Open an image
You can open images in a variety of different image formats saved on your Mac, in iCloud Drive, on connected servers, and in third-party storage providers. The following file formats are supported in Pixelmator Pro: PXD, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, HEIF, PSD, SVG, PDF, GIF, BMP, TGA, JPEG-2000, macOS-supported RAW formats.
When you open an image in one of the above formats, it is automatically converted to PXD — the Pixelmator Pro file format — so when you save the image, any additional layers and advanced formatting you add are not lost and remain editable. Once you finish editing and would like to share an image with someone else or upload it online, you should export it.
Open an existing document
- Open an image or a document on your Mac: Launch Pixelmator Pro and in the welcome screen, click "Browse images on your Mac". To open images directly from their original locations on your Mac, drag the images and documents to the Pixelmator Pro icon in the Dock. You can also -click the file in its folder and choose Open With > Pixelmator Pro.
- Open an image you recently worked on: Launch Pixelmator Pro and in the welcome screen, choose from the recently opened images on the right. You can also choose File > Open Recent (from the File menu at the top of your screen). To change the number of recent documents displayed, go to macOS System Preferences > General, and choose a number from the Recent items pop-up menu.
- Open an image from macOS Photos: Launch Pixelmator Pro and in the welcome screen, choose "Open an image from Photos". You can also choose File > New from Photos to open the Photos Browser. In the sidebar on the left, browse the Photos albums to locate an image you'd like to import. Select and click OK, or simply double-click the image thumbnail to open the image.
Open an image stored somewhere other than your Mac (such as iCloud Drive): Launch Pixelmator Pro and in the welcome screen, click "Browse images on your Mac". Click the pop-up menu at the top of the Open dialog (shown below) that appears, then choose the location where the image is saved. Locate and double-click a file to open it.
When you open a Pixelmator Pro document that uses fonts not installed on your Mac, a missing font notification appears briefly at the top of the image. In the notification, click Show and choose a replacement font.
Note: By default, Pixelmator Pro imports JPEG, TIFF, and PNG images in its native PXD file format. It also opens documents in tabs rather than separate windows. You can choose to open images without importing or open images in separate windows in the Pixelmator Pro Preferences.