We have put together a small update squashing some minor flaws in current version of Pixelmator. The update is now available to download, and comes with improved Pixelmator file format compression when saving to iCloud, as well as other tiny improvements and bug fixes (you can check the full list here). The update is so small that I think it should be called a supplemental update, although the number 2.2.2 is nice too.
Enjoy, and stay tuned for bigger news to come!
Today we heard some exciting news from Apple. All Mac apps will soon be eligible to join the Volume Purchase Program for Business and Education. This means that all businesses and educational institutions will finally be able to buy multiple copies of apps at once.
We are thrilled to announce that Pixelmator will be available on the Volume Purchase Program for Business and Education as soon as it rolls out. And we have even more great news for educational institutions. We will give a whopping 50 percent volume discount to all educational institutions that buy 20 or more copies of Pixelmator in a single order.
Pixelmator has been on the Mac App Store since day one, and we’ve been very happy about it. And now we are even happier because absolutely everyone, including students, teachers, and employees, will be able to get Pixelmator on their Macs through the Mac App Store.
Today we are happy to release the first Pixelmator 2.2.1 update. That may sound minor in numbers, but in our little Pixelmator world, it’s a major one. We’ve done some radical improvements behind the scenes. One of them is a new Pixelmator file format. It’s still the same file format you are used to, yet it now has a completely new architecture that takes advantage of the modern OS X technologies making your image editing even faster and more enjoyable.
Here’re just a few highlights:
- 2x faster: It can open and save your Pixelmator documents twice as fast compared to the previous Pixelmator file format.
- Saves in background: This means that Pixelmator automatically saves the edits in the background while you play with images.
- Faster saving to iCloud: The first image file format to save only the edits you make to iCloud instead of saving the whole picture each time. So it takes less time to save and you have more time to enjoy image editing.
- Progress bar: The new file format allows us to show a progress bar with accurate status while opening and saving documents.
- Quick Look support: A better Quick Look support that lets you preview your Pixelmator document without even opening it.
And yet, if you like working with non-Pixelmator images better, we have good news for you, too. Now you can open, edit, and save images in their original file format. For example, you can open a JPG image, edit and save it back as a JPG without taking any extra steps. To turn this feature on, go to Pixelmator > Preferences.
One more feature that we took an extra care of is Pixelmator effects. The Effects Browser improvements let you search, preview, and apply effects more quickly while effects’ enhancements give you more flexibility in previewing effects and faster, smoother performance.
Check out every improvement we’ve made with Pixelmator 2.2.1 update here in detail.
Enjoy!
P.S. Next up, Layer Styles.
Inspired by your creations with the new shapes in Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry, we had some fun as well and created a few more custom shapes for you to play with. You have probably already seen the new Shapes palette, and in case you missed this, you can add, save, and share those custom shapes with others.
Adding, saving, and sharing custom shapes is easy. Everything essentially works with drag and drop. To add a shape, drag the shape layer to the Shapes palette. To share shapes, drag them from the Shapes palette to your Desktop or even to your e-mail message window. Adding new shapes is just as simple–drag the shape file to Pixelmator.
Download and try the new shapes pack here. Hope you’ll enjoy them!
Beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast, and powerful vector graphics app for the Mac
This app is absolutely awesome, and there is a good chance you already have it right there on your Mac. Without even knowing it.
We have sneaked a totally wicked but secret feature into Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry. It’s a trick to convert your standard Pixelmator into a completely new drawing app. We call this new app (or more accurately this mode of an app) Vectormator.
Vectormator brings up and conveniently places all of the drawing tools and palettes on your screen. So you can create stunning shapes, illustrations, logos, and so much more, more easily than ever before.
To switch to Vectormator, simply press the Command-Shift-V keyboard shortcut, and watch the tools and palettes instantly change to Vectormator. To switch back to your Pixelmator, press the same keyboard shortcut again. Watch that happen in our short Vectormator video or try it yourself now.
This is it. Pixelmator is now a fully featured vector graphics app.
Powerful Image Editing App Gets Even Smarter with New Shape, Move and Paint Selection Tools
Today the Pixelmator Team released Pixelmator 2.2, a major update of the world’s most innovative, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editing app. Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry features new, easy-to-use Smart Shape, Move and Paint Selection Tools, and a new Light Leak effect for creating retro-artistically illuminated images. Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry is available today as a free update from the Mac App Store.
“We’re excited to deliver even more, easy-to-use, advanced features to our Pixelmator fans and continue to create the best and most enjoyable image editing experience,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. “With new state-of-the-art Smart Shape Tools, people can fully enhance their images, create logos, Web layouts, posters, and much more, all easier than ever before.”
Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry comes with more than 100 new features and improvements, including:
Smart Shapes Tools, which let you quickly adjust a shape’s outline with easy-to-use controls to get just the look you’re after;
Shapes palette packed with dozens of readily available shapes that are as easy to add as dragging and dropping;
Shape Style palette, so you can effortlessly create more polished and advanced shapes;
Convert Text into Shape feature, which allows you easily apply gradients, shadows, strokes, or even reshape individual letters;
Smart Move Tool, which knows when you are working with image or shape layers and gives you the options you need at that time;
Paint Selection Tool, which is the simplest and the fastest way to make the most challenging selections with a few brush strokes;
Light Leak effect, which makes it easy and fun to create stunning, retro-artistically illuminated images from any of your photos.
Additional features include the new Color Popovers for quicker access to color swatches, new gradient presets, improved drawing tools, an improved Type Tool, the ability to copy and paste shape styles, and major performance improvements.
Pixelmator 2.2 is available from the Mac App Store at a promotional price of $29.99. For existing Pixelmator customers who purchased the app from the Mac App Store, the new update is free.
P.S. In addition to this awesome new major update we are also introducing a completely revamped Pixelmator Tutorials web site.
In the past 24 hours, we’ve gotten tons of emails asking, congratulating, and commenting about Big Brother’s new move. So I thought I should write a short note about it. As Pixelmator developers, we were quite (pleasantly) surprised by this move.
I must say our pricing, ownership, and development philosophy are completely different from Big Brother. We focus only on creating the world’s best image editing app. Nothing else. No distractions. Just this to drive us forward: the compulsive curiosity to see what happens after we have the perfect image editing app ready for you.
At the Pixelmator Team we believe that our way is the right way.
In fact, previous Pixelmator updates are the evidence of what I’m saying now. All of them come with a multitude of amazing new features and improvements that are completely free. But what’s even more important is that your feedback is unbelievably great about every single one of them.
We’ll prove ourselves again later on this week. On Thursday, we will storm the Mac App Store with a free Pixelmator 2.2. Blueberry upgrade for all of our existing customers. Don’t be confused by versioning numbers. This isn’t a minor update—it’s a MAJOR UPGRADE—and it’s great one.
Then, as I mentioned sometime ago, we are on track to ship layer styles later this year. We just wanted to complete this awesome Blueberry upgrade.
After Big Brother’s latest move, I am confident that our philosophy of pricing ($15), ownership (you own the app), and development (focus on creating the world’s best image editing app) are simply the right things to do.
In Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry, we have one more treat packed for you: The new Paint Selection Tool. It’s an awesome tool that makes selecting anything within your images really simple and enjoyable. You paint as if using the Brush Tool, only you are not painting but rather selecting.
Technically speaking, we’ve implemented a few tricks that enabled the tool to “read” the area within the stroke and then, judging by the texture and colors of it, select entire objects for you automatically. We’ve spent quite some time crafting it, but we believe the tool was really worth it.
The all-new Paint Selection Tool is part of the awesome, free, and soon-to-be-released Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry major update.
P.S. Also, check out cool new Light Leak effect and Convert Text into Shape features coming in Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry!
We know you love effects; we love them too! In Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry, we are adding one more gorgeous effect called Light Leak to the collection. The effect is super easy to add and the outcome is a stunning, retro-artistically illuminated image. Enjoy!
Everything we do at Pixelmator Team is aimed at making your favorite app the best in the world. With every minor update, we strive to live up to a high-quality standard. We even put aside new features, such as layer styles, for the sake of quality improvements. So far, we are happy with what we’ve achieved. However, there is one issue we wanted to talk about a little bit more.
A month or so ago, after the most recent OS X update (10.8.2), we’ve bumped into a problem that causes certain Macs to restart when intensively using Pixelmator. Sometimes, the app would stop responding without restarting a computer, or just cause some graphical glitches.
We did everything to find the root cause of the problem. We’ve researched a vast amount of information about OS X internals. We’ve torn down our Macs. We even reached out to Apple. Finally, the picture was clear: It’s an issue with NVIDIA GeForce graphics card drivers.*
Although the issue isn’t with Pixelmator, we didn’t give up. We’ve searched for various workarounds, and then, we checked with you to see if any of them helped (thanks so much for being so patient and for taking the time to test those workarounds). But in the end, nothing worked.
Good thing, though—the guys at Apple are very helpful, and as soon as we hear about a solution, we’ll let you know about it that very moment.
To prove our commitment to you and to brighten up the holiday spirit, we are soon to release a Pixelmator 2.1.4 update that comes with tons of quality improvements.
* The following Macs with NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards are currently affected: GT 120, GT 320M, GT 330M, 9400M, and GT 9600.
1.- Since the release of the OS X 10.8.3 update last Thursday, we’ve been thoroughly testing Pixelmator on it. We can finally confirm that Pixelmator’s biggest problem (caused by NVIDIA graphics card drivers) is now solved! For that, we owe a tremendous thanks to the guys at Apple and NVIDIA for listening to us and probably many other developers, and then doing something about it.
Go ahead, everyone, and download the OS X 10.8.3 update to your Macs!
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