PIXELMATOR FILTER FULL
PIXELMATOR FILTER PRO
PIXELMATOR FILTER SOFTWARE

I do miss Lightroom’s History feature, which allows you to dip back to any previous point in an edit, but unlike Lightroom, Pixelmator does support layers, so you can experiment with edits on a new layer and simply delete it if you don’t like the results. The Lightroom-style slider system for adjusting exposures, saturation, vibrance etc are all there, as are curves, vignette and sharpening tools.

PIXELMATOR FILTER PRO

When it comes to day-to-day tools that you might use to tweak photos, Pixelmator Pro 2 only lacks for red-eye remover – although cameras are so good at avoiding red eye these days, it’s not a tool I use often in Adobe’s suite. It’s the kind of quick job you might do when adding profiles to a website, and Pixelmator makes that easier than it would be with Adobe’s tools. I’m no illustrator, as I’ve mentioned before, but even I found it easy to get to grips with the basic drawing tools, allowing me to draw shapes and add text to a cut-out portrait (see below). It also has those added illustration and painting tools that you’ll find in Photoshop, allowing you to easily draw shapes or add text behind images, for example. It doesn’t have Lightroom’s Library tools, which allow you to import photos, add metadata, make global import tweaks and such like, but the editing tools are very similar to those that you will find in Lightroom’s Develop panel. When it comes to photography, Pixelmator Pro 2 is something of a halfway house between Lightroom and Photoshop.

Pixelmator also lets you customise the menus, so if there are only one or two illustration tools you’ll ever need, you can add those to your menus and hide the rest, which is smart thinking.

PIXELMATOR FILTER FULL

(Note: all the screenshots you see here are in the Default look, where the full range of tools are on offer.)

PIXELMATOR FILTER SOFTWARE

This cleverly adapts the toolbars in the software so that, for example, if you’re only interested in tweaking photos, you only see the tools that are relevant to that job. Talking of Preferences, this is where you’ll find the option to choose one of four different workspaces for Photography, Design, Illustration or Painting. The software has been tweaked to match Big Sur (the latest version of macOS) and it will work with either older Intel-based machines or Apple’s new M1 Macs.īy default, the software has the dark black look that every app seems to shoot for at the moment, but you can pick a lighter design in Preferences. One of the biggest changes in this new version of Pixelmator is the revamped interface. Don’t fear that you’re buying an old version. Although the Pixelmator team refer to this new version of the software as “Pixelmator Pro 2”, it’s simply labelled as Pixelmator Pro in the Apple App Store (it’s Mac only, sorry Windows fans). One other thing to note before we get cracking. Pixelmator Pro 2 does have tools for illustrators and designers, and I will touch on these, but I simply don’t feel qualified to offer a definitive opinion on them. In this review, I’m going to look at it largely from the point of view of a photographer, because that’s where my skills lie. That’s £38.99 full stop, not every month. Pixelmator Pro 2 doesn’t cover anywhere near the full breadth of Adobe’s Creative Suite, but if all you really use is Lightroom, Photoshop and Illustrator, then it could be a genuine replacement – and it costs only £38.99. If you want the full suite of apps, Adobe will relieve you of £50 per month. Adobe Creative Suite is magnificent, but also magnificently expensive.

Pixelmator filter