Omaroo
27-12-2010, 11:47 AM
I've just been trying a demo version of "Pixelmator", a US$59 image editor that sees itself as an eventual rival to Photoshop. It was initially released back to the public in June 2009 (developers in mid 2007) and is an open-source product. At the rate it's improving, I see no reason that it won't eventually rival major portions of Photoshop in the not-too-distant future. It definitely isn't any where near it yet, but give it time.
A major advantage to Pixelmator is that it uses your Macs GPU (graphics card) for all rendering process tasks instead of the CPU. GPUs are phenomenally quick for this purpose, and this program takes full 64-bit advantage of it - watch filter results in absolute real time :) It and other native Mac technologies such as Automator (for repetitive tasks) and iPhoto support mean that these and the use of other high-end OSX system components preclude a Windows version.
It doesn't yet support CMYK, or vector-based operations for that matter, but its creators plan to pretty soon I believe. It opens CR2 images direct from my 5D Mark-II without issue, and supports over 100 different formats. It won't do FIT though - hopefully one day. I guess that FITS Liberator is stand-alone these days, so that's not a problem either.
As a professional Photoshop user for that past couple of decades, I can vouch for this program. Using it is a Photoshop-like experience - there is no real learning curve required to perform the average task. Value for money is exceptional - and before anyone says "but GIMP is free" - that's fine. GIMP requires X11 to be running, which is a little nasty on a non-Linux or Unix-only machine as it imposes a complete second display technology to sit on top of your existing one to make it work - and as a result I find GIMP clunky at best. I've also never been a fan of the GTK+ toolkit GIMP uses. Pixelmator is native Quartz all the way and is very slick for it. It's a joy to use.
Have a look at a review here: http://applereviews.com/pixelmator-review/ or here: http://digitalapplejuice.com/review-pixelmator-1-6/
Go to their site here: http://www.pixelmator.com/
Top stuff - can't wait for updates.
A major advantage to Pixelmator is that it uses your Macs GPU (graphics card) for all rendering process tasks instead of the CPU. GPUs are phenomenally quick for this purpose, and this program takes full 64-bit advantage of it - watch filter results in absolute real time :) It and other native Mac technologies such as Automator (for repetitive tasks) and iPhoto support mean that these and the use of other high-end OSX system components preclude a Windows version.
It doesn't yet support CMYK, or vector-based operations for that matter, but its creators plan to pretty soon I believe. It opens CR2 images direct from my 5D Mark-II without issue, and supports over 100 different formats. It won't do FIT though - hopefully one day. I guess that FITS Liberator is stand-alone these days, so that's not a problem either.
As a professional Photoshop user for that past couple of decades, I can vouch for this program. Using it is a Photoshop-like experience - there is no real learning curve required to perform the average task. Value for money is exceptional - and before anyone says "but GIMP is free" - that's fine. GIMP requires X11 to be running, which is a little nasty on a non-Linux or Unix-only machine as it imposes a complete second display technology to sit on top of your existing one to make it work - and as a result I find GIMP clunky at best. I've also never been a fan of the GTK+ toolkit GIMP uses. Pixelmator is native Quartz all the way and is very slick for it. It's a joy to use.
Have a look at a review here: http://applereviews.com/pixelmator-review/ or here: http://digitalapplejuice.com/review-pixelmator-1-6/
Go to their site here: http://www.pixelmator.com/
Top stuff - can't wait for updates.