Pixelmator 2.0.4 Sandboxing

Hot on the heels of our update last month, we’re pleased to bring you Pixelmator 2.0.4. With even more improvements and, oh, so many of the fixes you’ve told us you want, we think you’ll agree that this update—our third this year—is a great one.

First, I don’t want to brag, but with this new version, Pixelmator is one of the first apps on the Mac App Store to integrate support for sandboxing.

Apple’s App Sandbox technology provides a line of defense for your Mac, so your data is safer and better protected.¹ Kudos to Apple for making it available.

Other major improvements in Pixelmator 2.0.4 include a new way to open and save files that automatically maintains the highest image quality possible. This simple workflow uses the native Pixelmator format to preserve image data as you edit, so images always look their best. Take a look at our brief tutorial explaining how it works. 


And there’s much more to love about 2.0.4. With over two dozen additional fixes for known issues and several new stability improvements, we hope this update will see you through until the upcoming release of Pixelmator 2.1. We are proud of the hard work we put into this and every Pixelmator update—and we hope it shows!

¹ Translation: Sandboxing is good for Mac users, so we’re glad to dive right in.

Thursday, 17 May 2012. Posted by Saulius.

18 Comments

Pixelmator 2.0.3 Is Out

Not long ago, we brought you the biggest maintenance update in Pixelmator history. Today, we’re excited to bring you Pixelmator 2.0.3, our second maintenance update this year. It’s all part of our work to make Pixelmator the image editor for the rest of us.

Here are just a few of the many improvements we built into this update:

• For starters, with Pixelmator 2.0.3, most users will see their memory footprint cut in half. That should sweeten performance noticeably and make using Pixelmator an even faster and smoother experience.
• The Export for Web feature is vastly improved, with fixes for both stability and compatibility issues.
• We also fixed a few nasty crashes, worked some magic in cases where PXM files were going corrupt, and topped off the update with dozens more enhancements.
• And, if you’ve wished for a return to the old Deselect shortcut—well, we listened. From now on, Command-D is for Deselect again.

Last but not least, users who don’t get along entirely with the Lion OS X Autosave feature can now turn it off in Pixelmator by typing this command in the Terminal:

defaults -currentHost write com.pixelmatorteam.pixelmator "disableAutosave" -bool YES

We’re very happy with Pixelmator 2.0.3. And, along with the recent maintenance updates, we are on track to release the next major update: Pixelmator 2.1.

Tuesday, 24 April 2012. Posted by Saulius.

39 Comments

Pixelmator 2.0.2 Is Out

With Apple’s exciting recent announcement of OS X Mountain Lion, we too would like to add something nice to the whole picture. This is not as big as Mountain Lion, but still awesome: We’re talking about Pixelmator 2.0.2, the biggest maintenance update in Pixelmator history.

Pixelmator 2.0.2 includes a massive number of improvements and bug fixes—in all, over 60 enhancements, mainly focusing on the Move Tool, drag and drop, layer management, and copying and pasting. And we’ve also built in a ton of overall stability improvements.

Pixelmator 2.0.2 is available immediately as a free update via the Mac App Store.

While you enjoy the new update, we’ll keep working on Pixelmator 2.1. Pixelmator 2.1 is a major update that will bring some very cool features and major improvements. I am not ready to announce the details yet, but stay tuned.

Tuesday, 21 February 2012. Posted by Saulius.

48 Comments

Mac App of the Year

Just think about this: For an entire year, Pixelmator has retained its standing as one of the (1) most highly rated, and (2) top-charting apps on the Mac App Store, with (3) incredible, massive sales that we never dreamed of. Also, just a couple of months ago, it won a gorgeous (4) Apple Design Award, and just a month ago, our (5) most successful (in terms of everything—feedback, sales, downloads, updates, etc.) update—Pixelmator 2.0—was released.

I’d say that’s quite a year for a tiny Mac developer like the Pixelmator Team. Quite a year…

…but just when you start to think that the most incredible year in Pixelmator’s life (to this date) is coming to an end—boom—it happens: As if those five huge reasons above weren’t enough, Pixelmator is named (!) the Mac app of the year! Yup! THE MAC APP of THE YEAR.

Wow. Just a huge wow. That is a big honor for us.

And again, thank you so much, everyone, for helping us to get where we are today: closer and closer to creating the best image editing app in the world. We know we are not there yet, but we are also confident that we will get there.

I would also like to say a big thanks to all of those people at Apple that showed us how to get where we are today, and thanks for giving us all of the stuff that everyone uses, loves and knows about. In our case, too, we’re grateful to Apple for creating the Mac App Store which is hugely responsible for successes of all those developers like us. Thank you, Apple!

P.S.—My quote, together with quotes from Philip Schiller (everyone’s favorite Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing), Amar Hanspal (of Autodesk) and Karim Morsy (of algoriddim) made it into Apple’s official press release describing the incredible success of the Mac App Store. The press release was noticed by almost every popular magazine and blog out there. It is amazing to be at least a teeny, tiny part of something that big and that great.

