Pixelmator Team unveils Pixelmator Pro 3.0 with more than 200 stunning design templates and mockups

Discuss the latest Pixelmator news.
User avatar

2022-09-26 11:37:01

by MATTEMOTTO <p><img src="//support-cdn.pixelmator.com/uploads-new/cuf_1664036662_610DE58D_A342_4E49_9459_1776D2F1AC56.jpeg" class="postimage is-shown is-visible" alt="Image" width="1060.5" height="485.5"></p>
THANK YOU!
User avatar

2022-09-26 11:40:50

by Kodoku As I began reading some of the other comments I found there is a common theme, which is this feels like a beginner feature being forced into pro software and I can see a few pros aren't fond of it (including myself). I think a great feature to implement would be the option to have a 'new brand template' button along side a 'new template' button on intro that shows the old interface of just blank squares with the desired ratios for YouTube, instagram, twitter banner, etc. That way both pros and intro people can get the experience they want from Pixelmator without having to disregard all the time and effort put into the templates or brush off professional workflows šŸ˜Š that being said I will be switching to Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo until those features are implemented
At this point, I just bought Pixelmator Pro for the background remover feature. It saved me time and money. Everything else I've been doing it in Affinity Photo and Designer. Pixelmator may be under new management and this new management is greedy.
User avatar

2022-09-26 18:50:12

ā€¢ Warp Transform
ā€¢ Transform Repeat
ā€¢ Change Anchor Center
ā€¢ Gradient Mesh
ā€¢ Gradient on a Path
ā€¢ CMYK Workspace
ā€¢ Printing Workflow
ā€¢ Symbols
ā€¢ Flowing Text (inside shapes)
ā€¢ Text Linking/Colums
ā€¢ Artboards
ā€¢ Photo Stacking
ā€¢ Photo Merging
ā€¢ AI upscale (GigaPixel)
ā€¢ PDF export with SVG/Text
ā€¢ Preview vectors without pixels
ā€¢ Macros (Shortcuts are not macros)
ā€¢ More vector tools
ā€¢ Nondestructive Corner Rounder
ā€¢ Robust Brush Engine
ā€¢ Basic Timeline for Sequenced Animation (Procreate)
ā€¢ Exporting Templates for Pages (this actually makes sense)
ā€¢ Photoshop, Figma and Affinity import-export
ā€¢ Lens corrections
ā€¢ Waveform Scope
ā€¢ Vectorscope
ā€¢ Frequency Separation
ā€¢ Paginated Layouts
ā€¢ Isometric Grid
ā€¢ Laboratory Made Filmstock Emulation Presets/LUTS
ā€¢ Dynamic Styles (like CSS classes)
ā€¢ Select Same
ā€¢ Notes
ā€¢ History with forks
ā€¢ Image Reference Pane
ā€¢ Live Text

Nah, templates, and some Apple devices mockpups ā€” front only, because vanishing points are impossible.
User avatar

2022-09-27 12:05:18

I think the new template function is okay, it is unified with iWork, and I hope that I can make my own templates in the future. Also looking forward to the arrival of the new brush engine and vertical text layout so that I can ditch Photoshop entirely.
User avatar

2022-09-28 01:00:36

To summarize,

What we wanted was the Affinity Suite (or Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign) rethought and designed by the Pixelmator team, with the profound understanding that characterizes your apps on how macOS and iOS Interfaces and logic should work. Not all at once of course, but a clear glimpse that you were walking on that direction.

What we got was templates and subscriptions. After +20 years I take design, story and intent really seriously, no single shape is put there as an accident, or an afterthought, let alone out of laziness. To me, using someone else creative input is submitted to rigorous analysis, discussion, questioning.

Thereā€™s almost nothing inherently wrong with the designs you started with, apart from this pompous trend that everything must look like Harry Styles - As It Was music video on a Squarespace award-winning design madness; whatā€™s really wrong is how pretentious and rather aggressive is to open my design software and be attacked by this a dozen times a day. To whomever spent however many hours building these things: sorry - not sorry.

Iā€™m obviously oversimplifying, but Iā€™m confident thatā€™s the consensus among professionals that use this software.

To the Pixelmator team,

I think you have failed to understand that aside from your casual users, we that eat, dream and live from a certain activity, spend most of our waking hours in front of a couple of tools. These tools are not chosen lightly, there will be hundreds of hours of learning, mastering, evangelizing, customizing and tweaking to the point of each individual sense of unattainable perfection, all to serve our craft with respect, dignity and have some fun along the way.

