Pixelmator Pro, a graphics and image editing app from the Pixelmator team, received its first major update today to introduce new features that include MacBook Pro Touch Bar support, new tools for exporting images, auto color adjustment options, a Tutorials page, and more.

The app now includes full support for the Touch Bar on recent 13 and 15-inch MacBook Pro models, providing quick access to tools for making color adjustments, choosing effect presets, selecting colors for brushes, and more. The Touch Bar has been designed to offer up the most useful options whenever you switch to a new tool.

pixelmatorpromonsoon1
New Export for Web features are designed to allow users to prepare and optimize images for the web with advanced compression techniques in just a few clicks. The Pixelmator team says these tools compress images to the smallest size possible without a loss of quality.

Quick Export offers up a web-friendly image optimized with your most-used settings, while a new Slice tool is meant to make it easier to create web designs by slicing images into smaller images with the option of optimizing each one separately.

pixelmatorpromonsoon2
There are new Auto White Balance, Auto Lightness, and Auto Hue & Saturation tools that are powered by machine learning. These tools are meant to let users make one-click adjustments to optimize photos. Pixelmator says its machine learning algorithm was trained on millions of images to identify the contents of a photo and select the best lighting, contrast, and colors.

pixelmatorpromonsoon3
Other new features in Pixelmator Pro include support for opening and exporting vector images using the SVG format, support for exporting HEIF images, live previews when formatting text or tweaking layer blend options, a Select Color Range tool for selecting similarly colored areas of an image, and a whole new Tutorials page designed to help new users learn the ins and outs of Pixelmator Pro.

Dozens of other tweaks and bug fixes have been added, with release notes available on the Pixelmator Pro website.

Pixelmator Pro, which requires macOS High Sierra and a Metal-compatible graphics card, can be downloaded from the Mac App Store for $59.99. [Direct Link]

Top Rated Comments

Toutou Avatar
76 months ago
Personally I prefer Affinity, but I'll cheer for anything that's not Adobe. Go Pixelmator, go Affinity!
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GoAndrius Avatar
76 months ago
This version fixed the Photos app access issue that I had been having within Pixelmator Pro itself. It used to get stuck trying to load the library and no albums/thumbnails would ever appear in the pop-up window. Now it works instantly, similar to the iOS version of Pixelmator.
Yay, we completely rewrote the Photo Browser to make it work much faster, so I'm glad to hear this is working!
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GoAndrius Avatar
76 months ago
And still no text on a path? That’s a deal breaker for me.
That's fair — text on a path is on the roadmap along with additional text improvements, but it may take a little while longer for it to happen.

Still waiting for the iPad version - hopefully on the horizon.
We should have some news about this fairly soon. ;)
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Seuck Avatar
76 months ago
Unfortunately there is no upgrade discount coming from Pixelmator. If it's a limitation of App Store, sorry but that's not my problem as a customer.
Meanwhile Pixelmator becomes older and older and unsupported (and starts to crash often). I'm not happy.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
wwchris Avatar
76 months ago
So....you were totally okay with Pixelmator deciding to make a version of their existing product that they slapped the word "pro" onto, didn't have everything their existing one had so as to provide updates promising to add those things back in and more (like Apple) and charge $60 for it?

Okay....
Yes, I am totally ok with it. If you bought Pixelmator on sale at any one of the times they had it on sale you probably got it for $29. Hell, Adobe charges $10 per month. That version of Pixelmator has been out for, I dunno, at least 4-5 years as I recall, so yes, them releasing a 2.0/Pro version with tons of new features and a rewrite seems fine. Yes. I would like them to stay in business :-) Also, the old version still works.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
GoAndrius Avatar
76 months ago
I’m trying hard to replace Photoshop with Pixelmator Pro but it just keeps letting me down.

Why can’t text be free transformed? This is such an obvious one. You have to try out different font sizes to try to get the size just right.

Why no distortion handles? You can’t change the perspective of an object to match the layer you’re adding it to.

So many basic features are missing and you realize it as you use Pixelmator Pro.

Hopefully it’ll get there soon. Meanwhile, I have to keep Photoshop around.
Text can now be transformed in layer groups — select a text layer, Command-G, then resize.

For perspective transform, you can use Insert > Effects > Perspective Transform. We also have plans for more comprehensive distortion/warping tools as well.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

reset password request iphone

Warning: Apple Users Targeted in Phishing Attack Involving Rapid Password Reset Requests

Tuesday March 26, 2024 4:34 pm PDT by
Phishing attacks taking advantage of Apple's password reset feature have become increasingly common, according to a report from KrebsOnSecurity. Multiple Apple users have been targeted in an attack that bombards them with an endless stream of notifications or multi-factor authentication (MFA) messages in an attempt to cause panic so they'll respond favorably to social engineering. An...
maxresdefault

Apple to Launch New iPad Pro and iPad Air Models in May

Thursday March 28, 2024 11:07 am PDT by
Apple will introduce new iPad Pro and iPad Air models in early May, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman previously suggested the new iPads would come out in March, and then April, but the timeline has been pushed back once again. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Apple is working on updates to both the iPad Pro and iPad Air models. The iPad Pro models will...
Generic iOS 18 Feature Purple

iOS 18: What to Expect From 'Biggest' Update in iPhone's History

Wednesday March 27, 2024 11:10 am PDT by
At least some Apple software engineers continue to believe that iOS 18 will be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. "The iOS 18 update is expected to be the most ambitious overhaul of the iPhone's software in its history, according to people working on the upgrade," wrote Gurman, in a r...
maxresdefault

Apple Announces WWDC 2024 Event for June 10 to 14

Tuesday March 26, 2024 10:02 am PDT by
Apple today announced that its 35th annual Worldwide Developers Conference is set to take place from Monday, June 10 to Friday, June 14. As with WWDC events since 2020, WWDC 2024 will be an online event that is open to all developers at no cost. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. WWDC 2024 will include online sessions and labs so that developers can learn about new...
apple maps 3d feature

Apple Maps May Gain Custom Routes With iOS 18

Tuesday March 26, 2024 3:10 pm PDT by
Apple may be planning to add support for "custom routes" in Apple Maps in iOS 18, according to code reviewed by MacRumors. Apple Maps does not currently offer a way to input self-selected routes, with Maps users limited to Apple's pre-selected options, but that may change in iOS 18. Apple has pushed an iOS 18 file to its maps backend labeled "CustomRouteCreation." While not much is revealed...
General iOS 17 Feature Orange Purple

Apple Releases Revised Versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 With Updated Build Number

Wednesday March 27, 2024 5:59 am PDT by
Apple on late Tuesday released revised versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 with an updated build number of 21E237, according to MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The updates previously had a build number of 21E236. The revised updates are available for all iPhone and iPad models that are compatible with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, but they can only be installed via the Finder app on macOS...
applephilschiller

Apple's Phil Schiller Works 80 Hours a Week Overseeing App Store

Wednesday March 27, 2024 2:03 pm PDT by
With the App Store and app ecosystem undergoing major changes in the European Union, The Wall Street Journal today shared a profile on App Store chief Phil Schiller, who is responsible for the App Store. Though Schiller transitioned from marketing chief to "Apple Fellow" in 2020 to take a step back from Apple and spend more time on personal projects and friends, he is reportedly working...