$US59 GPU-driven image editor for OSX - very nice indeed

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

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.

[higginsdj]

An open source project that you have to pay for! Someones trying to make a killing.....

Cost aside, how does it compare to GIMP2?

Cheers

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Its "core" is open source David - but it relies on in-built and included OSX technologies to run - hence licensing costs I guess. Not sure that anyone striving for a better way needs to be accused of trying to make a "killing". I wish them very well - Adobe has been getting my money (and LOTS of it) for years!

"Open source" is probably a bit of a misnomer here - you can contribute to the project and by all accounts so far they really listen to users input - but I'm not sure if you have access to the source code as such. Maybe you do, I haven't dug any deeper yet.

Compared to GIMP2? Delightful.

...I forgot to mention that it opens and saves layered Photoshop files.

[kustard (Simon)]

Nice, the one thing I hate about using GIMP on OSX is having to run X11 and some of the gimp features are not as intuitive as photoshop so if this is very much photoshop like then I'll defo look into it.

[Davros (Lauren)]

Looks very nice, might have to invest in that.

[snowyskiesau]

Pity it's Intel Mac only.

If it was really open source, that wouldn't matter.

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

Originally Posted by snowyskiesau

Pity it's Intel Mac only.

If it was really open source, that wouldn't matter.

It'd be great if it did Geoff, as my Dual-G5 tower would be hellishly useful again, but the program calls many functions only now available in Snow Leopard, which itself doesn't support the old PowerPC architecture. This is how they keep the footprint so small - it's a tiny 35Mb download!

Got to say it flies on my 27" iMac...

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

A quick muckaround with one of the first images I took with my 5D MkII on the day that Humayun and I went to pick it and his new 70-200L 2.8 lens up. The image was taken pretty-much after dusk and it was raining profusely. A nice intro for a new camera - LOL! Anyway - the point is that there was hardly any colour in the original as it was nearly dark.

I really, really like some of the tools - selection in particular. Adjacent pixel selection tolerance is performed on the fly in real time by moving the mouse left or right - and you see the growing/shrinking selection in complete preview - not just a thumbnail that Photoshop uses. I like it more and more as I discover new tricks. The developers have really put some thought into the interface.

[dannat (Daniel)]

is now only available thru the new Mac Apps account - you will have to download & install os 10.6 to buy it -though i think its cheaper

[Omaroo (Chris Malikoff)]

It won't actually run on anything older than OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard) anyway Daniel, so I guess that its move to the Mac App Store isn't a problem for anyone. As far as pricing goes, I think that it used to be US$59 and now on the App Store it's AU$36. Pretty damned good I think.

[telemarker (Keith)]

Bought this today, very fast and a large toolset. The biggest disappointment though, was discovering it only works at 8 bit colour depth. Its not a photoshop replacement yet.