This is certainly your software, but what you did equates to the landlord of my studio getting in with his emergency spare keys, and putting a freaking cactus pot in the middle of the place because he thinks that since he can build good buildings, he has a better taste than me for how the hell I want to adorn my place. All while the place needs other urgent fixing and renovations.
User avatar

2022-09-30 10:12:13

by MATTEMOTTO <p><img src="//support-cdn.pixelmator.com/uploads-new/cuf_1664036662_610DE58D_A342_4E49_9459_1776D2F1AC56.jpeg" class="postimage is-shown is-visible" alt="Image" width="1060.5" height="485.5"></p>
That must not be a bad thing. Actually this is awesome
User avatar

2022-09-30 16:55:00

by ResLes That must not be a bad thing. Actually this is awesome
Yes! Yesterday I realized that shooting photos directly from Instagramā€™s app and video from TikTok was a far superior experience, you have special effects and all šŸŖ„. In fact I think everything in our life should be constructed around generic templates for social media #MarkKnowsBetter

Tomorrow I'll start using the software that came with my printer on 1996, I just need to find an optical drive, hack a script to run it with Stable Diffusion, sit down and watch the money pour in. Fiesta šŸ’ƒšŸ•ŗšŸ»!
User avatar

2022-10-02 19:03:52

by MATTEMOTTO Thereā€™s almost nothing inherently wrong with the designs you started with, apart from this pompous trend that everything must look like Harry Styles - As It Was music video on a Squarespace award-winning design madness; whatā€™s really wrong is how pretentious and rather aggressive is to open my design software and be attacked by this a dozen times a day.
. . .
Iā€™m obviously oversimplifying, but Iā€™m confident thatā€™s the consensus among professionals that use this software.
šŸ’Æ
by MATTEMOTTO To the Pixelmator team,

I think you have failed to understand that aside from your casual users, we that eat, dream and live from a certain activity, spend most of our waking hours in front of a couple of tools. These tools are not chosen lightly, there will be hundreds of hours of learning, mastering, evangelizing, customizing and tweaking to the point of each individual sense of unattainable perfection, all to serve our craft with respect, dignity and have some fun along the way.

This is certainly your software, but what you did equates to the landlord of my studio getting in with his emergency spare keys, and putting a freaking cactus pot in the middle of the place because he thinks that since he can build good buildings, he has a better taste than me for how the hell I want to adorn my place. All while the place needs other urgent fixing and renovations.
Funny, but good analogy!
There are several posts from @Mattemotto that may sound harsh (even more-so than my earlier post šŸ˜‚), but if you can put feelings aside, all are very well thought-out, clearly articulated, and extremely constructive. The Pixelmator team has done excellent work over the years, but this release (full number, no less) sends up all kinds of šŸš©šŸš©šŸš©, particularly in light of the bifurcated efforts between PMP and Photo on iOS (which I bought to support the team and efforts, but to date have only poked around in out of very short-term curiosity.)

Themes are a complete side-show.. I'm coming from the video end and have used Pixelmator on every project since around 2014. I do work on social media as part of that. I might use tool where I can flip through some auto-typographic layout suggestions for my text (as with Typorama on iOS), but cookie cutter themes are not an option. By making themes front and center for Pixelmator 3.0, you've switched the perception and marketing from a high end, professional alternative to Photoshop to a desktop social media designer...and we all have seen enough of those. I've seen packages of 600 themes like this sold for $0.99 on the App Store for Pages! I have no idea why you'd want to compete in that arena or pivot in that direction after all the years of establishing Pixelmator as a professional product.

I think you need to do a sharp course-correction and, unlike Baby, shove the theme stuff into a corner, both in the GUI AND in your marketing. The overdue text-on-a-curve was a key point to feature.That integration with Motion that Mark & Steve showed off should ABSOLUTELY have been a blog post and put into upgrade notes. Themes should have been a footnote- "hey, if you do social media work/etc and like themes, we've thrown this feature in for you" - and tuck it away. I agree with @Mattemotto and mentioned it above...I don't want that šŸ’© in my face when I'm trying to work on my own designs. Featuring themes as a major revision dumbs-down what PMP actually is and clearly makes professional users concerned and feeling like we need to keep an eye on other products since we know that there will be a learning curve/time commitment if we concerns about Pixmator Pro going non-Pro come to fruition.
User avatar

2022-10-02 21:50:38

Hey @adamjd
Image
by adamjd I'm coming from the video end
Similar here, filmmaking, animation, and magazines that turned into web design to then morph to PWAs; I remember when I switched from After Effects to Motion and Premiere to FCP like it was yesterday, a magical moment indeed, realizing that industry monkeys could also have nice things. Pixelmator Pro did something similar, not that I hated Affinity in any way, it just always felt like the Windows 10 corner of my Mac.

