As a long-time user of Pixelmator products, I’ve seen firsthand how their applications have evolved over the years. The latest and greatest is Pixelmator Pro, an image editor that perfectly balances simplicity and powerful features, making it the ideal alternative to high-end, expensive software like Photoshop and Illustrator. As of writing, Pixelmator Pro is at version 3.3 (a.k.a Mosaic).
Pixelmator Pro is an all-in-one image editor boasting an impressive array of professional editing tools that cater to a wide range of users. Whether you’re a photographer, graphic designer, painter, or illustrator, Pixelmator Pro has you covered.
A key feature of Pixelmator Pro is its powerful, nondestructive colour adjustments. With full RAW photo support, adjustment presets, and retouching tools, it’s effortless to transform ordinary photos into masterpieces. As someone who has dealt with complicated interfaces in other editing software, I truly appreciate the intuitive nature of Pixelmator Pro.
Digital artists will be delighted with Pixelmator Pro’s suite of vector tools. I’ve been able to create crisp, resolution-independent designs with minimal effort.
Pixelmator Pro isn’t just for image editing; it’s also a fantastic platform for designing posters, webpages, and app interfaces. The smart spacing guides, advanced alignment tools, and lightning-fast performance make it a great alternative to software such as Figma. The beautiful design templates and fully-customisable mockups make it easy for beginners to create professional-looking designs.
Pixelmator Pro offers a collection of handcrafted dual-texture brushes, full graphics tablet support, and advanced paint blending technologies for those who love to paint. The cutting-edge painting engine, powered by Apple’s Metal technology, delivers exceptional performance, allowing you to create gorgeous digital paintings easily.
The customisable workspace in Pixelmator Pro is another handy feature. You can move the Tools and Layers sidebars wherever you want and customise the list of tools according to your needs. Or use the built-in presets available for photographers, designers, painters, and illustrators.
My most used feature in Pixelmator Pro is the Remove Background tool, which can effortlessly remove the background from any image with just a click. This feature is a game-changer for designers and photographers, saving time and delivering outstanding results.
Pixelmator Pro’s machine-learning capabilities enable intelligent image editing. One feature is the Repair Tool, which allows you to make small imperfections or even entire objects disappear from your images by simply painting over them.
The pixel-accurate selection tools allow you to edit specific parts of your images easily. This functionality is perfect for applying colour adjustments and effects, selecting and copying objects between images, or focusing edits on specific areas without affecting the rest of the image.
Typography enthusiasts will love the powerful Type tools in Pixelmator Pro. Creating curved text or typing along shapes and paths is effortless, and a complete set of typography tools enables you to customise text in unlimited ways.
Pixelmator Pro comes with over 60 versatile, nondestructive effects that can be mixed and combined to create artistic or special effects. You can edit, rearrange, or remove an effect after applying it and even apply multiple effects to a single layer, with all changes visible in real time.
Another notable feature for those that use the Macs default Photos App is the editing extension for Photos, which brings the entire Pixelmator Pro application and all its features right inside Photos. This integration allows for a seamless editing experience keeping all nondestructive edits saved within your library.
For advanced users, Pixelmator Pro offers features like Export for Web, Soft Proofing, Adobe Photoshop file support, colour management, AppleScript, and more. Pixelmator Pro is an Apple-only app that takes full advantage of Mac features and technologies, such as iCloud, Versions, Shortcuts, Sidecar, and Apple Pencil support (for iPad).
The app is available for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
In my decade of experience with Pixelmator products, I have seen their applications evolve and improve. The well-thought-out design and features have made it an indispensable tool in my workflow. Pixelmator Pro delivers professional results without the steep learning curve and price tag that comes with other high-end editing software.
