The Pixelmator Team today is pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Pixelmator 1.6, an update of the revolutionary GPU-powered image editing tool that provides everything needed to create, edit, and enhance still images. Available as a free software update, Pixelmator 1.6, codenamed Nucleus, adds major performance improvements, 64-bit support, layer groups, an Import feature, Flickr, Facebook and Picasa support, redesigned transform tools, and more.
“Pixelmator makes it incredibly easy and fun for anyone to enjoy the best of image editing,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team, in the press release. “Now, with Pixelmator 1.6’s Nucleus foundation, which takes advantage of the latest Mac OS X technologies, Pixelmator delivers the greatest-possible image editing performance ever.”
In addition to 64-bit support, which makes use of large amounts of RAM and increases performance, Pixelmator Team engineers have polished almost every part of the Pixelmator foundation in order to allow users to take full advantage of the incredible power of graphics processing that is available in the Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. Thanks to these improvements, the overall performance of Pixelmator increased up to 40%; the launch time is now twice as fast and the ability to paint with Pixelmator is four times faster than it was in the previous version. Users will notice the overall performance improvements in nearly every function of the application.
The new Layer Groups feature allows users to easily organize and manage layers in a Pixelmator composition. They can use groups to arrange their layers in a logical order and to reduce clutter in the Layers palette. Users can also use Layer Groups to apply blending modes, opacity, masks, or even transformations to multiple layers simultaneously.
The new additions to Pixelmator’s Send To feature makes it easy to quickly publish images to online photo sharing sites such as Facebook, Flickr, and Picasa right from the application. The new Import feature allows quick and easy importing of images directly to Pixelmator from cameras, scanners, and multifunction devices such as camera/phones, printer/scanners, and such as iPhones and iPads.
Other new features in Pixelmator 1.6 Nucleus include redesigned transforming tools which are more precise and easier-to-use, Automator Actions for trimming and watermarking images, improved printing, minor user interface changes, compatibility improvements, and several bug fixes.
Pixelmator 1.6 is available for US$59. Pixelmator 1.6 is a free update for current Pixelmator users. System requirements, as well as a 30-day Pixelmator trial and more information on Pixelmator can be found online.
More info here.
MacDailyNews Note: We use Pixelmator every day and have for years. We recommend Pixelmator highly. Before you buy Adobe’s Photoshop Elements, give Pixelmator’s 30-day trial a run first. MacDailyNews receives no compensation from Pixelmator.
I like pixelmator, but at the moment I prefer LiveQuartz and the new Seashore 0.5.0 for easy image editing. They’re both free/open source and nicely cocoa. In LiveQuartz especially the control for the filters is great.
Doesn’t work under Leopard. Damn.
Price you pay for being on the bleeding edge I suppose…
I feel like I should buy this program, if only because the developers took the time to implement 64-bit and Grand Central Dispatch (and OpenCL, maybe?). More developers need to implement GCD and OpenCL, and we need to support those developers that already have. These are two of Snow Leopard’s best features, and maybe the brightest part of OS X’s future.
Can you do a panorama from multiple images as Phtoshop 8?
Unlike Photoshop CS 5, it actually doesn’t crash. Just read the Adobe Photoshop user forums – CS5 is a nightmare. You can’t print, can’t scan, and it is completely unstable. And do you know what Adobe chose to build CS5 on top of as its programming environment? You guessed right: Flash
Train-wreck. They destroyed a great program.
Pixelmator is a great Photoshop replacement, but it needs vector support before I can replace Adobe Fireworks.
I Like It.
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Wake up MDN! There is no replacement for Photoshop!
It’s amazing how much Pixelmator can do.
No CMYK support. Big omission.
Aren’t there CMYK file converter utility apps out there?
Though I agree, it should be added next to support print publishing…
Anyone who honestly believes that a $59 program can replace a $500 powerhouse is an idiot. If you only drive your BMW to the corner drugstore at a speed of 10 mph, then perhaps you can replace your BMW with a bicycle. Otherwise, forget about it. Pixelmator replaces Photoshop for people who have no business using Photoshop in the first place. Big surprise!
@Bruan
I have CS5 ultimate.. and it hasn’t crashed on me on my mac pro….
AutoCAD got its start by offering 60 – 80 % of the big program CAD features at 10 – 20% of the price – look where that got them!
The biggest thing I use Elements for is Panoramas – any recommended alternates?
Other than Sigma’s own software, does anyone know a graphics application that will handle Sigma Raw (.X3F) photos? The usual suspects will not.
…though I haven’t tried the most current version of PS.
Pixelmator will not. GC will not.
Spot on alansky! It is hilarious watching the folks who rant endlessly about alansky pretend that some $50 program is even half as good as Photoshop. Bigger morons I have not seen.
@alansky
“Pixelmator replaces Photoshop for people who have no business using Photoshop in the first place.”
That’s only partly true.
For years there really weren’t any good alternatives to Photoshop even for folks who just wanted to do easy / simple image manipulation. So a lot of people ended up shelling out big bucks for PS even though they didn’t necessarily want or need all of the functionality it offered.
Some of these folks may not realize that there are now nice image manipulation tools available that may offer what they need at a much lower price point.
I think that’s the point some of the other comments are trying to make.
I have Pixelmator. It can’t even drop a shadow.
And don’t have effects like outer glow.
Useless.
Wake up Bronco Loco!
MDN recommended it as a replacement for ‘Photoshop Elements’ not ‘Photoshop’.
@alanski
…what?
That’s like saying: if you are NOT a full-time accountant with a CPA and working for a large audit company auditing large multu-national corporations all day long, then you have no business using Excel — because you won’t be using all the advanced features day-in-day-out, for 90% of your computing time.
Further, since millions of you so-called, self-styled “spread-sheet users” out there should not be using Excel in the first place, woe be unto you if you use Numbers instead!
Sorry, some of us “amateur image editors” do other things as well as image editing — websites, communications, content management, databases, multimedia presentations, video editing, a little DTP, you name it. It’s the nature of being free-lance and being able to a little of everything — and doing it pretty well.
I don’t create covers for Vogue full time, but I get a lot of use out of an old version of PS. I’ve been using PS casually for 15 years, a little bit almost every day. You can bet I’ll be getting Pixelmator as an alternative to a new PS because I want something that works, does the job, is economical for me, and isn’t a load of old bloat. Adobe is not compelling enough to get my business. They can consider themselves the de facto standard in image editing all they want to, but they have already gone the way of Quark.
Adobe is the Avid of the imaging industry, and Pixelmator is FCP, the new kid on the block — with enough functionality for most people; and, in what it does do, better in terms of conception, workflow and usability, for a fraction of the price.