Iā€™m just exhausted, man ā€” I just wanna work and get on with my day. All this companies using us as lab rats to test if simply repackaging and reusing code will be profitable, all to realize that nope, weā€™re not stupid, we see what you are doing; Apple did learn this the hard way, and now (thankfully) we have a clear distinction between pro and consumer machines.

Pixelmator software is now in a tough spot because the built-in Photos app has native support for all the fancy new features on the new phones, plus you can now batch edit, which is huge! Every year, using only the Photos app, I try to match a color test image with a film-stock emulation LUT applied. Since we all know how a Velvia or a Kodachrome should kind of look, it is easy to get a sense, and then I show it to my peers, this year the underlying engine is black magic; now with copy-paste edits, shared albums with comments and markup, all built-in, I find hard to justify Pixelmator Photo, not professional enough (colors wheels but not scopes?, A-B candidatesā€¦) and now Pixelmator Pro doing this.
by adamjd I think you need to do a sharp course-correction and, unlike Baby, shove the theme stuff into a corner, both in the GUI AND in your marketing.
Absolutely. Though I recon weā€™ll get a ā€œWe read all of your comments, and you are basically saying you donā€™t like templates, but thereā€™s not much to add other than what we already said on the blog postā€ aka, we ā€œdonā€™t careā€.

So yeah.
User avatar

2022-10-03 17:56:33

by MATTEMOTTO Hey @adamjd
<p>
Similar here, filmmaking, animation, and magazines that turned into web design to then morph to PWAs; I remember when I switched from After Effects to Motion and Premiere to FCP like it was yesterday, a magical moment indeed, realizing that industry monkeys could also have nice things. Pixelmator Pro did something similar, not that I hated Affinity in any way, it just always felt like the Windows 10 corner of my Mac.
Ahhhh, šŸ‘šŸ»! Very cool...and interesting. Do you do any work in the LA area?
by MATTEMOTTO Hey @adamjd
<p>
Iā€™m just exhausted, man ā€” I just wanna work and get on with my day. All this companies using us as lab rats to test if simply repackaging and reusing code will be profitable, all to realize that nope, weā€™re not stupid, we see what you are doing; Apple did learn this the hard way, and now (thankfully) we have a clear distinction between pro and consumer machines.
YES! Once again, very well said! My spin - "[W]e don't have the time for this šŸ’©."

Agreed on Apple. I'm VERY happy with Apple's new machines, although I'm curious to see how Apple navigates having an M2 mini while the Mac Studio is still on M1. I'm at the point where I really need a new machine...but trying to hold back until the Studio gets upgraded.

Anyway, I do appreciate that smaller developers would like to scale up, offer a new product and keep improving their existing products, but consumers hate subscriptions. At this rate, we'll need to hire bookkeepers to track 100+ recurring monthly charges. Holy Death by 1,000 paper cuts, Batman! šŸ™„ At some point, I will just click on subscriptions and start thinking #@$# you, #@$# you, #@$# you as I click cancel through the list. šŸ˜‚

