Mac OSX: Pixelmator, Acorn, Gimp - advice?

A place to talk about anything else with other Pixelmator users.
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2019-07-11 07:55:10

I am giving up on Adobe software, it's just way too expensive.

Mac OSX: Pixelmator, Acorn, Gimp - advice?

There is also Photoshop elements but it has horrible reviews due to lack of support, bugs, and it "expiring" regularly.

I mostly work with photos, not illustrations etc. I am very skilled at colour correction and image enhancement etc. I need this to design page https://canadiancasinos-online.com/online-bonuses about best online casino bonuses, waiting for your help.

Thanks for your advice!
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2019-07-13 10:18:56

Hi Irinele.

You're likely to get a pretty biased view from the Pixelmator forums but I'll do my best to be fair. 😇

I was a Photoshop user years back. I liked it but found it rather pricey and feature-rich to the point of being cumbersome and bloaty. Nevertheless I was a fan. Pixelmator and Pixelmator Pro have a lighter feature set but, provided that you find what you want within that set, both give what I think is a better user experience. Put simply, I find myself more often enjoying what I do rather than fighting the software to achieve what I want.

GIMP I found to be really richly featured but a complete pain to use. I think it's still free so there's nothing to lose by giving it a go.
Acorn I haven't used much but it my memories of it were that it seemed pretty simple. Possibly too much so.
Pixelmator (and later Pixelmator Pro) and I just clicked. A simple and well designed UI to make me happy. Enough features to *keep* me happy.
You may also want to consider Affinity Photo. It's *very* fully featured to the point that I found it too complex for me.
Your milage may vary on any or all of the above.

As you're a photographer I'd definitely recommend Pixelmator Pro over Pixelmator. Not only do I like the UI more (and it's under strong active development) but most the effects are all non-destructive so you can go back to that slight tweak you did in hue 50 operations back and adjust it a little differently without losing everything you've done since.

Also, since you're coming from Photoshop, anything else is likely to have a reduced or at least different feature set. I'd recommend that, whatever you choose, you make sure that it can do everything that you need. If you like the look of Pixelmator Pro, you can download a free trial (https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/free-trial/) and spend 30 days trying to shake the wheels off it. :grin:

Hope this helps.

- Stef.
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2019-07-17 12:21:39

Obviously, Pixelmator Pro is, far and away, the best app humankind has ever created. But that's just my humble opinion... :smile: