Customer Reviews

Pixelmator [Old Version]

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(48)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I've been using Photoshop for more than ten years, and I typically spend up to hours a day using it. Even though I (and every other designer I know) loves to complain about Photoshop, there really isn't a professional alternative. Even though every new release makes Photoshop feel more bloated, clunky, and complex, at the same time it's literally the only tool for many jobs.

Pixelmator is one of several new Mac-only image editing programs to try to compete. Well, I'm not sure that "compete" is the right word--it seems like Pixelmator's trying to fill the large gap between consumer-level image software like iPhoto's editing tools and Photoshop. That's a *big* gap, with plenty of room for new tools. I'm enjoying using Pixelmator for some tasks, though it's not nearly ready to replace Photoshop in my Dock. In any case, Pixelmator's clearly modeled very closely after Photoshop (its keyboard shortcuts are mapped to Photoshop's nearly identically thank goodness).

There are several genuinely impressive user interface improvements Pixelmator has over Photoshop, including the excellent gradient editor, and the lightweight info messaging that announces tool selection. You wouldn't think that a message flashing in the middle of the screen could be unobtrusive and helpful, but it is. The "Slice" tool for saving pieces of an image to various web formats works well, and previews the export quality "live". This is far better than Photoshop's Save for Web tool, a clumsily grafted-on version of what Adobe used to sell separately as ImageReady. Pixelmator's "Trim" tool is an excellent shortcut, though geared probably towards less-experienced users. The Crop tool is outstanding--an innovation where you wouldn't think there could be any: it lets you rotate the image your cropping underneath the crop area to adjust more accurately. It's hard to describe but instantly obvious.

Unfortunately the downsides of Pixelmator are what keep it from becoming a tool I'll use often. I am not a fan of the all-black, often cartoony user interface, which seems kind of kewl and idiosyncratic for its own sake, not for good UI reasons. The Pixelmator designers often can't restrain themselves from adding a needless zoomy animation where none is needed--these things get on my nerves the fiftieth or sixtieth time I see them. Type handling is simply awful, relying totally on OS X's Fonts pallete. There's no fine control of kerning, leading, or any other basic attribute of setting type; that's a gigantic hole in the product for a professional designer. Pixelmator also lacks some of Photoshop's most useful tools. For me, the things I miss most are layer effects and adjustments, which allow you to apply non-destructive changes to layers; and vector shapes, which let you draw and edit more precise shapes.

All in all though, Pixelmator is totally worth the price, which is what, 10% of the cost of Photoshop? If you're mostly doing photo editing and basic color adjustments, it's great. I think it's worth it simply to support someone competing with Adobe.

I am a middle aged woman, almost a senior citizen, who did not work on a personal computer until my 30s and with little graphics software experience. I purchased and downloaded Pixelmator to my Intel Mac. I am running Leopard.

I found the software easy to download and install. No hang ups, no crashes, just download, open and drag the icon to the applications folder found on my Mac.

I then opened Pixelmator. I was in love. The program is so easy to use that I was able to create my own graphics using various pens, brushes, etc. to make my own pictures on my Mac.

I later sized the graphics using Pixelmator. This was easy too as the software allows you to choose between pixel or image size. You can also select constrain to automatically size the graphic proportionally.

You can also open and manipulate graphics using public domain or purchased images. Again, you can colorize or change image size easily with this program.

Highly recommend based on ease of download, ease of installation and ease of use.

Test Setup:
Pixelmator 1.5 Spider (3901).
Mac Mini, 2 GHz, Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram, Snow Leopard OS X 10.6.1.

Pros:
Powerful layer editing program
Superb speed, most effects render instantly
Full Screen image editing with overlayed tool bars
Price for a layer editor with this usability

Cons:
A few glitches on occasion (one time I couldn't undo anything until I restarted the program)
Mac Only (con for Windows users, but there are probably more choices on that platform)

Bottom Line:
Bargain priced layer editing software, give yourself time to learn it and read online tutorials. Search popular video sites for: Pixelmator tutorial, or what ever you need to do in the program like: Pixelmator gradient tutorial, Pixelmator layer tutorial, etc.

What I would like to see:
A plugin to open files in Pixelmator in Lightroom.
More explanation in the directions on why you do something instead of just how you do something (like what exactly the layer blending modes are used for, why you would use a layer mask, etc).