ANOTHER suggestion to Pixelmator: Pitch us a great full point updates (which would be every update except 3.0) and occasionally try asking for a donations to keep going...if that doesn't work, just charge a flat rate for an update. My note would be that asking for donations earns a LOT more respect and loyalty.
by MATTEMOTTO Hey @adamjd
<p>
Pixelmator software is now in a tough spot because the built-in Photos app has native support for all the fancy new features on the new phones, plus you can now batch edit, which is huge! Every year, using only the Photos app, I try to match a color test image with a film-stock emulation LUT applied. Since we all know how a Velvia or a Kodachrome should kind of look, it is easy to get a sense, and then I show it to my peers, this year the underlying engine is black magic; now with copy-paste edits, shared albums with comments and markup, all built-in, I find hard to justify Pixelmator Photo, not professional enough (colors wheels but not scopes?, A-B candidatesā€¦) and now Pixelmator Pro doing this.
Hmmmm...you're using several very interesting features that I have not needed to get into, @Mattemotto. I would like to, but already spreading myself a bit thin. That said, I have not a single bit of use for Pixelmator Photo. I'm more interested in the Pixelmator iOS app. I just last month finally enabled iCloud for Photos because one of my biggest frustrations is not being able to change the actual filename (not the title). I'm infinitely more confident in being able to find my images in Finder if something goes wrong than in Photos. The switch from iPhoto to Photos was a complete debacle for so many people. I *still* had weird issues remnant issues from iPhoto until I spent several days clearing up things last month.
by MATTEMOTTO Hey @adamjd
<p>Absolutely. Though I recon weā€™ll get a ā€œWe read all of your comments, and you are basically saying you donā€™t like templates, but thereā€™s not much to add other than what we already said on the blog postā€ aka, we ā€œdonā€™t careā€.
I think we *both* hope you're wrong :grimacing: . We agreed on what they CAN do above and clearly the team reads the feedback. Not many users take the time we have in the comments, but a decent number have expressed their disapproval. I grew up in the restaurant business. It only took ONE customer to say "this doesn't taste right" for the kitchen to stop for a minute and make sure something wasn't amiss.

I don't know why so many features you mentioned weren't a priority...or why text on a path took what...5+ years...or why dirty fonts can't be outlined without looking like the goth section of Hot Topic...or why FILL really needs to be in 3+ areas, BUT hopefully we can just get a course-correction on themes and subscriptions and go about our normal business of just having Pixelmator be a great, reliable and stable tool that we've come to depend on. Until I hear otherwise, I'll be much more aware of the competition. Something I would rather not be preoccupied with.
User avatar

2022-10-10 03:15:14

by adamjd
1000%!!!!
I agree 10000%!!!
by IWasthe1 Not even designers, we (designers) paid for online template services needs. I don't get this update. Maybe this is "free taste" for offering a subscription with the templates as an excuse. Don't forget, they start that journey with Classic. Something is fishy...
User avatar

2022-10-10 03:40:31

I largely agree with everything else that's been said. I am still a student but do graphic design work on the side. Unfortunately I'm still forced to use the Adobe suite for collaboration and the higher end vector editing and Indesign style formatting, but I always love Pixelmator for its design and ease of use (and for getting me into design!)

It's still by far the simplest way to get something done quickly and painlessly (if it's at least somewhat simple, and I'm okay with needing to jump through some destructive hoops to get the result I want).

That said, this is a good feature, but oddly prioritized it seems.
by MATTEMOTTO To summarize,

What we wanted was the Affinity Suite (or Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign) rethought and designed by the Pixelmator team, with the profound understanding that characterizes your apps on how macOS and iOS Interfaces and logic should work. Not all at once of course, but a clear glimpse that you were walking on that direction.
100%
User avatar

2022-10-10 12:28:11

The original Pixelmator is the best in this family! So easy to adjust photos and the effects are so amazing. With the PRO version ... No! With a PRO version I demand extraordinary tools, not a tendency to glide backwards into an amateur version. For that, you have, as I said, the original Pixelmator. To survive, you should rent a house somewhere in the countryside, have an ocean deep look into Adobe Photoshop and Affinity Photo and compare them with Pixelmator PRO. Well, OK, you are cheap, but then, do not call yourselves PRO because you are not developing a PRO image software. I thought you were and I was so enthusiastic about it. Not anymore. I will keep the original Pixelmator for as long as it runs on my computer, for sentimental reasons. Whatever you do, keep weaving. I am sure there are folks out there who are happy about what you are doing. I am definitely not looking down on anyone. OK. Enough talk. Must go back to work, using Photoshop and the Affinity Suite.
User avatar

2022-10-10 12:32:42

by MATTEMOTTO To summarize,

What we wanted was the Affinity Suite (or Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign) rethought and designed by the Pixelmator team, with the profound understanding that characterizes your apps on how macOS and iOS Interfaces and logic should work. Not all at once of course, but a clear glimpse that you were walking on that direction.

What we got was templates and subscriptions. After +20 years I take design, story and intent really seriously, no single shape is put there as an accident, or an afterthought, let alone out of laziness. To me, using someone else creative input is submitted to rigorous analysis, discussion, questioning.

