Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Well on the way to becoming a great image editor, September 22, 2009
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.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works fine for a clueless middle aged user who found the program easy to use, September 15, 2009
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.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Speed and Utility for a Bargain Price, September 25, 2009
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.
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