July 24, 2008

Pixelmator 1.2.2 and Some Other Stuff

At last, I am happy to announce that we just shipped the latest update of Pixelmator, version 1.2.2. This version is not a huge update, but we are working on two versions of Pixelmator these days, so shipping the application was a bit harder than usual.

The two versions I mentioned above include (1) the currently released 1.2.2 update and (2) the soon to be released 1.3 Tempo, which, by the way, will be the best major (and free) update we have ever done. But let us not talk about the Tempo yet.

For the most part, the changes in Pixelmator 1.2.2 involve the Gradient tool and bug fixes. The Gradient tool now works live, which means you see the result while dragging the mouse. Expanding the Gradient toolโ€™s function in this way might appear to have been an easy task, but it was not – we had to convert all the gradient types from simple Cocoa to Core Image kernels for performance. Fortunately, the conversion was successful, and I believe Pixelmator now has the most fun Gradient tool to work with. Try it and let us know what you think.

Of course, Pixelmator 1.2.2 includes many more enhancements and bug fixes that you may check by clicking here or by simply downloading it and putting it through its paces.

Thatโ€™s it for now. Going back to work on 1.3 Tempo, which is what I believe we are all waiting for…

Comments

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  • Lucky

    Man this update is downloading slooow ๐Ÿ˜› I guess I’m not the only one updating ๐Ÿ™‚

    Be prepared the next time.

    16 years ago
  • Lucky

    Great update. I love the live feature. I don’t think you guys will ever match Photoshop feature by feature, but the features that will be the same, will be better than the Photoshop version.

    Anyways, the live gradient is great, I love the nice touch where there is a small fade in the previous gradient and the new one.

    I hope that next version, the one all about performance, brings a little more in this area also. The live gradient lags when there are more colors. There is the default “rainbow” gradient that gives me this problem. I don’t have the latest Mac on the market, but I’m sure my Mac can draw a live gradient without lagging. And intel Mac should be able to do that, at least ๐Ÿ˜›

    16 years ago
  • Jack

    Loving the live gradient tool! Incredibly useful! =D
    Glad you got the export bug fixed too
    Looking forward to 1.3 Tempo, I’d love a warp tool and a layer style thingamajig like in Photoshop

    Great work!

    16 years ago
  • Damien McKenna

    One request for v1.3 – a printable manual. I’d love to be able to print off a manual I could browse through while .. away from the keyboard. Maybe set it up to be orderable from one of those on-demand services? And it wouldn’t have to be 100% complete, something equivalent to an O’Reilly Short Cuts series would be fantastic.

    16 years ago
  • Extensor

    Thanks for the update. Keep up the tempo! ^_^
    One request tho…. I really, really, really need to see the size of the crop for doing real life work type stuff. Just show me in the crop info window the width and height in pixels.
    PLEASE!!!

    16 years ago
  • will

    Pixelmator really needs to be able to draw a gradient by doing this:

    1) pick foreground color
    2) pick background color
    3) select gradient tool
    4) optionally select gradient type – radial, linear, etc
    4) draw gradient using above colors

    The fact that you have to make a gradient ‘preset’ first really slows down use and is basically a deal breaker for someone like me who uses image editors for mockup design work.

    16 years ago
  • Extensor

    will – Try this…
    a) click on gradient tool
    b) click on plus icon in gradient tool box to create your custom preset

    From here you can do mock ups with gradients.

    1) double click on custom preset
    2) right click on a slider for pop up color picker, click ok.
    3) draw gradient using selected colors.

    One glitch in the parade is there needs to be an HSB slider to make the pop up color picker complete. Otherwise you need to go back to the standard palette to adjust that, which ruins the workflow.

    16 years ago
  • Ringo Genickstarr

    Hallo Frau Kunkel!

    16 years ago
  • Kercal

    Liking it, not sussed how to get transparency on a gradient but still only playing about with the software rather than using it for work just yet (no CYMK/styles etc…) Really want to see Pixelmator take over from the other one though so keep up the good work and the fixes. Bearing in mind Pshop wasn’t that great until 3 you’re doing all sorts of aces.

    That said gradients on my poor lil 12 inch ibook have some sort of bug where the lightest colour dissapears, which is both odd and giving me interesting effects for backgrounds. Am upgrading soon so maybe it’ll change when I get a new mac. A legacy bug though I assume.

    Roll on Tempo. Looking forward to playing more with the toys you give us.

    16 years ago
  • Jeremy

    I came accross pixelmator today and wanted to give it a try, but I can’t download it. Is the download site down?

    16 years ago
  • jdobbs

    let me know when you can do jpeg preview and a more functional save option like Graphics converter.

    16 years ago