Pixelmator for Mac gets El Capitan optimizations, Metal-based Photos extension
Pixelmator for Mac was updated to version 3.4 on Thursday, adding things like optimization for OS X El Capitan, and a new Photos extension founded on Apple's Metal graphics technology.
The extension gathers together a group of Distort tools, which can be applied to Photos images without having to load up Pixelmator. These include Warp, Bump, Pinch, and Twirl, which can all be undone if necessary using a Restore tool.
The plugin is not only based on Metal, but coded in Apple's Swift 2 programming language, and supports Force Touch trackpads for controlling the strength of effects.
Pixelmator itself has gained a smoother Force Touch implementation, and now uses Apple's San Francisco font for interface labels. The one major feature addition is support for El Capitan's Split View, which lets users run two apps side-by-side in fullscreen mode.
Pixelmator for Mac costs $30 at the Mac App Store, and requires OS X 10.9.5 or later.
The extension gathers together a group of Distort tools, which can be applied to Photos images without having to load up Pixelmator. These include Warp, Bump, Pinch, and Twirl, which can all be undone if necessary using a Restore tool.
The plugin is not only based on Metal, but coded in Apple's Swift 2 programming language, and supports Force Touch trackpads for controlling the strength of effects.
Pixelmator itself has gained a smoother Force Touch implementation, and now uses Apple's San Francisco font for interface labels. The one major feature addition is support for El Capitan's Split View, which lets users run two apps side-by-side in fullscreen mode.
Pixelmator for Mac costs $30 at the Mac App Store, and requires OS X 10.9.5 or later.
Comments
Agree, I use this program on both my Mac and my iOS devices....
Frankly, Photos is another Apple app, like Music, that took a big step backwards...why would they remove the "Edit In External Editor" from iPhoto? It was a seamless way to bring an image into Photoshop, makes some advanced edits, and upon saving, the original was automatically updated in iPhoto.
Now, its a completely broken process.
I have Pixelmator (nice app), but this extension is rather useless, as its just a grouping of some distort filters.
It's been several months, and I don't see one way way, other than a several step manual process of exporting and importing, to edit Photo images in an external editor.
There are many other aspects in Photos which are poorer than iPhoto, it's really a shame...
Apple just updated its iWork suite for OS and iOS. Looks like a significant update as it adds compatibility to open files from previous versions as well as Force Touch and 3d Touch support.
Missing 'Edit in external editor' is hardly a 'big step backwards'. It is a feature that hopefully will be re-introduced. I used it all the time but it is not a deal breaker.
A feature in Photos I that is desperately lacking imo is the ability to adjust individual colors. The color-balance slider just doesn't cut it.
Sure it is. Especially if you used to use it all the time, There are many things you need to do outside Photo, especially since they killed Aperture, which could at least do more.
The GUI is less intuitive, the removed the date overlay when scrolling through the library, and some of the tools as you note need improvement.
When Photos was launched, may implied to give it time, third party extensions will be forthcoming to allow editing. Several months later, where?
My point is that every iteration seems to win some and lose some, but on the whole it gets better. And we learn to live with it. I have always felt that the 'it's a big step backwards' complaint is a little alarmist, as with iMovie which I personally think is better than ever. (quickly ducks).
Pixelmator - the perfect photo editing app for guys like me who'd buy an off-the shelf version of Adobe CS in a heartbeat, but don't do so much editing that we'd subscribe to Adobe CC.
If they sold Photoshop 7 (yes, that edition...) now...for a couple of hundred quid. I'd buy it. But NO rental greed for me.
Pixelmator now on iPad, iPhone and Mac...? Bargain prices. Power packed software at great value. It can do 'most' of what most people want from an image editor with gpu acceleration. It's 'missing' some stuff. But they're close that 'gap' with each update. Always very supportive of Apple's latest tech'. (Where it seems Adobe is already backpeddaling on it's 'promise' to utilise metal.) Got this. Like it. No windows version in sight. :P
Affinity. Watch these guys. Make the superbly excellent Designer and Photo. Very little coin...with free updates for 2 years! Absolutely brilliant debut software. I've got both. Powerful. Potent. Elegant. And more to come from these guys as they chase down those 'Adobe' features. Great performance and supporting the latest Mac tech'. No windows version in sight! :PP
Manga Studio. This is a dark horse drawing app. Any comic artist can give Adobe the flick with this fantastic piece of software. Get Manga Studio 5 for little coin...or upgrade to the 'X' version for the storyboard function. I have it. Love it.
Great tools for artists who can make use of them. My iMac is great with them.
And let us not forget the seismic 'Procreate' for iPad. It's going to rock on the iPad Pro with Pencil.
I have one copy of Photoshop. One left behind on PPC...
My beloved version 7 of Photoshop. And... I can't really use it as my Power Mac G4 is creaky old.
Adobe can go stuff. I gave them a couple of grand in software that I can no longer use. I like the new, powerful and hungry app developers.
Times are a changing.
Lemon Bon Bon.
