July 20, 2016

Pixelmator 2.3 for iOS is here

Pretty much the first tweets and emails we got after shipping the last Pixelmator for Mac update had you guys asking us if the Quick Selection and Magnetic Selection tools were coming to iOS. Which was pretty cool, because that was actually our plan all along—to bring those two tools to macOS and then add them to Pixelmator for iOS. And that’s just what we did in Pixelmator 2.3 for iOS.

One of the great things about working with macOS and iOS is that we can often reuse code from one app in the other, because the two platforms are so well integrated. In this case, that made it much easier for us to add two truly desktop-class selection tools to Pixelmator for iOS. I guess that makes it sound like it was just a case of copying and pasting a bunch of code, but it wasn’t quite as simple like that.

The design of the marching ants was one of the biggest changes we had to make in this update. The marching ants we used to have were good enough for the Paint Selection Tool, but since Quick Selection is a lot more powerful, we had to completely rewrite the whole thing—from the ground up. Now, the ants look much nicer, work way faster, and you get to see a live preview of your selection as you’re making it. That’s all down to the awesome new design.

The technology behind the Quick Selection and Magnetic Selection tools is amazing. In our last blog post, we go into detail about them, so I won’t go over what we mentioned there. But, if you’re curious about what exactly lies beneath the tools, be sure to check out our previous blog post. We’ve also got two great video tutorials about both tools, which explain how they work. You can click here to watch the Quick Selection Tool tutorial. And here if you’d like to watch the Magnetic Selection Tool tutorial.

Along with the new selection tools and new marching ants design, we’ve also added loads of little improvements to the entire selection experience. Little things like an Invert Selection feature (yes, it did take a little too long for this one to make it into the app…), improved edge-smoothing with the Color Selection Tool, and a two finger double-tap to zoom gesture. And that’s not even close to being it. In fact, there were so many changes, that we had to cut the release notes in half just to fit them in the App Store description. But if you want to know all the little details, the full, unabridged release notes can be found right here.

This update is free for everyone who has previously bought Pixelmator for iOS, so you can just open up the App Store, get the latest version, and get selecting!