Effect presets
Effect presets are pre-made combinations of effects that you can apply to automatically customize your selected layer with multiple effects. Pixelmator Pro comes with a number of presets for you to choose from and you can easily create and save your own.
Apply an effect preset
Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press the F key on your keyboard.
In the Layers sidebar, click to select the layer you’d like to edit.
- Choose an effect preset from the list of presets at the top of the Tool Options pane, or click the Collection pop-up menu to browse other preset collections.
Tip: When the Effects tool is active, you can also press and hold the Command ⌘ key and click to select layers from your image.
Save a combination of effects as a preset
Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press the F key on your keyboard.
Apply and customize any number of effects to a layer.
- Do one of the following:
- Click in any effects collection to save the preset to that collection.
- Click next to the Collection pop-up menu and choose Add Preset.
Redefine an effect preset
If you’d like to overwrite or update an existing preset with new settings, you can redefine it.
- Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press the F key on your keyboard.
- Apply and customize any number of effects to a layer.
- In the list of presets, Control ⌃ – click a preset and choose Redefine "Preset".
Rename an effect presets collection
Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press F on your keyboard.
In the Collection pop-up, select the collection you want to rename.
- Click next to the Collection pop-up menu and choose New Collection.
- Enter a new name and click Rename.
Delete an effect preset
Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press the F key on your keyboard.
In the list of presets, Control ⌃ – click a preset and choose Remove.
Delete an effect presets collection
- Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press F on your keyboard.
- In the Collection pop-up, select the collection you want to rename.
- Click next to the Collection pop-up menu and choose Remove.
Rename an effect preset
Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press the F key on your keyboard.
In the list of presets, Control ⌃ – click a preset and choose Rename "Preset".
Share an effect preset
- Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press the F key on your keyboard.
- Drag any of the presets out of Pixelmator Pro and onto the desktop or into a Finder window.
- Share the .effects file with someone else via email or any other way you like.
Share a collection of effect presets
- Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press the F key on your keyboard.
- In the Collection pop-up menu, open the effect collection you'd like to export.
- Click next to the Collection pop-up menu and choose Export.
- Share the .effects file with someone else via email or any other way you like.
Share your entire effects library
- Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press F on your keyboard.
- Click next to the Collection pop-up menu.
- Press and hold the Option ⌥ key, and choose Export All.
- Share the .shapes file with someone else via email or any other way you like.
Reset all effect presets to default
Resetting all the effect presets to default removes any custom presets and returns all the default presets that come with Pixelmator Pro.
- Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press F on your keyboard.
- Click next to the Collection pop-up menu, press and hold the Option ⌥ key and choose Reset All.
Create a new effect presets collection
Do one of the following:
- Choose Tools > Effects (from the Tools menu at the top of your screen).
- Click in the
Tools sidebar.
- Press F on your keyboard.
Click next to the Collection pop-up menu and choose New Collection.