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
63 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
63 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
63 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
63 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
63 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
63 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

iPhone 15 Pro Buttons CAD Leak

iPhone 15 Pro Leak Reveals Unified Volume Button and Mute Button

Monday March 20, 2023 8:33 am PDT by
As previously rumored, the next-generation iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max will feature a unified volume button and a mute button, according to leaked CAD images shared in a video on the Chinese version of TikTok and posted to Twitter by ShrimpApplePro. Instead of separate buttons for volume up and volume down, the iPhone 15 Pro models are expected to have a single elongated button for...
iOS 16

iOS 16.4 for iPhone Nearing Launch With These 5 New Features

Monday March 20, 2023 11:50 am PDT by
Apple says iOS 16.4 is coming in the spring, which began this week. In his Sunday newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said the update should be released "in the next three weeks or so," meaning a public release is likely in late March or early April. iOS 16.4 remains in beta testing and introduces a handful of new features and changes for the iPhone. Below, we have recapped five new features ...
original iphone auction

Factory-Sealed Original iPhone Sells for $55,000 at Auction

Friday March 17, 2023 1:08 pm PDT by
A first-generation iPhone still sealed inside its box sold for $54,904 at auction, which is more than $54,000 over the original $599 price tag of the device when it was released in 2007. The original iPhone was put up for sale by RR Auction on behalf of a former Apple employee who purchased it back when it first came out. Back in February, an original, sealed iPhone sold for over $63,000,...
voice isolation

iOS 16.4 Adds Voice Isolation for Cellular Phone Calls

Tuesday March 21, 2023 11:01 am PDT by
The iOS 16.4 update that is set to be released to the public in the near future includes voice isolation for cellular calls, according to notes that Apple shared today. Apple says that Voice Isolation will prioritize your voice and block out the ambient noise around you, making for clearer phone calls where you can better hear the person you're chatting with and vice versa. Voice...
iPhone 12 Pro vs iPhone 15 Pro Feature

iPhone 12 Pro vs. 15 Pro: New Features to Expect if You've Waited to Upgrade

Friday March 17, 2023 10:29 am PDT by
While year-over-year iPhone upgrades are not always groundbreaking, new features can begin to stack up over multiple generations. For example, the iPhone 15 Pro will be a notable upgrade for those who still have a three-year-old iPhone 12 Pro. If you are still using an iPhone 12 Pro and are considering upgrading to the iPhone 15 Pro when it launches later this year, we have put together a...
top stories 18mar2023

Top Stories: iPhone 15 Pro Pricing, New iOS 16.4 Beta, Siri vs. ChatGPT, and More

Saturday March 18, 2023 6:00 am PDT by
Apple's high-end iPhone models have started at $999 in the U.S. since they first launched back in 2017 with the iPhone X, but could this finally be the year that starting price sees an increase? This week also saw some more rumors about Apple's upcoming headset and the company's explorations in the booming AI industry as well as the release of a new round of beta updates, so read on for all...
smart monitor m8 samsung

Deals: Samsung's iMac-Like Smart Monitor M8 Drops to Lowest Price of Year So Far With $250 Discount

Monday March 20, 2023 8:27 am PDT by
Samsung today kicked off a special "Discover Samsung" event, which will be a week-long savings event focusing on Samsung monitors, smartphones, TVs, appliances, and more. While some deals will stick around the entire week (through March 26), others will refresh every day. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Samsung. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small...