Copy / Paste adjustments between iOS and MacOS

Talk about Pixelmator Pro, share tips & tricks, tutorials, and other resources.
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2022-01-20 01:24:55

Been editing a photo on iPad but I need to add another layer so I need to continue on Mac. It would be nice if I could just paste the adjustments made on iPad to Pro on the mac.
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2022-01-20 19:27:03

To start with: I am not using iCloud-photos to synchronise/ store my Photo's, occasionally I use iCloud Drive
I recently succeeded with this workflow with Pixelmator Photos:
Export the edited photo to "iPad-files" as an Pixelmator "a.photo" format (including changes). When you transfer that photo to your Mac it can be opened including the changes and you can continue working on your Mac.
When you open the file while browsing Apple Photo's and start editing from there, the extension after saving wil be something like : "picturenamea.photo-edit". In that case you need to rename it to "picturenamea.photo", otherwise it can. not be opened.
If I want to edit further on my iMac I normally store all my (RAW) photo's on the iPad file system (so not in Apple Photo's) You then don't run into the extension problem. Simple transfer the edited photo from the "IPad-file" system to your Mac (I mostly use Airdrop)

I don't know if this a official supported workflow, but it seems to work for me. :wink:

HtH
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2022-01-20 20:54:56

Wouldn't you just be editing a copy with all or your Pixelmator Photo adjustments baked in using this method? I think the original question was whether you can start the edit using Pixelmator Photo and continue the edit using Pixelmator Pro, I don't believe that is possible.
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2022-01-20 21:05:37

by Fish 2022-01-20 20:56:52 Wouldn't you just be editing a copy with all or your Pixelmator Photo adjustments baked in using this method? I think the original question was whether you can start the edit using Pixelmator Photo and continue the edit using Pixelmator Pro, I don't believe that is possible.
Yep. I tried 'Copy Adjustment Settings' from the iPad to 'Paste Adjustment Settings' on the Mac but it doesn't support it. I figured since you can copy/paste between apple devices this might be possible. Even if the clipboard can hold multiple things in memory (I don't know with Apple) I'm hoping the 'Adjustment Settings' context is enough for it to work.
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2022-01-20 21:19:59

Also it looks like you can't even copy/paste adjustments between the Pixelmator version from Photos Extension and the standalone Pro
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2022-01-21 15:08:57

MacGB's suggestion to keep all edits within a .PHOTO file would be the preferred workflow at the moment. More options for copying and pasting edits between Pixelmator Photo and Pixelmator Pro might become possible when Pixelmator Photo for Mac comes along.
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2022-01-21 15:58:50

Ah, Thanks Aurelija for the confirmation that it is indeed the "formal workflow" at this point of time.

@ Fish and Jasn. Export or save as a.PHOTO does not bake in the adjustments. Choose PHOTO from the option menu on export (so not one of the other options like jpeg, png, etc.) Afterwards you can use airdrop/email etc. to send the file to your Mac. (The file size may be larger than mail normally would accept, but you can use Apple maildrop in that case). My preferred route is using Airdrop.
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2022-01-21 17:14:53

by MacGB 2022-01-21 20:58:50 Ah, Thanks Aurelija for the confirmation that it is indeed the "formal workflow" at this point of time.

@ Fish and Jasn. Export or save as a.PHOTO does not bake in the adjustments. Choose PHOTO from the option menu on export (so not one of the other options like jpeg, png, etc.) Afterwards you can use airdrop/email etc. to send the file to your Mac. (The file size may be larger than mail normally would accept, but you can use Apple maildrop in that case). My preferred route is using Airdrop.
Oh wow, thank you for clarifying, I haven't always been following the forums as closely so if this was previously shared I totally missed it!
by Aurelija 2022-01-21 20:08:57 MacGB's suggestion to keep all edits within a .PHOTO file would be the preferred workflow at the moment. More options for copying and pasting edits between Pixelmator Photo and Pixelmator Pro might become possible when Pixelmator Photo for Mac comes along.
Is this feature widely documented? I am happy to see that this works, but had no idea. I keep all of my Pixelmator Photo files in the iCloud - Photos folder, they all show as ".photo-edit", can I open these in Pixelmator Pro, or do I need to export a separate version from Pixelmator Photo?

My workflow is to use iCloud Photo Library, so slightly different than MacGB above.
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2022-01-21 18:44:57

by Fish 2022-01-21 16:14:53
they all show as ".photo-edit", can I open these in Pixelmator Pro, or do I need to export a separate version from Pixelmator Photo?

so slightly different than MacGB above.
With one of my experiments the extension of those photo's in the "linked-file" folder of Pixelmator Photo on my iPad showed up as follows "nameofphotoa.photo-edit". "nameofphoto" being the file name of the photo. However watch closely if the "nameofphoto" has an "a" before the . (period), so looks like "nameofphotoa.photo-edit" it is part of the extension. In that case I deleted the "-edit" from the filename so it became "nameofphotoa.photo" That one then opened in Pixelmator Pro without problems including the edits (not baked in)
However be careful I don't know if this will always work and I am quite sure that it will brake functionality in iCloud Photo's so I strongly suggest that you make a copy (duplicate) of that Photo out of iCloud photo's an then give it a try.
The linked pictures on my iPad (so the photo's edited in Apple Photo's with Pixelmator Photo) I can get to work that way by copying them over to my Mac and change the filename as described.
Then again an easier way is to directly export from my iPad as I described earlier.
HtH
Ben