Thereā€™s almost nothing inherently wrong with the designs you started with, apart from this pompous trend that everything must look like Harry Styles - As It Was music video on a Squarespace award-winning design madness; whatā€™s really wrong is how pretentious and rather aggressive is to open my design software and be attacked by this a dozen times a day. To whomever spent however many hours building these things: sorry - not sorry.

Iā€™m obviously oversimplifying, but Iā€™m confident thatā€™s the consensus among professionals that use this software.

To the Pixelmator team,

I think you have failed to understand that aside from your casual users, we that eat, dream and live from a certain activity, spend most of our waking hours in front of a couple of tools. These tools are not chosen lightly, there will be hundreds of hours of learning, mastering, evangelizing, customizing and tweaking to the point of each individual sense of unattainable perfection, all to serve our craft with respect, dignity and have some fun along the way.

This is certainly your software, but what you did equates to the landlord of my studio getting in with his emergency spare keys, and putting a freaking cactus pot in the middle of the place because he thinks that since he can build good buildings, he has a better taste than me for how the hell I want to adorn my place. All while the place needs other urgent fixing and renovations.
I LOVE WHAT YOU WRITE!!!
User avatar

2022-10-10 12:34:33

by MATTEMOTTO ā€¢ Warp Transform
ā€¢ Transform Repeat
ā€¢ Change Anchor Center
ā€¢ Gradient Mesh
ā€¢ Gradient on a Path
ā€¢ CMYK Workspace
ā€¢ Printing Workflow
ā€¢ Symbols
ā€¢ Flowing Text (inside shapes)
ā€¢ Text Linking/Colums
ā€¢ Artboards
ā€¢ Photo Stacking
ā€¢ Photo Merging
ā€¢ AI upscale (GigaPixel)
ā€¢ PDF export with SVG/Text
ā€¢ Preview vectors without pixels
ā€¢ Macros (Shortcuts are not macros)
ā€¢ More vector tools
ā€¢ Nondestructive Corner Rounder
ā€¢ Robust Brush Engine
ā€¢ Basic Timeline for Sequenced Animation (Procreate)
ā€¢ Exporting Templates for Pages (this actually makes sense)
ā€¢ Photoshop, Figma and Affinity import-export
ā€¢ Lens corrections
ā€¢ Waveform Scope
ā€¢ Vectorscope
ā€¢ Frequency Separation
ā€¢ Paginated Layouts
ā€¢ Isometric Grid
ā€¢ Laboratory Made Filmstock Emulation Presets/LUTS
ā€¢ Dynamic Styles (like CSS classes)
ā€¢ Select Same
ā€¢ Notes
ā€¢ History with forks
ā€¢ Image Reference Pane
ā€¢ Live Text

Nah, templates, and some Apple devices mockpups ā€” front only, because vanishing points are impossible.
All those points are really what we need!!!! I agree so much!
User avatar

2022-10-11 01:20:30

by IWasthe1
At this point, I just bought Pixelmator Pro for the background remover feature. It saved me time and money. Everything else I've been doing is in Affinity Photo and Designer. Pixelmator may be under new management and this new management is greedy.
Are you presuming here that they are greedy? In the blog post, they explained why they are doing it. It appears very honest to me. Also that they didn't want to switch to a subscription model in a couple of years underlines this statement also the free upgrade options. Have you paid for 3.0?

As far as I can tell Pix Pro for those who bought it is free. I hope the app store will be able to have upgrade options, I believe that is the best model for both sides. I don't like subscriptions either and I will not subscribe, bought I would buy Pix Photo
(although I don't need it) when it is possible to do so and pay with future updates to Pix Pro.
User avatar

2022-10-11 01:25:29

I believe going with templates and mockups is the right decision. It is not only about photographers... For Designers, Entrepreneurs, YouTubers and Bloggers that is essential! You widen the range of customers and having a financially stable company is important, too.

Well done! Good move!
User avatar

2022-10-11 02:24:45

by ResLes It is not only about photographers... For Designers, Entrepreneurs, YouTubers and Bloggers that is essential!
No, must definitively not only about Photographers, Designers LOVE to be told how to do their jobs, specially by a computer in the form of generic templates.

Sadly, nowadays is always about YouTubers and TikTokers and Influencers. Why can't we have both things?
by ResLes You widen the range of customers and having a financially stable company is important, too.

