Pixelmator Pro

Last updated
Pixelmator Pro
Developer(s) Pixelmator Team
Initial releaseNovember 29, 2017
Stable release
3.6 Archipelago
Written in Swift
Operating system macOS
Predecessor Pixelmator Classic
Type Graphics software
License Proprietary
Website www.pixelmator.com

Pixelmator Pro is a photo, video, [1] and vector [2] graphic editor developed by Pixelmator Team for macOS as part of its Pixelmator set of apps. As a Mac-only app, Pixelmator Pro relies heavily on technologies from Apple platforms such as Metal, CoreML, Core Image, AVFoundation, GCD, and SwiftUI. [3] They are based in Vilnius, Lithuania. [4]

Contents

Features

Reception

Pixelmator Pro was generally well-received by reviewers who praised its deep use of machine learning, [7] fully macOS-native design, [8] and relatively affordable one-time purchase compared to subscription software such as Adobe Photoshop. [9] Some reviewers criticized that some features hard to find or hard to use. [9] [10] It was awarded Apple's Mac App of the Year in 2018. [11]

Purchase by Apple

On November 1, 2024, the Pixelmator Team announced that they were to be acquired by Apple, subject to regulatory approval. [12] Their site promises "There will be no material changes to the Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator for iOS, and Photomator apps at this time."

Version History

VersionCodenameRelease DateNotable ChangesRef(s)
1.0WhirlwindNovember 29, 2017
  • Initial release
 [13]
1.1MonsoonMay 31, 2018
  • Added Touch Bar support
  • Added vector import/export support
  • Added SVG and HEIF support
  • Added slice tool
  • Added Tutorials
 [14] [15]
1.2QuicksilverOctober 18, 2018 [16] [17]
1.3PrismJanuary 18, 2019
  • Added layer tagging, filters, and search
  • Added clip masks
 [18] [19]
1.4HummingbirdJuly 23, 2019 [20] [21]
1.5AvalonOctober 10, 2019 [22] [23]
1.6MagentaMarch 30, 2020
  • New color picker
  • Notifies users if a font is missing from the system
  • Performance improvements
  • Added WebP support
 [24] [25]
1.7SequoiaJuly 16, 2020
  • Added ML Super Resolution
  • Text can now be placed along paths, improving the ability to make rounded text
  • The canvas can now be freely rotated to any angle
 [5]
1.8LynxSeptember 17, 2020 [26]
2.0JuniperoNovember 18, 2020 [27] [28]
2.1CoralJune 29, 2021
  • Added ML Crop
  • Rewritten .PSD engine
 [29] [26]
2.2CarmelOctober 25, 2021 [30]
2.3AbracadabraNovember 23, 2021
  • Added AI-powered Magic Background Eraser and Select Subject
  • Added Select and Mask tool
  • Added export to Motion
[31] [26]
2.4OdesaApril 12, 2022
  • Added color adjustments layers
  • Redesigned layers sidebar
  • Added new vector shapes
 [32]
3.0MuseSeptember 22, 2022
  • Added 200+ design templates and 16 editable mockups
  • Added AI-powered Smart Replace
 [33] [6]
3.1FortunaNovember 2, 2022 [34]
3.2LumièreDecember 6, 2022
  • Added video editing (with accompanying new templates)
  • Added support for MP4, MOV, and other video formats
  • Added ML-based deband
 [35] [1] [26]
3.3MosaicFebruary 28, 2023
  • Added Remove Color feature
  • Added Shadow and Highlight Recovery
  • Added Stroke Styles
 [36] [37]
3.4CamelotSeptember 11, 2023
  • Added advanced PDF support
  • Added Convert to PDF Shortcut
 [38]
3.5FlareDecember 13, 2023 [39]
3.6ArchipelagoMay 23, 2024
  • Redesigned masking
  • AI background masks
  • Full masking compability
3.6.7ArchipelagoAug 20, 2024
  • Auto Straighten
  • Other Improvements and Fixes

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adobe Photoshop</span> Raster graphics editing software

Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe for Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital art, especially in raster graphics editing, and its name has become genericised as a verb although Adobe disapproves of such use.

iMovie Video editing software developed by Apple

iMovie is a free video editing application made by Apple for the Mac, the iPhone, and the iPad. It includes a range of video effects and tools like color correction and image stabilization, but is designed to be accessible to users with little or no video editing experience. iMovie's professional equivalent is Apple's Final Cut Pro X.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Preview (macOS)</span> Image and PDF viewer software by Apple

Preview is the built-in image viewer and PDF viewer of the macOS operating system. In addition to viewing and printing digital images and Portable Document Format (PDF) files, it can also edit these media types. It employs the Aqua graphical user interface, the Quartz graphics layer, and the ImageIO and Core Image frameworks.

