Pixelmator 3.8.6 beta available for testing

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2019-08-19 16:04:19

Hey Pixelmator Community members!

Over the past 6 months, alongside all the updates to Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator Photo, and Pixelmator for iOS, we've been working on quite a significant update to the original Pixelmator. As we've mentioned in the past, Pixelmator Pro is the future and our focus moving forward. Despite that, we also wanted to address some subtle but pesky technical issues in Pixelmator with the goal of future-proofing it as we shift our focus to Pixelmator Pro even more. Basically, we want those of you who, for one reason or another, want to stick with Pixelmator to be able to do so for a while yet.

The two main areas we’re tackling are the Photos Browser and color handling in Pixelmator documents. The changes we’re introducing are pretty significant from a technical perspective although most of you may not even have noticed that anything's wrong. Still, to make sure everything's working well in this update, we'd like to do some additional beta testing.

That's why we’re reaching out to anyone willing to help! We’re launching a Pixelmator beta that will grant you early access to Pixelmator 3.8.6 and we’d be grateful for any feedback that would help us release the most solid update possible.

These are the changes that need testing:

A new foundation for the Photo Browser
In Pixelmator 3.8.6, we’ve rebuilt Photo Browser from the ground up using Apple’s MediaLibrary framework. This ensures a smoother and more stable photo browsing experience. Pixelmator should no longer quit unexpectedly when clicking through folders. On compatible versions of macOS, your Aperture library will now also be accessible from the Photo Browser.

Color handling in Pixelmator tools and documents
Pixelmator 3.8.6 fixes a range of color management-related issues including color shifts, use of incorrect color spaces, slight shifts in color values in the Colors palette, and more.

Here are a few of the most important improvements:

1. Colors in the Touch Bar are now synced to use the document’s color space.
2. If a document is saved after changing its color space, the QuickLook preview and document thumbnails would have an incorrect color space. Fixed.
3. The document would show incorrect colors if the screen color space was changed during the session. Fixed.
4. Changing the color space for a document with grouped layers would shift the layer colors. Fixed.
5. The text and shape layer colors would shift after changing the document color space. Fixed.
6. In Export for Web, the color space chosen for export would be incorrect. Fixed.
7. The RGB value of a color selected in the Colors palette would shift when switching between the Brush, Pencil, Pixel, and Paint Bucket tools, or between sessions. Fixed.
8. Colors window color space handling improvements:
Colors in Colors window will now work strictly in the document’s color space (disabled the ability to change the color space for the Colors Sliders and Color Wheel pickers).
Colors in the Gradients palette will work correctly in any color space.

Other fixes
Adding to the color management and Photo Browser improvements, there are a couple more fixes we’re including in this update:

1. If a PXD document with grouped layers is exported from Pixelmator Pro as a PSD file, opening that PSD in Pixelmator would result in flattening everything to just one layer. Fixed.
2. Pixelmator would sometimes quit unexpectedly when opening or closing windows. Fixed.

To start testing, drop us a line at support@pixelmator.com and we’ll send you the beta — our support mailbox is also open for any feedback about the beta itself. Thanks!