Well done! Good move!
I'd say widen is an incorrect word here, shift might be more appropriate. Ideally, you should make your captive customer base happier, not piss off a big chunk of them for an idiomatic greater good. Financially stable is not a free pass to bad decisions: ā€œI want my steak house to be financially stable; therefore I'll start butchering street cats because they are freeā€, Is like getting business ideas from a writing bot.

The goal is try on capturing new users without disrupting solid foundations, by creating new product lines: iPhone, iPhone Pro, iPad, iPad Pro, Apple Watch, Watch Ultra, Studio Display, Cinema Display... ; Pixelmator Photo, Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator Creator, perhaps Minimator? Or by quietly adding controversial features as optional.

But the best way, is always, to just ask, be transparent. In a professional setting, nobody, as in zero people, likes surprises with their tools. Particularly if the surprise is that the literal ā€œProā€ in your tool's name, doesn't entice professional anymore. You wouldn't race a Dakar Rally on an untouched from factory 4-cylinder Jeep Sahara, despite its looks, we all know is for Costco rides and soccer practice, but people that drive them be feeling safe and adventurous in their ā€œoff-roadā€ toys, sorry, trucks.
User avatar

2022-10-11 06:44:59

I very much agree with what you are saying! Well thought out points.
User avatar

2022-10-13 04:52:59

I have used the original Pixelmator for many years, recently I have been trying Photoshop due to its new "neural" filters which unfortunately weren't as good as I thought they would be.
I have just started using Pixelmator pro, and while there is obviously a bit of a learning curve from the old version, my immediate impressions are really good having used the warp tool which is a million miles better than the old version, that alone could persuade me into getting Pro as I use the warp tool a lot, and that was something much better on photoshop over the old Pixelmator.
Just trying out the new templates for the version 3 and I was impressed with the magazine one, easy to apply your own designs, looking forward to trying out some more.
User avatar

2022-10-14 00:39:01

by adamjd Ahhhh, šŸ‘šŸ»! Very cool...and interesting. Do you do any work in the LA area?
Nope, Iā€™m based in Mexico, up for remote projects though.
by adamjd I'm at the point where I really need a new machine...but trying to hold back until the Studio gets upgraded.
I have a MacBook Pro M1 Max, maxed out, honestly, it feels like alien technology, for the first time in my life I wouldnā€™t mind if they come up with a machine three times faster, this machine is driving a Studio Display, ML models, Stable Diffusion, a development environment, live servers, Motion, FCP, Pixelmator, Affinity, dozens of Safari tabs, all at the same time, and it just doesn't give three Fā€™s, stupid fast. My advice, donā€™t wait if your machine is costing you money by slowing you down.
by Republiken I LOVE WHAT YOU WRITE!!!
Thanks mate.

I guess in conclusion, Pixelmator tools are not a silver bullet, nor tools to master and trust theyā€™ll have your back in the future, Pixelmator is not the BBEdit of pixels and vectors.

It is, however, one of the best-looking and well-thought-out app interfaces Iā€™ve seen. Just like Nova by Panic, both of which are so inflated and on top of their laurels that they stopped listening ā€” ā€œyouā€™re holding it wrongā€ ā€” Nova has been uninstalled from my system for months now. I remember this happening to iA Writer a while ago, they imposed a ā€œsuperiorā€ workflow for writing, an opinionated contraption, that Iā€™m sure it was a product of too much sake. It looked beautiful, but it was a nightmare to use, gladly they listened to the thunderstorm of anger that messing with peopleā€™s instruments creates, humbled-up and curse-corrected ā€” writers are more vocal, designers not so much, sadly.

I think we face two options, embrace chaos, convoluted knowledge of key mappings and logic in our already saturated brains and just use Affinity to finally get on with our days; or, for an Apple like experience this are the options Iā€™ve extensively tested:

inDesign: Swift Publisher by BeLight, Apple Pages.
Illustrator: Amadine by BeLight.
Photoshop: Acorn, Retrobatch, Procreate (excellent warp transform mesh, runs on iPhone also).
Lightroom: Photos, Darkroom (supports video).

So far, I think Affinity is the honest, no-fuzz, professional answer, with all of its downsides, it does basically everything.

Worth pointing a few technicalities, and why they are important, starting with CMYK.

CMYK workspaces, I, for the love of my sanity, canā€™t understand why Pixelmator refuses and dismisses this so blatantly. Soft proofing approximations are not enough, counterproductive really.

