Moving from GIMP but Pixelmator Pro lacks these capabilities?

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2018-02-25 06:18:56

I'm trying to move from GIMP because it keeps crashing. My work on it is very simple. I take a few hundred images, open them all up in tabs. Then I free select and circle an object (1), fill with FG color (in my case white) (2), invert selection (3), fill with BG color (black) (4), save (5), move to next tab (6), and repeat. Every number indicates one shortcut on my keyboard, which is a combination of 2 keys that I personally changed in the settings. So overall, in GIMP, I only take 6 steps. But it doesn't seem like I can do any of this in Pixelmator Pro. To fill with a color I need to go to the menu, click on that, select the color, then okay it. Then invert, then do the same thing with the black color. And there aren't any shortcuts for this from what I've seeing.

Does anyone know how I can do my GIMP workflow just as fast in Pixelmator Pro using shortcuts?
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2018-02-26 12:55:10

I'm not sure I get your entire workflow but the following shortcut keys may help:
Y - Elliptical selection (hold the command key while dragging to keep it circular).
N - Colour fill tool
Shift + Command + I - invert selection
D - reset to black foreground and white background colours.
X - Switch between foreground and background colours
control + TAB - switch to next tab (if your windows aren't tabbed you will need to go to Window > Merge All Windows first
Command + S - Save. Note that Pixelmator Pro by default saves everything as a PXD file. If you want to open say, jpegs, and save them again as jpegs you will have to change the default Import options in Preferences. I've never done this so I've no idea how that works, though. (Alternatively, Command + E to export).

(edit) and, as I may have misunderstood, L is free select and when you use the Color Fill tool, you may need to drag it to increase its tolerance so that it will fill regardless of what is underneath.

Hope this helps,

- Stef.
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2018-02-26 16:13:28

P.S. You can change the keyboard shortcuts for anything in the Pixelmator Pro menus using System Preferences (System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts), so for example, if you set a keyboard shortcut for the Color fill effect (Insert > Effects > Color), you could do this:

D — Reset primary and secondary (foreground/background) colors to black and white.
Y — Choose the Elliptical Selection tool and create a selection.
(Whatever you choose) — Apply the Color fill effect.
Shift-Command-I — Invert the selection (and flatten the Color fill effect)
X — Switch primary and secondary colors)
(Whatever you choose) — Apply the Color fill effect.
Control-Tab — Switch to next tab.