Raster graphics editors can be compared by many variables, including availability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aperture (software)</span> Image organizer for macOS

Aperture is a discontinued professional image organizer and editor developed by Apple between 2005 and 2015 for the Mac, as a professional alternative to iPhoto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photo Booth</span> Apple Inc. software application, with many unique filters. is an iPad only application

Photo Booth is an application developed by Apple Inc. for the macOS and iPadOS operating systems that allows users to take photos and videos using the device's built-in camera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pixelmator Classic</span> Raster graphics editor

Pixelmator Classic is a raster graphic editor developed for macOS by Pixelmator Team, and built upon a combination of open-source and macOS technologies. Pixelmator features selection, painting, retouching, navigation, and color correction tools; as well as layers-based image editing, GPU-powered image processing, color management, automation, and a transparent head-up display user interface for work with images. Pixelmator Classic uses Core Image and OpenGL technologies that use the Mac's video card for image processing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Serif Europe</span> British software developer and publisher

Serif (Europe) Ltd., a subsidiary of Canva, is a British software developer and publisher, best known for its Affinity suite of professional graphic design, photo editing, and desktop publishing software. The company delivers products directly to consumers through its dedicated website and contact centre, as well as through various retailers.

WebP is a raster graphics file format developed by Google intended as a replacement for JPEG, PNG, and GIF file formats. It supports both lossy and lossless compression, as well as animation and alpha transparency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Facetune</span> Mobile photo editing application

Facetune is a photo and video editing application used to edit, enhance, and retouch photos on a user's iOS or Android device created by Lightricks. The app is often used for portrait and selfie editing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affinity Designer</span> Vector graphics editor

Affinity Designer is a vector graphics editor developed by Serif for macOS, iPadOS, and Microsoft Windows. It is part of the "Affinity trinity" alongside Affinity Photo and Affinity Publisher. Affinity Designer is available for purchase directly from the company website and in the Mac App Store, iOS App Store, and the Microsoft Store.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affinity Photo</span> Photo editing app

Affinity Photo is a raster graphics editor developed by Serif Ltd. for iPadOS, macOS, and Windows, alongside Affinity Designer and Affinity Publisher. Development of Affinity Photo started in 2009 as a raster graphics editor for macOS. Its first version reached general availability in 2015 with the Windows version launched a year later. It is a successor to PhotoPlus which Serif discontinued in 2017.

High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is an international standard defined by MPEG-H Part 12, first published by the ISO in 2017. It is designed as a container for photographic images in any image encoding. HEIF is a special case of the general ISO BMFF format, in which all data is encapsulated in typed boxes, with a mandatory ftyp box that is used to indicate particular file types. The initial specification for HEIF provided usage details for three compression schemes: the widely supported JPEG encoding for still raster images and two video encodings that are also applicable to still image items, namely Advanced Video Coding and High Efficiency Video Coding.

Acorn is a raster graphic editor for macOS developed by August Mueller of Flying Meat Inc, based out of Mukilteo, Washington, United States. Acorn was first released on September 10, 2007 and was built upon the framework of a previous image editing application of Flying Meat Inc., FlySketch.

Skylum is a software development company based in Kyiv, Ukraine. It is most known for its award-winning photo editing software Luminar Neo and Aurora HDR. Skylum is also the developer of other photography apps for Mac such as Snapheal, Focus, Tonality, Intensify, Noiseless, and FX Photo Studio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AVIF</span> Raster graphics file format

AV1 Image File Format (AVIF) is an open, royalty-free image file format specification for storing images or image sequences compressed with AV1 in the HEIF container format. It competes with HEIC, which uses the same container format built upon ISOBMFF, but HEVC for compression. Version 1.0.0 of the AVIF specification was finalized in February 2019. Version 1.1.0 was finalized in April 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fotor</span> Photo editing software

Fotor is a multi-platform photo editing software. It was first launched in 2012 and was dubbed "Photoshop Lite" by the BBC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Affinity Publisher</span> Desktop publishing application

Affinity Publisher is a desktop publishing application developed by Serif for iPadOS, macOS and Microsoft Windows. It is a part of the Affinity product line along with Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Find My</span> Asset tracking app

Find My is an asset tracking service made by Apple Inc. that enables users to track the location of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, visionOS, tvOS devices, AirPods, AirTags, and a number of supported third-party accessories through a connected iCloud account. Users can also show their primary device's geographic location to others, and can view the location of others who choose to share their location. Find My was released alongside iOS 13 on September 19, 2019, merging the functions of the former Find My iPhone and Find My Friends into a single app. On watchOS, Find My is separated into three different applications: Find Devices, Find People and Find Items.