Pixelmator itself exports colors that donā€™t match back and forth because it is impossible to predict what Preview or a printerā€™s conversion algorithm will do to your file. Iā€™ve worked with amazing printers that have terrible RGB to CMYK conversions, itā€™s a gamble, you know why manufacturers donā€™t bother? Because you'd never send a print in RGB if you care just a little bit about the result.

Yes, it is the calibration between printers and monitors what makes the absolute final look, but even for that you need to work in CMYK.

Trying to tune CMYK values with Soft Proof on RGB sliders is like riding a car with a squared steering wheel, while looking through a mirror. This affects everyone, not only professionals, I'm pretty sure Peter that sells hand made bags, doesnā€™t want the red bag to look brownish-pink in his printed catalog.

The irony is that there is a hole ā€œPrintā€ category in the templates, where most designs are meant to be seen in screens but look hideous in CMYK.

Image

Ugh!
User avatar

2022-10-14 00:50:38

Moreover, isnā€™t it fascinating how companies nowadays reply immediately to usersā€™ allegories that praise their products, but just ignore anything that remotely resembles criticism?

Image
User avatar

2022-10-16 02:13:08

by MATTEMOTTO
No, must definitively not only about Photographers, Designers LOVE to be told how to do their jobs, specially by a computer in the form of generic templates.

Sadly, nowadays is always about YouTubers and TikTokers and Influencers. Why can't we have both things?



I'd say widen is an incorrect word here, shift might be more appropriate. Ideally, you should make your captive customer base happier, not piss off a big chunk of them for an idiomatic greater good. Financially stable is not a free pass to bad decisions: ā€œI want my steak house to be financially stable; therefore I'll start butchering street cats because they are freeā€, Is like getting business ideas from a writing bot.

The goal is try on capturing new users without disrupting solid foundations, by creating new product lines: iPhone, iPhone Pro, iPad, iPad Pro, Apple Watch, Watch Ultra, Studio Display, Cinema Display... ; Pixelmator Photo, Pixelmator Pro, Pixelmator Creator, perhaps Minimator? Or by quietly adding controversial features as optional.

But the best way, is always, to just ask, be transparent. In a professional setting, nobody, as in zero people, likes surprises with their tools. Particularly if the surprise is that the literal ā€œProā€ in your tool's name, doesn't entice professional anymore. You wouldn't race a Dakar Rally on an untouched from factory 4-cylinder Jeep Sahara, despite its looks, we all know is for Costco rides and soccer practice, but people that drive them be feeling safe and adventurous in their ā€œoff-roadā€ toys, sorry, trucks.

You have valid points although the word "Pro" can mean many different things. The features you listed above I donĀ“t need at all but a history tool for sure. PDF export yes, I see Lens correction and changing the anchor points and more vector tools as important, too but we have to remember the costs of the app and more importantly the right implementation so the app will not be clunky.

I have affinity photo too it takes ages to open - Pix Pro - opens immediately and the customer base I would guess is 80 per cent, normal people and semipros or entrepreneurs and 20 per cent Pros and the Pros are more active here on the forum.

A roadmap would be good but also some surprises... I like your engagement in making suggestions to improve the app, though.
User avatar

2022-10-16 04:51:03

by ResLes You have valid points although the word "Pro" can mean many different things.
On an iPad Pro or a MacBook Pro, yes, it could be a pro artist, a pro doctor, a pro airplane pilot, or a pro lawyer. Context is important, see, iPads and MacBooks are general purpose computers, so the Pro wording applies to general areas.

In a tool marketed as (in their own words) ā€œimage editorā€, ā€œAdvanced features for advanced workflows.ā€, Ā ā€œsupport for Adobe Photoshop filesā€, ā€œā€¦created especially for photographers, designers, painters, and illustrators.ā€ and so on, the word Pro can mean one thing, and one thing only.
by ResLes The features you listed above I donā€™t need at all but a history tool for sure. PDF export yes, I see Lens correction and changing the anchor points and more vector tools as important.
Not at all? You listed four of the things I suggested as important, that seems to me like a lot, and thatā€™s just you; Iā€™m pretty confident if we gather ten more normal users, theyā€™ll match the rest of my list pretty quickly.
by ResLes Too but we have to remember the costs of the app and more importantly the right implementation so the app will not be clunky.Ā 
Most professional apps are in the $40 to $70 ballpark, so if they managed to do most of the things, so could Pixelmator. Remember, I never asked, or pretended it would be possible for them to implement everything in one day. Iā€™m just pretty sure templates is not what I, and many, many people, were expecting for. I asked for transparency and clarity, a concise roadmap, no schedule necessary, just knowing where the app is heading.