Review:
There is a learning curve coming from an image editor/organizer like Lightroom 2 or iPhoto to a layer editing program like Pixelmator. Keep in mind that this program does a lot more than just your traditional image editing. However, Pixelmator is probably geared more towards photographs with some weakness in text formatting etc. However, my review is based around it being a photo editing program when you need more than Lightroom.

When I first jumped into the program, I found it terribly difficult to do a few things as my mind was in the Lightroom Paradigm. Everything has sliders, quick to make adjustments, and it is what I know very well. In Pixelmator it took me a bit of time to figure out how to do a few very simple things, but if you are familiar with Photoshop this should be much easier for you. Something as simple as a dodge in burn, I didn't know how to effectively use the layers to do this and was going about it all wrong. I finally searched for a tutorial and found one that explained how to make a duplicate layer, make the adjustment you want (like reduce exposure), and stick it under your main layer. Erase the main layer where you want to darken the exposure as the darker layer will show through from underneath. Very simple. What I had tried to do with no knowledge of layer editing programs, was select an area, make a layer from that, apply a filter (like gloom), and blend that layer with the other. Not so simple and complete wrong with sort of poor results. The instructions were not much help here, as they tell you how to make a new layer, but don't really tell you what to do with one. The instructions are very nice and easy to read though, and I think there is a link in the menu to some more how-to style documents/videos.

The program is fast and easy to use. I love the full screen image (edge to edge in full screen mode, just hit F), with the overlayed toolbars. This gives an awful lot of space to work on your image if you have a large monitor, and allows you to keep the toolbars near where you are working. Sometimes I do with the dialogs for the filters would open off center as they always seem to pop up right over where I am working and I have to move them, but this isn't a big deal. They do have cool special effects and are very easy to use.

Overall, I am amazed at how well this program performs for the price point especially given the price point of the computer I am running on (modest Mac Mini). It also shows how Mac OS X has come to a point where this is possible. I am sure Snow Leopard is of help here being a true 64 bit OS, and Pixelmator is built to take advantage of the graphics processing functions in the video card for extreme performance.

Great Job to the crew that made Pixelmator.

As a longtime user of Adobe Photoshop and older image editing programs such as Macromedia Fireworks and Corel Painter, I was interested in seeing how smithmicro software's "Pixelmator" would perform.

For my tests, I used an iMac 2.4 gHZ using Mac OS X 10.6.1. As many other reviews discussed the tools and GUI, I'll focus more on other functions and see how it stacks up as a budget image editing software. For the most part, installation is quite easy. Put in the CD and drag the software to your applications or desktop folder. Clicking on the application, software loaded up quickly and you are given a choice to create a new file, open a file or being using Pixelmator. Updating the software was a breeze as well.

I. OPENING DIFFERENT FILE FORMATS, MULTI-LAYERED FILES & LARGE IMAGES

The first thing I wanted to test out is how the software handled images with many layers and also images that are large.

MULTI-LAYERED IMAGES - For the test, I open a Photoshop built ad that had many layers. Ad opened up fine and I was able to access all layers on the file. I then wanted to test basic functions such as magic wand for removing white backgrounds and it worked well. Used the free transform and that worked well, moving layers around, large text... everything worked fine, no problems.

LARGE IMAGES - I pulled up our raw images which was shot at a recent concert. I was able to open up a variety of file formats, JPG, PNG, .PSD, .TIF, .GIF, .BMP, no problems whatsoever (according to the back of the box, the software can open up to 100+ file formats). Some files took a few second longer than what I get from Photoshop (but these were pretty huge files). So, overall, I was quite pleased that the software handled large images quite well.

In fact, even for PDF rasterized pages, for example a magazine rasterized in a single PDF. I wanted to see how fast it would open the PDF up and so I can select a page to open. And it opened up a heavy file, immediately. It asks which page and sure enough, it opened up immediately. With Adobe Photoshop, this sometimes would take a minute or more....this took less than 5 seconds. BUT just to be fair, in Photoshop, I tend to open up the file via 300 DPI (it typically asks what DPI you want to open it up as), whereas Pixelmator opens the file up at 72 DPI.

II. HUE & SATURATION, CURVES & SWATCHES

I tend to like experimenting with colors and adjusting the hue and saturation is important. In Photoshop, using sliders has been quite easy but with Pixelmator, they use a rotating dial and sliders. Not difficult to use and quite easy to rotate. Takes a short while to get used to it but it works.

