this is a free upgrade too. It's not like people that bought Pixelmator Pro 1 need to buy 2.0 again.

Came here looking for this info. Thanks

 

[ventmore]

>This allows for features like Super Resolution, which intelligently increases the resolution of images while preserving details, to work up to 15x faster.

How on earth does this work?
How can you increase the size of an image, but 'preserve' details? Won't everything just be scaled up? You can't introduce resolution where there's no more data.

I think they us Machine-Learning to extrapolate edge-detail to make it less jagged-fuzzy. It's not like "Enhance" and the picture is magically clearer, but it makes it better.

Here’s a quote from their blog on how they trained it to work:

As computers get ever more powerful, the additional power opens up new possibilities. One of the uses of machine learning, on a very fundamental level, is to make predictions about things. In this case, we gathered a set of images, scaled them down, and then ‘taught’ the algorithm to go from the scaled-down version to the original resolution, high-quality image, predicting the values of each new pixel. The algorithm can’t recreate detail that is too small to be visible but it can make amazing predictions about edges, shapes, contours, and patterns that traditional algorithms simply cannot.

Blog post is here:

- Pixelmator

www.pixelmator.com

 

[iMi]

>This allows for features like Super Resolution, which intelligently increases the resolution of images while preserving details, to work up to 15x faster.

How on earth does this work?
How can you increase the size of an image, but 'preserve' details? Won't everything just be scaled up? You can't introduce resolution where there's no more data.

Yeah, you can. That is what I use this app to do.

 

[yg17]

What are the odds this will be on sale next week for Black Friday?

 

[bchery21]

I love this app, use it all the time!

 

[aberamati]

What are the odds this will be on sale next week for Black Friday?

Last year it was on sale.
But this year I don’t think they will do it, since it’s a brand new version with much publicity.