Michal Ždanský I've honestly never been a big fan of Photoshop. For a graphic designer-amateur, Adobe's best-known application is extremely chaotic and it would take some time to learn at least basic and slightly more advanced operations, and the price for a non-professional is unacceptable. Fortunately, the Mac App Store offers several alternatives, such as Acorn and Pixelmator. I've been using Pixelmator for over two years now, and from a promising graphic editor "for everyone else" it has grown into a fairly decent competitor to Photoshop. And with the new update, he got even closer to professional tools.
The first major new feature is layer styles, which users have been clamoring for for a long time. Thanks to them, you can non-destructively apply, for example, shadows, transitions, edge extraction or reflections to individual layers. Especially when combined with the vectors that were added in the previous major update, this is a big win for graphic designers and one less reason to hold off on switching from Photoshop.
Another new function, or rather a set of tools, are Liquify Tools, which will allow you to win even better with vectors. It allows you to easily change an element, add a small curl or change the entire image beyond recognition. The Warp, Bump, Pinch, and Liquify tools more or less allow you to bend an image in different ways, make part of it bulge, twist part of it, or funnel part of it. These aren't exactly professional tools, but they're an interesting addition for playing around or experimenting with.
The developers have developed their own image editing engine, which should bring better performance and eliminate various lags. According to Pixelmator, the engine combines Apple technologies that are part of OS X - Open CL and OpenGL, Core Image library, 64-bit architecture and Grand Central Dispatch. I haven't had enough time to work with Pixelmator more to feel the improvements that the new engine is supposed to bring, but I expect that for more complex operations, the higher processing performance should show.
In addition, Pixelmator 3.0 also brings support for new features in OS X Mavericks, such as App Nap, labeling or displaying on multiple displays, which is especially useful when working in full-screen. You can have Pixelmator open in full screen on one monitor, while you drag and drop source images from the other, for example. After the release of the update, Pixelmator became more expensive, jumping from the original 11,99 euros to 26,99 euros, which was the original price before the long-term discount. However, even at $30, the app is worth every penny. I can't do more demanding image editing myself without it preview not enough to imagine.
[app url=”https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pixelmator/id407963104?mt=12″]
For now I'm using Inkscape, which is free, but maybe it's time to buy Pixelmator. :)
I've had Pixelmator since 1.6, then 2 and the latest 3 for regular use, Pixelmator is an excellent replacement for Photoshop. With layer effect plugins and curve work, it's a great tool for web graphics and for hobbyist photographers who don't churn out thousands of photos.
Since most of the keyboard shortcuts are the same as in PS, there are only minor differences when working in the Layers panel. With 1.6 I had to force myself a little, with version 2 it was good, I just missed the plugin effects for shadows around the text and similar things. I create shadow effects manually, I didn't do much, so it didn't matter. But I'm having fun with version 3, I've been playing with it for the second day (I'm redoing a website) and I see no reason to pay more for PS. For less than eight hundred, it is a very good tool even for people who have trouble using the potential of PS.
Well, I'd rather start with Pixelmator, because if I already use PS, I'm a pro anyway and I'll buy the whole Creative Suite.
The beginning of the article amused me, a review from an amateur does not have much informative value. Photoshop is the only program that allows prepress preparation (CMYK / Color management) and therefore cannot be compared with Pixelmator. Despite the fact that everything we find in Pixelmator is inspired by Photoshop.