Tuesday, 13 December 2011. Posted by Saulius.

37 Comments

Pixelmator 2.0 Launches on Mac App Store

Image Editing App Adds New Drawing, Retouching and Smudge Tools, Content-Aware Fill, and Support for OS X Lion

The Pixelmator Team today released Pixelmator 2.0, the latest version of its groundbreaking image editing tool that provides everything needed to create, edit, and enhance still images. Pixelmator 2.0 features new drawing and retouching tools, Content-Aware Fill, a Healing Tool, a Smudge Tool, and more. Designed from the ground up for OS X Lion, Pixelmator 2.0 now supports Full Screen, Versions and Auto Save, and is available from the Mac App Store for introductory $29.99.

“With tons of exciting new features and support for OS X Lion, this new version of Pixelmator is the easiest, most enjoyable way to experience the best of image editing,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. “Pixelmator 2.0 gives everyone the tools they need to unlock their creativity and boost their productivity.”

The new drawing tools in Pixelmator allow users to add, create, combine and edit vector shapes easily. In addition to Pen and Freeform Pen tools, Pixelmator also includes pre-drawn shape tools for quickly adding triangles, lines, circles or rectangles into compositions. Fill and stroke settings for created shapes, as well as shadows, can be easily adjusted in the new Shape Settings palette. Drawing tools in Pixelmator are useful for creating buttons, icons, web page elements, illustrations or any other items for use in image compositions.

A breakthrough new Content-Aware Fill technology in Pixelmator allows users to magically get rid of unwanted elements in images, as if they never existed. By choosing either the new Healing Tool or the selection tools, a user can select wrinkles, blemishes, image damage or any other details present in images, and with just one click let Pixelmator seamlessly fill the selected area with similar nearby image content.

The new retouching tools in Pixelmator 2.0 include a Sponge Tool for adding more color or taking color away from areas of an image by painting on them; Burn and Dodge tools for naturally darkening or lightening areas of an image; a Red Eye Tool for easily—either automatically or manually—fixing the red-eye effect in images; and a new Smudge Tool for smearing paint or rubbing out blemishes or any other details in images, as realistically as using one’s fingers.

Other new features of Pixelmator 2.0 include an easier-to-use interface, a new Eyedropper Tool, a new info bar, a convenient tool options bar, a fully customizable Tools palette, a new Type Tool, a Pixel Tool, and a number of other minor improvements.

Pixelmator 2.0 is available from the Mac App Store for an introductory price of $29.99. http://www.pixelmator.com/buy/

For existing Pixelmator users who purchased the app from the Mac App Store, the new version is available as a free upgrade.

Thursday, 27 October 2011. Posted by Saulius.

224 Comments

Flapcraft

Before the release of the amazing Pixelmator 2.0, we thought we should have some fun… And, boy, did we do the craziest thing this year…

…we created a game. Yep. A real game. A completely complete iOS game for our beloved iPhones, iPads and iPods (touch).

The game is called Flapcraft. And it is awesome. And here is what it looks like:

In Flapcraft, you play as a handsome Viking doing tricks in the air by flying on a wooden log. To perform those tricks more effectively, the Viking’s wooden log can be upgraded with techy stuff like wings, rockets, engines and more. The game looks gorgeous, features great sound, and is fully accelerometer-based. In short—well, you should try the game for yourself—it is a lot of fun.

Oh, and just to make things clear: We are not going into the game business anytime soon. If you try to get the business logic behind Flapcraft… don’t; there is none. Flapcraft was developed during beta testing of Pixelmator 2.0—well, of Pixelmator’s 2.0 painting engine, to be more precise. We found that testing Pixelmator 2.0 by creating game graphics was very effective. What’s more, we made ourselves comfortable with many of those great iOS technologies in the process. In fact, we handled everything ourselves in the building of Flapcraft—no third party was involved.

To create the game from scratch, we used Pixelmator 2.0, GarageBand, and, of course, Xcode. You’d be very surprised at how easy it is to create a game for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch if you know the tools. Actually, the special Flapcraft page on our website was created using Pixelmator 2.0. We even did a short making-of Flapcraft video.

Flapcraft is available right there on the App Store for only $1.99. It is a completely universal app that will fully work on all iOS devices once downloaded, whether iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. And, yep, it does support the amazing iPhone 4 Retina display.

For more information on and screenshots of Pixelmator’s Flapcraft, please visit the Flapcraft page on our website or view the game description in iTunes.

Now go ahead and have fun. After all, the game is twice as cool when you know that it was created with your favorite image editing app. I hope you like it.

As for me, I am getting back to work on the Pixelmator 2.0 release. Still some stuff left to do there.

Thursday, 25 August 2011. Posted by Saulius.

55 Comments

Ready for OS X Lion (Update)

I’m very happy to let you know that while working extremely intensively on Pixelmator 2.0—codenamed Chameleon—we still managed to improve the currently available version’s compatibility with OS X Lion. Pixelmator 1.6.6 adds fixes and improvements that will help the app run smoothly on OS X Lion.

