Roger Fingas
Pixelmator for Mac was updated to version 3.4 on Thursday, adding things like optimization for OS X El Capitan, and a new Photos extension founded on Apple's Metal graphics technology.
The extension gathers together a group of Distort tools, which can be applied to Photos images without having to load up Pixelmator. These include Warp, Bump, Pinch, and Twirl, which can all be undone if necessary using a Restore tool.
The plugin is not only based on Metal, but coded in Apple's Swift 2 programming language, and supports Force Touch trackpads for controlling the strength of effects.
Pixelmator itself has gained a smoother Force Touch implementation, and now uses Apple's San Francisco font for interface labels. The one major feature addition is support for El Capitan's Split View, which lets users run two apps side-by-side in fullscreen mode.
Pixelmator for Mac costs $30 at the Mac App Store, and requires OS X 10.9.5 or later.
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Christine McKee
Chip Loder
Marko Zivkovic
25 Comments
A truly remarkable application that's true to the Mac.
Agree, I use this program on both my Mac and my iOS devices....
Frankly, Photos is another Apple app, like Music, that took a big step backwards...why would they remove the "Edit In External Editor" from iPhoto? It was a seamless way to bring an image into Photoshop, makes some advanced edits, and upon saving, the original was automatically updated in iPhoto.
Now, its a completely broken process.
I have Pixelmator (nice app), but this extension is rather useless, as its just a grouping of some distort filters.
It's been several months, and I don't see one way way, other than a several step manual process of exporting and importing, to edit Photo images in an external editor.
There are many other aspects in Photos which are poorer than iPhoto, it's really a shame...
Apple just updated its iWork suite for OS and iOS. Looks like a significant update as it adds compatibility to open files from previous versions as well as Force Touch and 3d Touch support.
[quote name="thrang" url="/t/189462/pixelmator-for-mac-gets-el-capitan-optimizations-metal-based-photos-extension#post_2791753"]Frankly, Photos is another Apple app, like Music, that took a big step backwards...why would they remove the "Edit In External Editor" from iPhoto? It was a seamless way to bring an image into Photoshop, makes some advanced edits, and upon saving, the original was automatically updated in iPhoto. Now, its a completely broken process. I have Pixelmator (nice app), but this extension is rather useless, as its just a grouping of some distort filters. It's been several months, and I don't see one way way, other than a several step manual process of exporting and importing, to edit Photo images in an external editor. There are many other aspects in Photos which are poorer than iPhoto, it's really a shame... [/quote] Missing 'Edit in external editor' is hardly a 'big step backwards'. It is a feature that hopefully will be re-introduced. I used it all the time but it is not a deal breaker. A feature in Photos I that is desperately lacking imo is the ability to adjust individual colors. The color-balance slider just doesn't cut it.