Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Software, Cool tools, Graphic Design
Pixelmator releases version 1.1.2
And with the new patch 1.1.2, just released today, it gets the job done even better. The patch offers quite a few bug fixes, and a short list of interface tweaks and improvements. Selection tools have been beefed up, as have those color fills (they work in real-time, unlike before, you know, when they worked in fake-time). The update is now available for download over on the site, or should show up in the application as well.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
geochick said 7:24PM on 1-23-2008
Hey Mike I bought Pixelmator, Appzapper and Cha-Ching before Macheist 2 then bought the Macheist bundle for Vector Designer and a few other apps. Now I have an extra copy of the above 3 that I need to unload and trying to figure out the best way to unload it them. How about a Tuaw giveaway or something? I've already asked the companies in question how to transfer the license(s) still waiting...
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KR said 4:22PM on 1-22-2008
I also got this as part of MacHeist, and have found it to be fairly buggy. It's been crashing and/or locking up on me a fair bit. This is being used with 10.5.1.
Biggest problem is that often when I hit "save" it locks up and crashes, and totally defeats any work I've done.
Hopefully this patch will fix that. Otherwise it seems like a fine program, but it's one of the buggier apps I've encountered in recent memory.
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Timothy said 4:25PM on 1-22-2008
Is that Leopard? Is that ShapeShifter? Or is that just the program's UI?
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Kurt Zenisek said 4:32PM on 1-22-2008
That's the UI Pixelmator by default.
2shae said 4:56PM on 1-22-2008
It's a great looking GUI!!!
As soon as Shapeshifter finally works on Leopard I hope that someone will make a theme like this.
Btw, I'm impressed with Pixelmator. It works great and feels like the perfect Photoshop replacement (for amateurs at least). It does look (at least to me) like a Photoshop clone, but that's a pro and not a con.
jln said 5:47PM on 1-22-2008
I just downloaded the demo earlier today to see if I should go for the Macheist bundle as well. Alhtough I just gave it a quick try, I have some concerns about the GUI personally. Why these black windows ?? There nice and sexy for tool windows etc, bring contrast which is useful but having black transparent windows everywhere is tiring imho. Pixelmator still looks like a good product and will fill my needs for images manipulations so I am likely to buy a license anyway. It just looks like a weird choice for me. Anyway, I'll have to get used to black transparent windows as it seems the upcoming Bias's Peak is going that route as well...
Marshall said 5:44PM on 1-22-2008
Pixelmator may not be as full-featured as PS, but it's not as clunky as the GIMP, and has been a really great app for my needs (photo touchups and web graphics). There does not seem to be a huge community around it yet, but hopefully one will grow (especially with a large influx of users from MH2).
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obtusegoose said 8:19PM on 1-22-2008
I'm waiting for text alignment options. Aside from that, it's a pretty slick program.
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buddhistMonkey said 9:23PM on 1-22-2008
Very slick interface, very buggy program. I've rarely gone for more than a minute without hitting a glitch of some sort. Most recently (on 1.1.2), I created a blank document, and then deleted the white background from the default layer. I got an error message saying that my scratch disk was almost full, even though my main drive has 31 GBs free (I don't have ANY drives connected with few than 10 GBs free).
Then, after I ignored the warning, I drew a little shape and tried to rotate it. At first, it put the transformation handles in the corners of my document, but after I canceled and tried it again, it correctly put the handles on the bounding box of my shape. Then, when I tried to rotate my image, it jumped up and to the right (although it did rotate it properly). This is a reproducible error, found in a VERY basic function.
My verdict is that this software, as handsome as it looks, is simply not ready for prime time.
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jaaronfarr said 11:06PM on 1-22-2008
If all you need to do is resize and crop, get ImageWell.
As for Pixelmator, I really want to love it, but it's just not there yet. It appears that more effort has been made on a slick UI than on actual functionality. It's buggy and missing critical features. Why would I pay so much for what is obviously beta-level software?
If you can't stand the GIMP and don't want to shell out for, or don't need the complexity of Photoshop, then Pixelmator alternatives include Acron and DrawIt. The following reviews are helpful too:
* http://jonwhipple.com/blog/2007/10/29/image-is-everything/
* http://www.macworld.com/article/60264/2007/09/pixelmator.html
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guybrush said 5:39AM on 1-23-2008
1.1.2 for the iPhone :p
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aptmunich said 5:56AM on 1-23-2008
Black menu icons on a transparent black background - now that's good UI design right there...
I got it as part of the heist bundle, but parts of the UI feel too much like a bad photoshop rip-off without anything to differentiate the product.
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