Pixelmator 1.3.1 - Color Management Made Right
Wednesday, 26 November 2008. Posted by Saulius.
It has been a while since Pixelmator 1.3 Tempo was released. And it is doing amazingly well: your feedback about performance, features, and overall stability is excellent. It is probably the best rated major update we’ve ever done. Thank you!
Tempo 1.3 is history since we are releasing 1.3.1 today. Though 1.3.1 is mostly about bug fixes and minor improvements, it includes two new things for you: the very easy to use Color Management sheet and a very fresh Refine Selection tool with real-time preview. Definitely try the new tools right away and let us know what you think.
I hope you enjoy playing with the update and while you do that, I am going back to work on 1.4 Sprinkle, which is going to be wonderful.
Have fun!
November 26th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
Can someone explain to me the advantages of color profiling? I mean, I conceptually know what it means, making an image look the same regardless of what someone’s monitor is set to. But I don’t quite see all the hype.
November 26th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Consider your target audience: The Pre-press Industry. Color profiling allows the embedded profile to consistently produce the same color spectrum you expect it to produce on the output device that isn’t your monitor.
WYSIWYG for Printing.
November 27th, 2008 at 12:25 am
oh uh! when i apply filters the object i was applying the filter to disappears after i apply it! … but other than that, pretty good update … i LOVE the new refine selection tool, great job!
November 27th, 2008 at 3:29 am
Hi, I need the “Export area tool” (Fireworks) to be happy.
I love Pixelmator.
November 27th, 2008 at 4:24 am
I remember when I first started web design when my photoshop comp colors did not match the same background color in my CSS code. Then I discovered color profiles. It did drive me crazy for a little while. The Color Management tool is a great addition.
Ed
November 27th, 2008 at 8:01 am
Wow! I came by tonight just to see if there were any new comments and found another update!?!
Thank you Pixeloids.
November 27th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Color management is really important when working with images captured from digital cameras or other devices (scanners, etc). From my experience all digital cameras embed profile to the captured image. If you remove the profile without matching it your image may and usually will look completely different.
If you use your images mostly for web then color management isn’t that important, because as of today very few popular browsers actually support color management (Safari is one of them, Firefox announced support not long ago).
According to the color management theory image must always have a color profile embedded. This helps to preserve colors across different devices (usually displays, but printers are important too).
Conclusion: It is recommended to always embed a color profile to your image - the increase in file size isn’t very big (few Kb usually). In practice web designers usually don’t embed color profiles.
I hope that helps.
P.S. If you’re having problems with 1.3.1 update and using PPC just re-download Pixelmator again from http://www.pixelmator.com/download/ - it will solve it.
November 27th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Great news! Color management! Pixelmator is getting better and better and is becoming one of may favorite apps!
Well done.
November 27th, 2008 at 10:25 am
Is it possible to shrink a selection by 2 pixels? The slider goes from one to three pixels. I thought it was a bug in the previous version, but still can’t make it work.
November 27th, 2008 at 10:32 am
i must say i am thoroughly impressed with the pixelmator team. not only did they do an excellent job with releasing 1.3.1 in less than a month, they managed to respond to the PPC problems that arose out of said update … only a team with commitment and quality could pull this off, thank you!
November 27th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Agreed….pixel team you are just awesome.
November 27th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
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November 27th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
The colour management does not work very well. Simple things like working with absolute web safe colours is hard to manage.
Look at this video: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/102599/blogcomments/PixelmatorSchnappschuss001.mp4
I tried to draw the colour #003366 in a sRGB image. I tried different ways with different results. Why so complicated? If I select #003366 in the colour picker, Pixelmator should also draw that value.
November 27th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
To Tekl:
One of the often overlooked features of the Color Picker is that you can actually choose color profile. Check this screenshot: http://www.pixelmator.com/support/cm.jpg . By default color picker uses Generic RGB profile, and when you draw or use the color in filter it will be automatically color managed to the assigned profile.
In your case even if you use web safe colors they are defined by Apple in Generic RGB profile.
I understand that this might be a little confusing for users who haven’t seen that option.
November 28th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
im also having problems with color management across computers. Is there an newbie guide floating around somewhere?
November 29th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
The color management update is awesomeness!
I can work in Pro Photo color space and then when ready I convert to srgb for the web. Quick and easy.
My workflow is becoming far more consistent.
December 2nd, 2008 at 3:00 am
[…] under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Graphic Design The good folks at Pixelmator have released version 1.3.1 of their lightweight and smooth photo editing software. While the update is mostly “bug fixes […]
December 2nd, 2008 at 6:21 am
[…] under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Graphic Design The beatific folks at Pixelmator hit released edition 1.3.1 of their lightweight and uncreased picture redaction software. While the update is mostly […]
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:05 pm
[…] have released an update bringing the app to 1.3.1. It’s basically a bug fix and general improvement version but it […]
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Awesome, stride-by-stride Pixelmator is becoming more and more useful! Not to mention the yummy interface that makes it a lot more fun.
PS: My initial doubts about Pixelmator being to “dummed down” in the name of ease-of-use are fading for each release. It’s just more intuitive this way, not as visually technical.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Throw in two features; “Save-For-Web” and Image-versioning (maybe via Subversion/Perforce), and us web-people can happily kiss Photoshop goodbye!
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:10 am
glass distortion is buggy. I get these weird white lines on the image when trying it out.
December 24th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
. - .
December 26th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Занятно, а продолжение будет?