Pixelmator is a series of graphics editors developed by Pixelmator Team for macOS and iOS. Pixelmator apps are largely built on Apple-specific technologies such as CoreML and Metal. Pixelmator uses a proprietary format across their apps (.PXD), but supports a variety of file types including Photoshop, RAW, and WebP. All Pixelmator apps support image editing, but Pixelmator Pro also supports video and vector graphics.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Salman, Ali (2022-12-08). "Latest Pixelmator Pro Update Brings Support For Video Editing on the Mac". Wccftech. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  2. ↑ Zibreg, Christian (2018-05-31). "Pixelmator Pro gains HEIF export, web tools, Touch Bar support, smart adjustments & more". iDownloadBlog.com. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  3. 1 2 3 Team, Pixelmator. "Tech Specs - Pixelmator Pro". Tech Specs - Pixelmator Pro. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  4. ↑ |https://www.pixelmator.com/blog/2024/11/01/a-new-home-for-pixelmator|
  5. 1 2 Zibreg, Christian (2020-07-16). "Pixelmator Pro 1.7 adds text on a path, freeform canvas rotation & more". iDownloadBlog.com. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  6. 1 2 Mendez, Andrew (2022-09-22). "Pixelmator Pro 3.0 arrives, adding new features, 200 templates, mockups and more". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  7. ↑ Jackie Dove (2018-01-23). "Pixelmator Pro Review: Still a Powerful Bargin". Tom's Guide. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  8. ↑ Simpson, Jayphen (2017-09-06). "Pixelmator Pro to Feature AI-Powered Photo Editing Features". PetaPixel. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  9. 1 2 "Pixelmator Pro review: An affordable alternative for pro Photoshop users". Macworld. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  10. ↑ Jackie Dove (2018-01-23). "Pixelmator Pro Review: Still a Powerful Bargin". Tom's Guide. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  11. ↑ "Apple presents the best of 2018". Apple Newsroom. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  12. ↑ Team, Pixelmator (2024-11-01). "A new home for Pixelmator". Pixelmator Blog. Retrieved 2025-01-15.
  13. ↑ "Pixelmator Team introduces Pixelmator Pro - Pixelmator Blog". www.pixelmator.com. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  14. ↑ "Pixelmator Team releases major update to Pixelmator Pro - Pixelmator Blog". www.pixelmator.com. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  15. ↑ Zibreg, Christian (2018-05-31). "Pixelmator Pro gains HEIF export, web tools, Touch Bar support, smart adjustments & more". iDownloadBlog.com. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  16. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 1.2 Quicksilver out now - Pixelmator Blog". www.pixelmator.com. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  17. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 1.2 upgrade adds macOS Mojave support, Core ML-based photo enhancement tool". AppleInsider. 2018-10-18. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  18. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro gets another major update - Pixelmator Blog". www.pixelmator.com. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  19. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro gets new layer tools, clipping masks, more in 'Prism' update". AppleInsider. 2019-01-23. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  20. ↑ "Hands on: Pixelmator Pro 1.4 brings full image editing tools to Apple Photos". AppleInsider. 2019-07-23. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  21. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro updated with incredible new Photos extension - Pixelmator Blog". www.pixelmator.com. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  22. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 1.5 Avalon now available - Pixelmator Blog". www.pixelmator.com. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  23. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro v1.5 adds support for Catalina, Sidecar, and the Mac Pro". AppleInsider. 2020-08-31. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  24. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 1.6 Magenta now available". Pixelmator Blog. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  25. ↑ Team, Pixelmator. "Pixelmator Pro adds WebP support". Pixelmator Blog. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  26. 1 2 3 4 "What's New". What's New. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  27. ↑ Chin, Monica (2020-11-18). "Pixelmator Pro gets update for M1 Macs". The Verge. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  28. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 2.0 Launches With All-New Design and Native Apple M1 Support". MacRumors. 2020-11-18. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  29. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 2.1 Coral Brings AI-Driven Cropping, Quick Fill and Stroke With Brush Features, and More". MacRumors. 2021-06-29. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  30. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 2.2 Update Adds macOS Monterey Support, 28 Shortcuts Actions, New Split Comparison View, and More". MacRumors. 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  31. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 2.3 released: New AI-powered Magic Background Eraser and Select Subject". DPReview. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  32. ↑ Oliver Haslam (2022-04-12). "Huge Pixelmator Pro 2.4 gains a new-look Layers sidebar, new shapes, and more". iMore. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  33. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 3.0 Released With Over 200 Design Templates and Mockups, More". iClarified. 2022-09-22. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  34. ↑ "New Pixelmator Pro 3.1 adds macOS Ventura and AVIF image support". AppleInsider. 2022-11-02. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  35. ↑ "Pixelmator 3.2 released: Affordable Mac image editing app adds video editing". DPReview. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  36. ↑ Adorno, José (2023-02-28). "Pixelmator Pro 3.3 for Mac adds powerful new features". BGR. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  37. ↑ Gray, Jeremy (2023-02-28). "Pixelmator Pro Update Makes it Easier to Remove Color and Improve Photos". PetaPixel. Retrieved 2023-08-05.
  38. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 3.4 adds extensive PDF editing support including separating images and text into layers". AppleInsider. 2023-09-11. Retrieved 2023-09-12.
  39. ↑ "Pixelmator Pro 3.5 update adds HDR image and video editing support". AppleInsider. 2023-12-13. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.