August 9, 2012

Pixelmator Adds Support for OS X Mountain Lion

Major Update Adds iCloud Support, Effects Browser, Vintage and Miniaturize Effects and Smart Alignment Guides

The Pixelmator Team today released a major update of Pixelmator, its inspiring, easy-to-use and feature-packed image editing software for the Mac. Designed to take full advantage of OS X Mountain Lion and the new MacBook Pro with Retina display, Pixelmator 2.1 adds support for iCloud, a new Effects Browser with new Vintage and Miniaturize effects, smart Alignment Guides and several other enhancements.

“Pixelmator continues to be a big hit among both professional and amateur image editors, and we’re thrilled to deliver even more features at a very affordable price,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. “With support for Mountain Lion, iCloud and the new Retina display, Pixelmator 2.1 is ideal for Mac users looking to tap into their creativity with a full-featured, easy-to-use image editing app.”

The new Effects Browser takes the guesswork out of selecting effects by collecting, organizing and providing an animated preview of all of Pixelmator’s Color Adjustments, Blur, Distortion, Tile and dozens of other effects, together in one helpful palette. Users can also use the browser to tag and access Favorites in one place. 

Pixelmator 2.1 also introduces several brand new effects, including the Vintage, Miniaturize, Black and White, Snow and Rain effects. With the Vintage effect, users get eight new photo filters that give pictures the look of old image processing and bring to mind photos from other eras. Meanwhile, the Miniaturize effect makes real-world scenes appear scaled down to size with a few clicks. It’s an optical illusion that gives ordinary objects in photos the endearing look of a toy model only inches tall.

Building precisely aligned image compositions is now short work in Pixelmator 2.1, with the new smart Alignment Guides. This new feature lets users position objects with pinpoint accuracy and build compositions quickly by using individual objects or image elements. The Alignment Guides gracefully appear and disappear onscreen as they are needed, while Object Spacing automatically shows when objects are equally spaced on the canvas.

In addition to full compatibility with OS X Mountain Lion, Pixelmator 2.1 comes with iCloud support, which automatically and effortlessly keeps Pixelmator work up to date across all of a user’s Macs; as well, complete Retina display support lets users fully enjoy image editing using Pixelmator on the new MacBook Pro with Retina display.

Pixelmator 2.1 is available exclusively from the Mac App Store for a limited-time price of $14.99—a substantial savings off the usual price of $59. It is also available as a free update for existing users.

July 12, 2012

Least Secret Feature in Upcoming Pixelmator 2.1 Cherry

The ever-busy Pixelmator Team is about to release a new major version of Pixelmator: Pixelmator 2.1, codenamed Cherry. We’ve been working very hard on it for a few months now, and Cherry is one of the best major Pixelmator updates we have ever put together.

Today I am very excited to unveil the least secret feature of Pixelmator 2.1 Cherry: complete Pixelmator support for the new Retina display on the MacBook Pro. Yep, Pixelmator 2.1 Cherry is already fully Retina-ready, including all of the user interface elements as well as the image editing engine itself. And, what can I say—Pixelmator on the new MacBook Pro with Retina display (we’ve got a few of those around the office) looks totally incredible.

The Retina display is, of course, a brilliant fit for image editing using Pixelmator. But we’re also impressed by the MacBook Pro’s speed and power, HD graphics and video support, beautiful looks, and so many other great features. Apple did a phenomenal job on the new MacBook Pro. It is very likely the best Mac that has ever been made, and surely the best laptop on the planet.

The new Pixelmator 2.1 Cherry includes Retina support and some other fantastic new features, and it is coming your way very soon. Those of you who want a peek at what’s ahead can click here for a glimpse.

June 13, 2012

Pixelmator 2.0.5 Now Available

Good things come in small packages, and to prove it, this week the Pixelmator Team brings you Pixelmator 2.0.5, our newest update. It’s a petite-yet-powerful set of enhancements designed to make your Pixelmator experience just a bit more awesome.

Here’s what’s new: I’m happy that with this update, Pixelmator is finally able to offer vastly improved support for Intel graphics cards. And because we’re always looking for ways to make a good thing better, 2.0.5 packs in a helping of other small but still mighty useful fixes. I hope you like this update.

May 17, 2012

Pixelmator 2.0.4 Sandboxing

Hot on the heels of our update last month, we’re pleased to bring you Pixelmator 2.0.4. With even more improvements and, oh, so many of the fixes you’ve told us you want, we think you’ll agree that this update—our third this year—is a great one.

First, I don’t want to brag, but with this new version, Pixelmator is one of the first apps on the Mac App Store to integrate support for sandboxing.

Pixelmator sandboxing

Apple’s App Sandbox technology provides a line of defense for your Mac, so your data is safer and better protected.1 Kudos to Apple for making it available.

Other major improvements in Pixelmator 2.0.4 include a new way to open and save files that automatically maintains the highest image quality possible. This simple workflow uses the native Pixelmator format to preserve image data as you edit, so images always look their best. Take a look at our brief tutorial explaining how it works. ?

