Set General preferences

You can work with Pixelmator Pro in light or dark mode. Pixelmator Pro can also adapt to your macOS appearance automatically.

To switch between light and dark appearances:

1. Choose Pixelmator Pro > Preferences (from the Pixelmator Pro menu at the top of your screen).
2. In the General tab, do one of the following:
   • Click the thumbnail of your preferred appearance to select it.
   • Select "Set appearance automatically" to set Pixelmator Pro appearance according to the current macOS appearance.

Note: This feature is available on macOS Mojave and later.

You can increase the contrast between the Pixelmator Pro window background and the sidebars.

1. Choose Pixelmator Pro > Preferences (from the Pixelmator Pro menu at the top of your screen).

2. In the General tab, do one of the following:

   • Click the Window Background pop-up menu and choose Higher Contrast.
   • Click the color well next to the Window Background pop-up menu to pick a custom background color.

   To reset the background color to default, click the Window Background pop-up menu and choose Default.

The checkerboard grid indicates transparency in an image. In Pixelmator Pro, you can change the color of this grid, adjust its brightness and opacity, or turn off the checkerboard completely.

To customize the transparency grid:

1. Choose Pixelmator Pro > Preferences (from the Pixelmator Pro menu at the top of your screen).

2. In the General tab, do any of the following:

   • Click the Transparency color well and pick a color.
   • Deselect "Checkerboard" to view transparency in an image as a solid color.

   To reset the transparency to default, click Reset Transparency.

When you create a new image in Pixelmator Pro, a background layer is automatically added for you. You can choose it to be black, white, or leave it transparent.

1. Choose Pixelmator Pro > Preferences (from the Pixelmator Pro menu at the top of your screen).
2. In the General tab, click the New Image Contents pop up menu and choose White, Black, or Transparent to use no background color at all.

You can have more than one Pixelmator Pro document open at a time. When you work with multiple documents, it’s helpful to open them in tabs rather than separate windows — that way, you can conveniently move between them by clicking the tabs in the Tab bar.

1. Choose Pixelmator Pro > Preferences (from the Pixelmator Pro menu at the top of your screen).
2. In the General tab, find Open Images in Tabs and select the preferred way of opening documents:
   • "Always" will always open documents in tabs, regardless of the system settings.
   • "Use system settings" will open images according to the settings in System Preferences > Dock. This setting applies not just to Pixelmator Pro, but also to documents in other applications such as TextEdit, Numbers, and Pages.

When opening JPEG, PNG, and TIFF images, Pixelmator Pro typically imports them, creating new Pixelmator Pro documents and leaving the originals untouched. This allows completely nondestructive editing. However, you can also edit destructively, overwriting the originals.

1. Choose Pixelmator Pro > Preferences (from the Pixelmator Pro menu at the top of your screen).
2. In the General tab, select or deselect "Import JPEG, PNG, and TIFF images".

Note: Turning off this option also disables Auto Save and Versions for all documents.

Action tooltips are short descriptions accompanying certain actions (such as Undo, Redo, Cut, or Paste), while information labels provide some helpful information about actions in Pixelmator Pro. For instance, when moving a layer, the information label shows its live coordinates on the canvas.

1. Choose Pixelmator Pro > Preferences (from the Pixelmator Pro menu at the top of your screen).
2. In the General tab, do any of the following:
   • Select or deselect "Show action tooltips" to show or hide the action tooltips.
   • Select or deselect "Show information labels" to show or hide the information labels.