The Pixelmator Team today released Pixelmator 1.2 Draftsman, a second significant update to the GPU-powered image editing tool, furnishing users with everything they need to create, edit, and enhance still images. Available today as a free software update, Pixelmator 1.2 Draftsman features rulers, guides, grid, snap, color balance, auto enhance, curves, and polygonal lasso tools and much more.
“Pixelmator opened the door for all users to explore their imaginative side through image creation, editing, and enhancement,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team, in the press release. “Now with powerful, but easy-to-use rulers, guides, curves, auto enhance, color balance, and polygonal lasso tools, Pixelmator provides users with an even wider range of creative opportunities.”
Pixelmator 1.2 introduces a powerful rulers tool, which is helpful for the exact positioning of images or elements. Additionally, users can adjust the rulers origin to measure from a specific point on an image and change the units of measurement to pixels, inches, centimeters, millimeters, points, picas, or percent. Guides appear as nonprinting lines that float over the image, which users can add, move, remove, and lock. They can also utilize the grid to lay out elements symmetrically and the snap feature to position selection edges precisely.
Powerful, yet user-friendly new adjustment options in Pixelmator 1.2 include a sophisticated curves tool for adjusting the entire tonal range or making precise adjustments to individual color channels in an image and a new color balance tool essential for controlling the overall color mixture in an image for color correction work. Pixelmator 1.2 also furnishes users with a new auto enhance tool, which can dramatically improve less-than-perfect images with one click, and a new polygonal lasso tool, useful for drawing straight-edged segments of a selection border.
In addition to a free transform tool, Pixelmator 1.2 Draftsman features new and updated help documentation, enhanced Automator actions and transform tools, minor user interface and compatibility improvements, as well as bug fixes.
Pixelmator 1.2 is available to order for US$59. Pixelmator 1.2 is a free update to current Pixelmator customers. Pixelmator requires Mac OS X version 10.4.9 or later, but 10.5 is recommended. More information, along with the 30-day Pixelmator trial, is available as a free download at the Pixelmator Web site.
More info here.
MacDailyNews Take: MacDailyNews has been using Pixelmator exclusively in place of Adobe Photoshop since December 2007 for online graphics. Obviously, we can recommend Pixelmator. It is “demoware,” so you can try it before you buy.
REALLY glad I purchased the Macheist bundle with this in it.
Bu- Bye Adobe for ME,
“MacDailyNews has been using Pixelmator exclusively in place of Adobe Photoshop since December 2007 for online graphics.”
Would that be to do the yellow lines or the pale grey boxes then?
“MacDailyNews has been using Pixelmator exclusively in place of Adobe Photoshop since December 2007 for online graphics.”
Tools cannot give an artist a sense of good style or good taste.
A hammer, chisel and the block of marble in the hand of a no talent will result in a ugly, pocked-up stump of marble pile of marble dust. But put the same hammer, chisel and the block of marble in the hands of a Michelangelo and wow!
Still needs Save for Web to be a solid replacement for Photoshop.
@Streetool,
Just curious – do you think Pixelmator is better than Photoshop in some ways or is the price the reason for your switch?
Pixelmator is becoming more and more powerful with each release…
…I have used it instead of Photoshop on a few occasions, and have found it to be quite a pleasant experience. Sure, it’s not as “powerful” as Photoshop, but how do you define power?
If by power it is easier to use, then yes, it is powerful. If you define it as having 1,000,000 tools, then it isn’t very powerful.
What it can do, it does very well. And I also like the fact it installs itself into /Applications. And nowhere else. Unlike CS3, which crop sprays your HD with files all over the place.
Adobe, please please learn from others and make your Apps nice and simple to install.
Photoshop who?? I remember back when we used to use that program. Man, wasn’t it $500.
Wow, things sure have changed.
That program blows. Ran the demo on a brand new 20″ imac and it just kept stalling.
@ Will.
Yeh, Photoshop is a bit rubbish like that, I run it on a Mac Pro and it also keeps stalling.
We are talking about Photoshop, right?
Updated it and it choked on a grayscale scan. Never mind, the backup plan (Photoshop) handles ’em without any problems. I’m happy to have both; some day I’ll only need one.
Several of those are features I requested. Yay. The addition of rules and guides is a major step in the right direction.
elements is terrible
pe6 won’t open animated gifs as layers or allow you to make animated gifs from existing ones
yeah , pathetic eh ?
plus it crashes a lot when you move layers
then again pixelmator was crap too
i miss pe2 now that rocked
Gun for show.
Knives for a pro.
@ Jim
Not really. Thats pixelmator I was talking about. My version of photoshop is a beta, but it still runs better on my 2 year old mbp than pixelmator does.
@Will: Erm, not sure what the problem with your computer is, but there definitely is a problem. Pixelmator runs smoothly on my two year old MBP without any snags or glitches.
HOORAY for macheist!
Photoshop CS4 is running just fine on my Mac. =P
I have been using Graphic Converter for sometime for my basic web images. It’s pretty good, once you learn the keyboard commands. I can resize, crop, fix the canvas size and save for web all with keyboard commands.
It may not be the most visually elegant program, but Lemke Software has been doing a bang up job over 15 years. Props to Thorsten.
That said, I have pixelmator and will continue to try it out. It sure looks purdy.
@Streetool: “REALLY glad I purchased the Macheist bundle with this in it.”
Ditto.
Ya think? I’ve got CS5a running on my 80-gig touch!
Any online charts comparing Pixelmator; Acorn; Gimp; Elements4/6?
Would like to see what their strenghts/weeknesses are; value for money/time?
Finally, Gimp.app 2.4.5r2 seems to be ‘native’, but is it stable?
Please, let’s be scientific. Facts, not opinions.
Define power?
How about flexibility in being able to have a “Smart Object” that is resolution independent. So you can tweak the hell out of your layout with out having to start from scratch every time you manipulate an image (Size it down, and up again). Also being able to double click this image it will open it’s vector data back in to Illustrator where I can edit save and be back in Photoshop being productive.
Pixelmator is a good substitute for Photoshop users that don’t need Photoshop, for us that do, their is simply not alternative.
@ Mac-nugget
Quiet! You’re making too much sense!!!
all I want is PS7…running in Leopard….but no, I have to buy CS3 to run Leopard….same with Illustrator et al. sucks big weenies
You actually bought CS3!? MW: some “bill” that must’ve been.
@caddisfly
The Mac has seen two operating systems plus a processor architecture migration, and you expect things to simply work?
This is not Windows, the Mac OS has always been a moving target for developers. Why do you thing it’s this good.