December 11, 2015

Pixelmator for iOS update is out

From the moment the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil were announced, we just couldn’t wait to get our hands on them — we were itching to get Pixelmator working perfectly with both. And now we’re happy to introduce Pixelmator 2.2 for iOS, which feels awesome to use on the iPad Pro and lets you get the most out of the Apple Pencil.

We also added 3D Touch support on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, a new Pixel brush to create pixel art, a way better crop experience, and more.

Pixelmator on iPad Pro

First off, saying that we couldn’t wait to get our hands on the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil is just a slight understatement. As we waited for them to arrive at our office, everyone’s first words of the day were “Are they here yet?” We were all super excited to try them out and, of course, get an update out for you as soon as possible.

Using the Apple Pencil on the large iPad Pro display, you can do almost everything in Pixelmator with a lot more precision. Like scaling objects, working in specific areas with Retouch tools, tuning the Color Adjustment settings, and, well, doing everything else.

We’ve also added tilt, acceleration and pressure sensitivity support when painting, so using the brushes feels almost like drawing on paper. And, because the iPad Pro is such a powerful device, Pixelmator now supports huge, 16K images up to 100 megapixels, which means you can open and edit incredibly large photos and create even more advanced compositions.

3D Touch Support

On the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, we’ve added some really useful Quick Actions on the Home Screen and support for the new Peek and Pop feature in the Pixelmator Gallery thanks to 3D Touch. It definitely saves a few taps when you want to quickly import a photo or take a peek at an images before opening it. 3D Touch also allowed us to add pressure-sensitive painting, which feels really intuitive — you just press harder on the screen to get a thicker brushstroke or less for a thinner one.

Pixel Brush

Pixel artists — this one’s for you. As part of a new Basic brushes collection, we’ve included a brand-new Pixel brush. So now you can create awesome pixel art images with Pixelmator on your iPhone and iPad! The magic behind the brush is that, no matter what brush size you choose, the pixels you draw on the canvas automatically snap to the ones nearby. Making cool pixel-art images this way is really easy. Here’s what we’ve just created:

And it’s a free update for existing users, so visit the App Store, download the latest version and enjoy!