On Adobe Photoshop, I tend to use the curve function a lot and color correction. And sure enough, Pixelmator has curves and I was able to tweak the images colors at ease.

As for swatches, you get your pick of RGB, CYMK swatches which is all the basics one would need. May it be a CYMK slider or color wheel or web-safe colors, it's all there. But for those wanting Pantone swatches, you won't find it in this software.

There is no back and forth arrow to switch from foreground or background colors but if you hit right click on it, you will see "switch colors"


III. TEXT, PAINTING & FILTERS

TEXT was easy to do. At first, I was wondering about where all the Open Type Fonts were but the software puts them way at the bottom of the font list. I typed in a large text and I'm used to inputting numbers, so for 180...at first I thought the software could only go up to 72 pts. but when you go to tool options and click on show fonts, then you can see the area where you can input size. You can easily use the multiply or overlay commands. I was trying to look for other basic commands such as "drop shadow" or "bevels" but I couldn't find it.

For basic painting, there are 20+ tools and you can import Adobe Photoshop brushes which is a major plus. The software also worked with my Wacom tablet. I'm so accustomed to using Corel Painter for digital painting but the fact that this software does have those tools, that's pretty awesome.

Filters were quite interesting as when you open it up, you get this animated string which you can move around and direct where you want the filter to take place on the image. Blur functions work great. For the most part, there are many filters that are available in this software. There are 130+ filters included.

IV. UNDOING previous changes & Other tools

Multiple undo's. I did about a dozen or so and it kept going, so that's a plus.

Testing the multiple tools, gradients, paint bucket, magic wand, eraser tool, clone stamp, blur, sharpen all seem to work well. Lasso is definitely not as intuitive as Photoshop but it works. Gradients are also quite basic. You can create your own but for the most part but it's a bit more tedious than Photoshop. But it works. For those who enjoyed Fireworks, slicing tool for images for the Web...Pixelmator also offers a pretty good slicing tool as well. I haven't fooled around with the function that deeply but it's there.

JUDGMENT CALL:

Overall, for the price of this software and what it offers is quite amazing. I was actually surprised by how quickly the software opened up heavy files that my Photoshop tends to take awhile at. For those looking for an affordable image editing program for their MAC, with what's offered, it's probably enough for basic/casual image editing users. The software works with iSight. Even for some professional work, some probably can get by with what is offered in the software. Learning curve is not difficult especially those familiar with other image editing software, especially Photoshop.

It's also important for people to know that it works great with Snow Leopard. No problems, no crashing and no slow down when other programs were opened.

A solid release that offers bang for its price! Definitely recommended for those on a budget (especially don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on Photoshop) and are looking for a solid image editing software on the Mac.

Length:: 1:41 Mins

Made for the Mac, Pixelmator is a powerful, full-featured photo editing package that allows users to improve photographs or manipulate them for artistic effect. It is designed to integrate with the Mac's iPhoto library. I used Pixelmator with Snow Leopard, the Mac's newest operating system, which may explain the bug detailed in this video. Still, this program is tons of fun, with so many features that it will take a lot of playing around to begin to touch them. Compare to Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 [Mac].

Sit back and enjoy the demonstration!

-- Debbie Lee Wesselmann

Anyone using a version of Photoshop CS knows how robust its features are. However, thought it's not a bloated program, its abundance of tools and capabilities can be intimidating to new users. For those who find Photoshop overwhelming and pricey for what they need, the image editor and creation program, Pixelmator, may well be a good alternative.

For a price of $59, as opposed to $699 for Photoshop CS4, Pixelmator provides many similar editing and design features found in the much larger Adobe program. Pixelmator includes basic photo adjustment features, layer-based image editing capabilities (exposure, levels, curves, brightness/contrast, blends), artistic filters, painting and retouching tools, etc.

What you won't get in Pixelmator is batch automation, which for regular users of Photoshop CS is almost de rigueur for working productively in such a program. You can't even save presets for commonly used adjustments. But if batch automation in an image editing program is not high on your needs lists, then read on.

Interface Design
What you first notice about Pixelmator is that it's very light weight, with a well designed all-black user interface. The program's layout may be a turn off for some dedicated Photoshop users, but its stylistically fun and consumer-based design may appeal more to those accustomed to working in Apple`s iPhoto, than say in Photoshop.