On the clunkiness, I recall the adage ā€œEverything should be made as simple as possible, but not simplerā€
by ResLes I have affinity photo too it takes ages to open - Pix Pro - opens immediately and the customer base I would guess is 80 per cent, normal people and semipros or entrepreneurs and 20 per cent Pros and the Pros are more active here on the forum.Ā 
On my Mac Affinity Photo opens in 2.3s, and Pixelmator on .7s, (FCP 2.5s for context) all are extraordinarily fast. Plus, we are talking Macs here, you donā€™t quit apps unless they are misbehaving, so whatever the initial loading time was, once open is always immediately available.
by ResLes I like your engagement in making suggestions to improve the app, though.
Is not engagement as much as disappointment, I really, really donā€™t have time for any of this, but I think it is important to voice oneā€™s concerns. Especially in my case, I invested so much time and energy mastering the tool and converting my entire team to (in my dumb head) make their lives easier. I had a conversation, and they were all so relieved I snapped out of the enchantment, there are not many pleasing apps for professional work apart from FCP and Motion perhaps Resolve and very few others. You use what's best for the job, not what looks nicer.

But as you can see, the team wonā€™t bother to have an honest discussion about their software, which makes it feel somehow worse and worse as time passes.

Iā€™m glad this gave me the opportunity to revisit the Photos app, and pleasantly find out that in its newest iteration it became one of the most powerful and beautiful DAMs out there, with superb developing tools (specially on the Mac).
User avatar

2022-10-16 05:34:48

by MATTEMOTTO
On an iPad Pro or a MacBook Pro, yes, it could be a pro artist, a pro doctor, a pro airplane pilot, or a pro lawyer. Context is important, see, iPads and MacBooks are general purpose computers, so the Pro wording applies to general areas.

In a tool marketed as (in their own words) ā€œimage editorā€, ā€œAdvanced features for advanced workflows.ā€, &nbsp;ā€œsupport for Adobe Photoshop filesā€, ā€œā€¦created especially for photographers, designers, painters, and illustrators.ā€ and so on, the word Pro can mean one thing, and one thing only.



Not at all? You listed four of the things I suggested as important, that seems to me like a lot, and thatā€™s just you; Iā€™m pretty confident if we gather ten more normal users, theyā€™ll match the rest of my list pretty quickly.



Most professional apps are in the $40 to $70 ballpark, so if they managed to do most of the things, so could Pixelmator. Remember, I never asked, or pretended it would be possible for them to implement everything in one day. Iā€™m just pretty sure templates is not what I, and many, many people, were expecting for. I asked for transparency and clarity, a concise roadmap, no schedule necessary, just knowing where the app is heading.

On the clunkiness, I recall the adage ā€œEverything should be made as simple as possible, but not simplerā€



On my Mac Affinity Photo opens in 2.3s, and Pixelmator on .7s, (FCP 2.5s for context) all are extraordinarily fast. Plus, we are talking Macs here, you donā€™t quit apps unless they are misbehaving, so whatever the initial loading time was, once open is always immediately available.



Is not engagement as much as disappointment, I really, really donā€™t have time for any of this, but I think it is important to voice oneā€™s concerns. Especially in my case, I invested so much time and energy mastering the tool and converting my entire team to (in my dumb head) make their lives easier. I had a conversation, and they were all so relieved I snapped out of the enchantment, there are not many pleasing apps for professional work apart from FCP and Motion perhaps Resolve and very few others. You use what's best for the job, not what looks nicer.

But as you can see, the team wonā€™t bother to have an honest discussion about their software, which makes it feel somehow worse and worse as time passes.

Iā€™m glad this gave me the opportunity to revisit the Photos app, and pleasantly find out that in its newest iteration it became one of the most powerful and beautiful DAMs out there, with superb developing tools (specially on the Mac).
I like that you are engaged in it.
What would be cool a board where you can vote for features and what is planned, worked on and under considerationā€¦ they could though in some surprises as well - to hype their product - like Apple does.

I meant, the features I have listed are nice to have but not super important for me - right now.