Pixelmator Pro as a photos extension

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2021-06-05 10:50:21

Hi! I often use Pixelmator Pro as a photos extension, so photos is my library and Pixelmator is my editor. But when I go up to image > edit with > Pixelmator Pro, the editing itself works fine, but the edits are baked in and unchangeable the next time you open Pixelmator for the same photo! Is there a way (or a feature to be added) that you can save the edits to be able to adjust another time?

Thanks in advance!
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2021-06-08 09:53:52

Hey! That’s a limitation of Photos, I’m afraid. It’s been previously discussed (in the context of RAWs) in this thread here. The images you’ve edited using the extension can still be opened using the standalone app, only not through Edit With. Each of your edited images has a linked PXD document in Pictures or iCloud (the “Pixelmator Pro Extension Documents” folder), so you can open and continue with your edits from there. The changes you make will sync to the images in Photos the next time you open them using the Pixelmator Pro extension.

Hope that helps!
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2021-06-08 21:31:57

Ok good workaround! Only problem is you lose the toolbar, fine for simple edits, but is there a way to hide the photos toolbar whilst editing?
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2021-06-11 07:20:09

That's also a technical limitation — that area is reserved exclusively for the Photos toolbar (just like the menu options up top). While we can't really get around this at the moment, we'd really like to improve this in the future if we get the chance. In the meantime, for any options accessible from the top menu or the toolbar, you can use the keyboard shortcuts.