Like Photoshop, Pixelmator has its own tool set and similar pop-up menus for various editing functions. The program's menu bar and tool panels feel and look almost the same as what you find in Photoshop. Both programs even share similar shortcut keys. However, with Pixelmator you cannot customize shortcut keys as you can in Photoshop. (Some menu items, though, can be given shortcut keys using Keyboard Shortcuts in Snow Leopard's Preferences.)

Tool Sets
Pixelmator`s tool set contains similar features found in Photoshop, including crop, stamp, eyedropper, cloning, text, and selection tools. Pixelmator has the same selection tools (Lasso, Polygonal Lasso, Magic Wand, Rectangular Marquee) as Photoshop, though how you use the tools is slightly different. In this area, one program doesn't seem better or worse than the other, for using selection tools requires lots of practice, skill, and patience.

In the case of font and character editing tools, Pixelmator is very lacking compared to Photoshop. The former program makes use of Apple`s basic Font's palette, which doesn't allow for many of the advance features of Photoshop`s character palette, which includes kerning, paragraphing, tracking and leading styles. This may be a deal breaker for designers. And though you can undo and redo adjustments applied in Pixelmator, the program doesn't have Photoshop`s History panel which provides an exact list of changes you've made to an image or design.

Image Editing Tools
A cursory look at the image editing tools (exposure, levels, curves, brightness/contrast, blends) in both programs make for another comparison. Both share similar adjustments features, but a few difference should be highlighted.

The brightness and contrast tools, for example, work very differently in each program. Pixelmator`s brightness and contrast adjustments causes lost in the shadow and highlight details of the image, whereas with the Photoshop editing tool, more details are retained.

Pixelmator also does not have the adjustment layers features of Photoshop, meaning that in Pixelmator many of the enhancements you make to a photo are applied directly to the image, which is not the case with adjustment layers in Photoshop.

In the area of filters and special effects, Pixelmator includes many of the import tools found in Photoshop, including various Blur, Distortion, Noise, and Texturing tools. However, it does not include anything similar to Photoshop`s Smart Filters, which when used, among other things, provide better protection to an image. However, it does include Photoshop`s layer masking which I think is not found in Adobe's more consumer-based program, Photoshop Elements.

Pixelmator can open and handle PSD, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PDF, EPS files, but it does not feature a RAW convertor, so editing RAW photos in Pixelmator is out of the question. It also contains some unique features not found in Photoshop. One such feature includes automatic palette hiding. When you, for instance, select and open the Levels tool, existing tool palettes fade away and then re-appear after you click okay in the forefront tool. Of course, there's a preference option to deactivate this feature.

Another unique feature is the ability to send images you work on in Pixelmator directly to iPhoto and Apple`s Mail. It might be useful in future updates to have this same export feature available for Aperture 2.0 users.

The Pixelmator website does include a down loadable PDF manual and a collection of professionally produced video tutorials by Don McAllister of ScreenCastsOnline. These tutorials cover techniques and strategies for using the program, including saving documents to the web, selective desaturation, simple cropping, image slicing, colorizing and replacing colors, and simple retouching. There's also a set of third-party tutorials on digital oil painting a photo, creating a tilt-shift effect, distorting text, and creating pop art and duotone conversions.

Serious photographers and designers will quickly grow out of Pixelmator simply because it lacks some of the advance features of Photoshop for efficiency and productivity. But Pixelmator is nevertheless a very affordable program for those wanting many of basic but powerful tools offered in the Adobe program without paying the hefty price.

I've used extensively Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Gimp. They all have their pluses and their minuses. Yes, Photoshop does everything but it is also an enormous systems hog and has a huge learning curve. It also does nothing simply and many times I LIKE taking the easiest course to get from point A to point B.

I devised a test for how well this new program does against the others. I took the image of a lily which I had photographed. I previously had tried to turn it to a pleasing mauve in Elements and failed miserably. I put it into this program and within about twenty minutes I had a gorgeous mauve lily ready to save. I was frankly surprised I had done that well.