Lion is a must-have upgrade of Mac OS X. Believe me, we spent a lot of time using it, and everyone at the Pixelmator Team absolutely loves the OS X Lion.

To easily update to Pixelmator 1.6.6, simply use your Mac App Store app. For non-Mac App Store users, it is highly recommended to transition to the Mac App Store at this time. However, if not ready to transition yet, users can run the Software Update feature in Pixelmator.

High-end support for OS X Lion is coming along for Pixelmator 2.0 Chameleon. With Lion-specific features, the new version is going to totally rock on OS X Lion. If you haven’t yet noticed, we have a sneak preview website for more info about what’s coming in Pixelmator 2.0.

And finally, we thought you might be happy to take a look at the new Smudge Tool in Pixelmator 2.0. Enjoy the video!

Update (A Bump)

We had a nasty bump in the road with the release of version 1.6.6. Because of a critical bug (a crash upon launch) found in version 1.6.6 fifteen minutes after its release, we had to temporarily remove the app from the Mac App Store and from our downloads.

With the bug fixed in Pixelmator 1.6.7, everything is up and running again. I apologize for any inconvenience you experienced. It was a good lesson for us.

(It’s a pity to waste a version (1.6.6)).

Wednesday, 20 July 2011. Posted by Saulius.

101 Comments

Pixelmator Apple Design Award

Last week’s WWDC was totally crazy for us. The craziest thing that happened was winning the Apple Design Award. It was so unexpected and so unbelievable that even if I had wanted to do a blog post on the evening of our win, I simply couldn’t have done it. There were too many things to think of, too many words to say and too many people to thank. I had to chill out.

That Apple Design Award is very special for us. We’ve dreamed of winning it since the very beginning.

Because the award is so special, we spent few minutes to create a special web page to celebrate it. We even made it possible to see the award trophy in a 360˚ view and took some close-up photos so you can check it out and rejoice along with us.

Visit the Pixelmator Apple Design Award Website.

Friday, 17 June 2011. Posted by Saulius.

28 Comments

Pixelmator Team Unveils Pixelmator 2.0 Chameleon

New Features Include Drawing Tools, Content-Aware Fill, New Retouching Tools, Smudge Tool

The Pixelmator Team unveiled Pixelmator 2.0 today, a major upgrade of the groundbreaking image editing tool that provides everything needed to create, edit, and enhance still images. Pixelmator 2.0, codenamed Chameleon, features drawing tools, Content-Aware technology-based Fill, a Healing Tool, new retouching tools, a Smudge Tool, and more.

“Pixelmator makes it incredibly fun and easy for anyone to create, edit and enhance images,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. “Now, with tons of new features and improvements, the next generation of Pixelmator is clearly one of the most impressive and useful apps ever built for Mac OS X.”

The new, full-featured and precise drawing tools in Pixelmator allow users to easily add, create and edit vector shapes. In addition to Pen, Freeform Pen, Convert and Path Selection tools, Pixelmator also includes pre-drawn shape tools for quickly adding triangles, lines, circles, rectangles, and even custom shapes from the new Shapes palette into compositions. Fill and stroke settings for created shapes, as well as shadows, can be easily adjusted in the new Shape Settings palette. The drawing tools are very useful for creating buttons, icons, web page elements, illustrations or any other items for use in image compositions.

A breakthrough new Content-Aware Fill technology in Pixelmator allows users to magically get rid of unwanted elements in images, as if they never existed. By using either the new Healing Tool or the selection tools, one can select wrinkles, blemishes, image damage or any other details in images, then let Pixelmator smartly and seamlessly fill the selected area with similar nearby image content.

The new retouching tools in Pixelmator include a Sponge Tool, for adding more color or taking color away from areas of an image by painting on them; Burn and Dodge tools, for naturally darkening or lightening areas of an image; and a Red Eye Tool for easily—either automatically or manually— fixing the red-eye effect in images.

The new Smudge Tool allows smearing paint, or rubbing out blemishes or any other details in images, simply by using any brush tip, as realistically as using one’s fingers.

Other new features of Pixelmator 2.0 Chameleon include a cleaner and easier-to-use interface, a new Eyedropper Tool, a new info bar, a convenient tool options bar, a fully customizable Tools palette, a new Type Tool, a Pixel Tool, and a number of minor improvements.

Pricing and Availability

Pixelmator 2.0 is a free upgrade via the Mac App Store for everyone who has purchased any version of Pixelmator via the Mac App Store. More information on Pixelmator 2.0 can be found at www.pixelmator.com/sneak-preview/

Pixelmator 2.0 will be available exclusively on the Mac App Store for $59 later this summer. For now, anyone can purchase the currently available version of Pixelmator on the Mac App Store for $29 and receive a free upgrade of Pixelmator 2.0 once it is released.

Thursday, 2 June 2011. Posted by Saulius.

187 Comments