“I’m on record at Mac360 as not being a big fan of Adobe products,” Bambi Brannan reports for Mac360.
“I’ve used Photoshop’s various Creative Suites for many years,” Brannan reports. “They’re feature laden and highly capable (presenting a clear barrier to entry for competitor apps) but excessively burdened with a horrible upgrade cycle and cost. Did I mention how complex Adobe’s apps are? The learning curve of most Adobe products will leave you dependent on caffeine or worse. Yet, here I am, espousing one of Adobe’s finest as the Mac App Bargain of the Year.”
Brannan reports, “Think Photoshop at almost 90-percent off. This bargain app carries most of the features and fun of the full-sized Photoshop all balled up in an attractive consumer package (i.e. Mac user without a degree in graphic design) fit for photo design neophytes. That’s Photoshop Elements… I’m swallowing a measure of pride and declaring Photoshop Elements 10 as the Mac360 Mac App Bargain of the Year.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Those who’ve used both, what do you think, Photoshop Elements or Pixelmator?
Pixelmator
Dear MDN – Pixelmator 2.0.1 Cameleon – is the better BARGAIN at 29.99.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 10
& Adobe Premiere Elements 10
at 89.99 or 44.99 each is still too high.
Pixelmator.
The few times I’ve seen PS Elements in action, I found that it threw a curve ball into established PS habits. It’s not just PS-Lite; parts of the interface are changed in a manner I find more difficult and likely more confusing to the neophyte—the intended audience.
Go with Pixelmator if you don’t need Photoshop’s full toolset.
For a second there, I thought you were talking about FCP X.
PS uses Java for some of it’s core features such as layer effects rendering. Pixelmator uses GPU. So on older Mac’s, I have seen Pixelmator crash a lot, but PS doesn’t.
Also, PS has some “basic” features still that Pixelmator can’t do such as storke, gradient fill, color fill, & shadowing of text layers. I can recreate the effects without the 1-click options, but being able to quickly see if something is going to look good or not with a 1-click solution is priceless.
For Web graphics, Pixelmator is my choice. If printing however, Pixelmator doesn’t support a full CMYK range color profile, so your images will look a little off when you print them. Not a big deal on most things, but when printing something to match an existing product such as business cards or letter heads, it will be visible.
Pixelmater for sure! Adobe’s software has always sucked. So what’s new?
Pixelmator is not only a bargain but it is NOT ADOBE. I hate Adobe’s rip off pricing.
Pixelmator
Someone needs to de-throne photoshop…
Fireworks, but Pixelmator is replacing that.
No more bloated adobe software on my mac…
Pixelmator. It is what Photoshop Elements should have been.
So, only one person has given any good reasons for one over the other. The rest just say they don’t like Adobe.
That’s because Adobe software blows.
Robbll : how poignantly you prove HG Wells’ point….
Adobe software has strengths and weaknesses. So does pixelmator. If you can’t do objective analysis, then you are just a dumbass religious fanatic who should learn to keep his yap shut.
Hey Mike. Get a grip. You probably work for adobe or you own the stock. My advice is to quit your job and sell your stock.
I’ve never tried Photoshop but as a beginner photo editor, I have found Pixelmator very intuitive and easy to learn.
I so wish Pixelmator was as good as PS Elements, but it’s just not IMHO. Selecting portions of images and then editing the selection is much faster and easier with PSE and the spot healing brush is really handy, just to name a couple of things.
The spot healing brush in the latest version of Pixelmator is excellent. Have you tried the new version yet?
Haven’t used Pixelmator in a while but I’d give it a go vs Elements if I was a consumer. If you’re a pro, stick with PS. It’s not nearly that expensive considering how much money you can make using it professionally.
I tried desperately to leave Elements behind and go with alternatives. I use the plural because I’ve found it take several apps to replace the features found in Elements. I started with Acorn and then went to Pixelmator. Then I started adding Quartz Compositions and other apps in an attempt to duplicate Element’s array of filters and image enhancers. All in all the sum of effort overall was much higher without Elements. I finally switched back to Elements when I needed to stitch together images to create panoramas. Pixelmator is nice tool but it’s functionality still lies somewhere between iPhoto and Elements 10.
Pixelmator. PS Elements is a dumbed down version of PS (which I use a lot), not the ground-up, Mac only app that Pixelmator is. That difference is huge: I’ve been frustrated with the lack of features (obviously pulled to make it a cheapo program) in PS Elements, while Pixelmator is an excellent product where I rarely feel I’m missing anything vs. PS Creative Suite.
Fireworks >> Pixelmator version 2, which has the much requested vector shapes. It still lacks the ability to apply filters to fonts though.
I have used all three and find the new Elements the one I use most ……
I also like and take advantage of the five license use so $80 divided by 5 equals $16 a copy and that is very reasonable in my opinion ….
Single user at $80 is other side and that seems a tad high but not out of line ……
Take note Pixelmater has raised their price from original $39 to now $59, if I recall …..
I will say I am not a heavy into all that can be done but I do process a ton of photos so I use often …..
Pixelmator. But I’m disappointed that the free update to 2.0 I was supposed to get for buying the 1.6.6 version through the App Store doesn’t show up. The Pixelmator devs responded to my email and said they couldn’t figure it out either and suggested contacting Apple. I did and haven’t heard back for over a week now.