Although it has less tools on the toolbar, I discovered by using other features under the menu that I was able to do pretty much anything I wanted to do. Also, it seems that it may have made one tool to do it all rather than making three or four, like Photoshop or Elements does. For example, the clone tool on this program seemed to do everything for me that I use clone tool and all aspects of the healing tool for in Photoshop and Elements. However, I do miss a polygon lasso as this program only has the regular lasso. Both Photoshop and Elements have the polygon lasso. Next, I miss the burn, dodge, and smudge tools, again found in both Adobe programs. On the plus side though, there are filters with controls in this program which go beyond the ones in Photoshop and I am eager to work my way through them. For example, there is a new filter called Bloom that does a wonderful job on enhancing images.

The user interface is absolutely gorgeous, the best ever. I like the way it looks on my macbook screen better than any other image editing program. Everything automatically disappears while I am working on the image too. It all reappears the moment I am ready to proceed. I love that feature! It is so intuitive. Plus the shortcuts you use in the Adobe programs are the same in this program.

I think this program has enormous potential and I especially like that it was designed solely with my OS in mind. I am so tired of products designed primarily for Windows.

This is the first image editing product I've seen that potentially could go the distance against Adobe at least for the non graphic designer market. Only time will tell. This is also a heck of a value for the money. Certainly Adobe would never think of selling this full featured a software for less than thirty dollars!

There are so many workable elements to Pixelmator that can't be ignored, making it a great alternative to Photoshop; among the most alluring are its simplicity and price.

The people behind Pixelmator are smart cookies. They don't try to reinvent the wheel. They take the best things about Photoshop and make them work for Mac in a way that doesn't befuddle and cause major headaches (if you have a working of Photoshop that is). You get your tools, masks, cropping tools paint, and some image filters but the real meat lies in what Pixelmator can do for your photographs.

Pixelmator can almost handle anything that Photoshop can handle and with its integration with Mac it handles them in a zip! I mean, truly fast! Large files opened quickly and without that nasty spinning beach ball.

For what it does and for its price, Pixelmator is a great bargain. But it won't replace Photoshop for those who are truly vested; editing, shortcuts, and controls are not its strong suits; those needing the more robust tools should pass, but if you're looking for great image editing on a budget with truly amazing features and speed, Pixelmator is a winner.

I am an intermediate-level Photoshop user - not an expert by any means, but pretty good. Anyway, I had the opportunity to try Pixelmator and I love it! For the price, it's amazingly powerful.

One of the first things that struck me about Pixelmator is its speed. On my quad core iMac, there's really nothing I can throw at it that it can't handle with blazing speed. I also love the fact that many effects are rendered in real-time - for example, if you draw a gradient, you see what it looks like as you're drawing the gradient line. An amazing feature that isn't in Photoshop, where you only see the gradient once you've drawn the line. I also appreciate the fact that there are multiple levels of "undo" - having to use "step backward" in Photoshop always bugs me.

The interface is beautifully designed, and it's a Mac-only program so it's very much tailored to the OSX experience. As a Mac user and lover of good design, it makes me very happy! There's just so much to like about Pixelmator and I keep finding more. Press "F" and you enter full screen mode so you can focus on your work with no distractions. Press "TAB" and all the palettes appear or disappear. Want to install new brushes? Just drag the brush file onto the canvas, and voila - they're automatically installed! As much as I love Photoshop, it's quite a bloated piece of software. Those times when I want to do something quickly I'll be using Pixelmator.

If you've used Photoshop before you'll have no problem using Pixelmator. It's pretty much the same in terms of layers, brushes, etc. If you're new to graphics programs, the manual is excellent and this program is very easy to learn. There are some fantastic tutorials on the official Pixelmator website that are definitely worth checking out so you can see just what this program is capable of.

Although I'll continue to use Photoshop, I'll definitely be using Pixelmator a lot. Its speed, simplicity and power make it an irresistible purchase. I highly recommend it, either as a standalone graphics program or as a very useful companion to Photoshop.

I have used Adobe Photoshop at work and wanted to try Pixelmator on my Macbook.

Pixelmator is a pixel based image editor. It will run on the Intel based Macs as well as Power PCs running OSX 10.5.7 and up. I have it running on Snow Leopard with no problems.

The program can work with over 100 file formats such as BMP, JPEG, TIFF, PNG, PICT, PSD, and so on. Working on a file is much like Photoshop, there are layers and masks. You can use over 130 filters on your picture. Resizing a photo is easy with a range of 0-3200 %.

Learning to use the program was intuitive and there are tutorials and help pages.
I was up and running and editing in less than an hour.

If you want to have Photoshop results on your Mac without the high price tag, then Pixelmator is the way to go.