And there’s much more to love about 2.0.4. With over two dozen additional fixes for known issues and several new stability improvements, we hope this update will see you through until the upcoming release of Pixelmator 2.1. We are proud of the hard work we put into this and every Pixelmator update—and we hope it shows!

1 Translation: Sandboxing is good for Mac users, so we’re glad to dive right in.

April 24, 2012

Pixelmator 2.0.3 Is Out

Not long ago, we brought you the biggest maintenance update in Pixelmator history. Today, we’re excited to bring you Pixelmator 2.0.3, our second maintenance update this year. It’s all part of our work to make Pixelmator the image editor for the rest of us.

Here are just a few of the many improvements we built into this update:

  • For starters, with Pixelmator 2.0.3, most users will see their memory footprint cut in half. That should sweeten performance noticeably and make using Pixelmator an even faster and smoother experience.
  • The Export for Web feature is vastly improved, with fixes for both stability and compatibility issues.
  • We also fixed a few nasty crashes, worked some magic in cases where PXM files were going corrupt, and topped off the update with dozens more enhancements.
  • And, if you’ve wished for a return to the old Deselect shortcut—well, we listened. From now on, Command-D is for Deselect again.

Last but not least, users who don’t get along entirely with the Lion OS X Autosave feature can now turn it off in Pixelmator by typing this command in the Terminal:

defaults write com.pixelmatorteam.pixelmator "disableAutosave" -bool YES

We’re very happy with Pixelmator 2.0.3. And, along with the recent maintenance updates, we are on track to release the next major update: Pixelmator 2.1.

March 21, 2012

Pixelmator Tutorials Video Podcast

iTunes

We’ve got some sweet goodies for you. Starting today, you can subscribe to and view the Pixelmator Tutorials video podcast from your iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad (the new one is yummy) and, of course, from iTunes on your Mac. The new Pixelmator podcast is the quickest, easiest way to make sure you’re getting the most out of your favorite image editor. Even better, each episode is brought to you in full HD to let you catch even the smallest details of the action.

Just as in our awesome Pixelmator Tutorials website, each episode of the Pixelmator Tutorials video podcast will walk you through a different feature of Pixelmator, showing you just how easy it is to create, enhance and have fun with your images. You’ll learn how to work with the most useful tools and apply the most popular effects—quickly, expertly and on the go. And with new tutorials planned for the immediate future, this is one podcast subscription you won’t want to miss.

The Pixelmator Tutorials video podcast is immediately available in iTunes or by clicking here.

Enjoy!

February 21, 2012

Pixelmator 2.0.2 Is Out

With Apple’s exciting recent announcement of OS X Mountain Lion, we too would like to add something nice to the whole picture. This is not as big as Mountain Lion, but still awesome: We’re talking about Pixelmator 2.0.2, the biggest maintenance update in Pixelmator history.

Pixelmator 2.0.2 includes a massive number of improvements and bug fixes—in all, over 60 enhancements, mainly focusing on the Move Tool, drag and drop, layer management, and copying and pasting. And we’ve also built in a ton of overall stability improvements.

Pixelmator 2.0.2 is available immediately as a free update via the Mac App Store.

While you enjoy the new update, we’ll keep working on Pixelmator 2.1. Pixelmator 2.1 is a major update that will bring some very cool features and major improvements. I am not ready to announce the details yet, but stay tuned.

December 13, 2011

Mac App of the Year

Just think about this: For an entire year, Pixelmator has retained its standing as one of the (1) most highly rated, and (2) top-charting apps on the Mac App Store, with (3) incredible, massive sales that we never dreamed of. Also, just a couple of months ago, it won a gorgeous (4) Apple Design Award, and just a month ago, our (5) most successful (in terms of everything—feedback, sales, downloads, updates, etc.) update—Pixelmator 2.0—was released.

I’d say that’s quite a year for a tiny Mac developer like the Pixelmator Team. Quite a year…

…but just when you start to think that the most incredible year in Pixelmator’s life (to this date) is coming to an end—boom—it happens: As if those five huge reasons above weren’t enough, Pixelmator is named (!) the Mac app of the year! Yup! THE MAC APP of THE YEAR.

Wow. Just a huge wow. That is a big honor for us.

And again, thank you so much, everyone, for helping us to get where we are today: closer and closer to creating the best image editing app in the world. We know we are not there yet, but we are also confident that we will get there.

I would also like to say a big thanks to all of those people at Apple that showed us how to get where we are today, and thanks for giving us all of the stuff that everyone uses, loves and knows about. In our case, too, we’re grateful to Apple for creating the Mac App Store which is hugely responsible for successes of all those developers like us. Thank you, Apple!

P.S.—My quote, together with quotes from Philip Schiller (everyone’s favorite Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing), Amar Hanspal (of Autodesk) and Karim Morsy (of algoriddim) made it into Apple’s official press release describing the incredible success of the Mac App Store. The press release was noticed by almost every popular magazine and blog out there. It is amazing to be at least a teeny, tiny part of something that big and that great.