My only trivial (and very personal) issue with them both is after decades as a daily Photoshop user I find the icons for brushes etc. feel clunky and too cartoonish but I freely admit that is obviously my long time use of Adobe's spartan approach.
100% agree. I would love for one of these companies to come out with a Muse killer. I have long given up with the arcane and complex web development software, even though I grew up on it, and now prefer the likes of Muse but it's back to the f****g Adobe Cloud crap and all the intrusive stuff it does. I swear Little Snitch spends more CPU cycles on Adobe that Google these days. Yes I pay for legit versions through Adobe but I do not want them running daemons 24/7 on my Mac, most not related to Muse, rather other products they want to push and that bloody Acrobat Reader I do not want.
BTW I used to love your handle till I cracked the back off a molar yesterday crunching on my lemon bon bon! agggghhhhh.
Pixelmator still can't do CMYK
Which is why Pixelmator is yesterday's news. Affinity Photo does CMYK, and is likely the Photoshop alternative we've been waiting for.
I think you're probably right. I haven't had time to try Affinity out yet, but what I see so far certainly has my attention. Their page layout program look pretty good too.
I think you're probably right. I haven't had time to try Affinity out yet, but what I see so far certainly has my attention. Their page layout program look pretty good too.
Yes, Affinity Publisher sounds good as well. I haven't seen it yet. It will likely take two of three versions to be usable in design shops, but it's great to see another Mac-only company doing to Photoshop what Quark should have done ages ago.
Pixelmator - the perfect photo editing app for guys like me who'd buy an off-the shelf version of Adobe CS in a heartbeat, but don't do so much editing that we'd subscribe to Adobe CC.
A full license for photoshop alone was $750, and you still had to upgrade initially every 3 versions and toward the very end at least every 2 to maintain upgrade eligibility. You would buy that when Pixelmator meets your needs for $30 and sometimes less on sale? Pardon my skepticism.
Now to be fair, their development costs are probably a fraction of Adobe's. Adobe folded a lot of the defunct Macromedia code into their own base. They have to maintain projects for 2 platforms. Pixelmator instead relies a lot on native OSX features.
Yes, Affinity Publisher sounds good as well. I haven't seen it yet. It will likely take two of three versions to be usable in design shops, but it's great to see another Mac-only company doing to Photoshop what Quark should have done ages ago.
They don't have cmyk, because it's a lot of work to implement it. Tools may require some tweaking, and it probably requires a lot of additional color management code on their part.
They don't have cmyk, because it's a lot of work to implement it. Tools may require some tweaking, and it probably requires a lot of additional color management code on their part.
Affinity Photo has full CMYK workflow for professionals. Affinity Publisher will have the same.
Pixelmator didn't include CMYK because the principals didn't see the need for it - they thought RGB was the future and didn't plan out CMYK support when they built the product. The fact that Affinity has come from nowhere and built full CMYK support shows that it's not that difficult.
You just have to think it out at the beginning, realizing your product isn't going to be used just by web designers.
I think his position represents a lot of Adobe's customers. They probably don't need everything that Photoshop does, but they can make use of enough of it that they still will pay for it as long as they can keep the price somewhat in check. They don't need to upgrade regularly (Photoshop doesn't need to be up to date to open newer files like other Adobe apps).
This demographic encompasses a lot of professionals, not just dabblers. It's still very common to see designers and publishers (even really big ones) still using CS5 or CS6. They just have no need for CC and are not going to pay the monthly fee.
I think his position represents a lot of Adobe's customers. They probably don't need everything that Photoshop does, but they can make use of enough of it that they still will pay for it as long as they can keep the price somewhat in check. They don't need to upgrade regularly (Photoshop doesn't need to be up to date to open newer files like other Adobe apps).
This demographic encompasses a lot of professionals, not just dabblers. It's still very common to see designers and publishers (even really big ones) still using CS5 or CS6. They just have no need for CC and are not going to pay the monthly fee.
There are changes. None of them matter if you can accomplish work, but I think you misinterpreted my comment. He talked about a purchasing decision as if he's making one today. Adobe charged $750 for photoshop and around $2500 for creative suite. If the $30 solution of Pixelmator will suffice, he's lying to himself suggesting that he would pay $750 for photoshop. In fact he can still do that with CS6. That will probably work for a number of years. If a future OSX breaks something, upgrade Mac to the last one that can run the previous OSX. Keep going with that for another 2-5 years. It works because even if you're doing one sheets or something like that, you run into ram bottlenecks more than cpu ones on current/modern hardware.
If he already had CS6, he wouldn't have a need for Pixelmator. I fully believe that between the two, he would choose Adobe if they both cost the same amount with the same licensing terms.
Affinity Photo has full CMYK workflow for professionals. Affinity Publisher will have the same.
Pixelmator didn't include CMYK because the principals didn't see the need for it - they thought RGB was the future and didn't plan out CMYK support when they built the product. The fact that Affinity has come from nowhere and built full CMYK support shows that it's not that difficult.
You just have to think it out at the beginning, realizing your product isn't going to be used just by web designers.
It's still a certain amount of work to include support for it, but CMMs have changed quite a bit since Pixelmator came out.