Sneak peek at upcoming update and Pixelmator Pro beta program

Discuss the latest Pixelmator news.
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2018-08-24 14:24:03

Today is a very exciting day for us at the Pixelmator Team — we’re launching a Pixelmator Pro public beta program, giving you a way to test upcoming features and, in the process, help us make Pixelmator Pro even better!

To mark the occasion, we’ve also decided to show you a few things from the upcoming update, which you’ll be able to try in this beta. Point updates are usually a little smaller than major releases, but in this one, we’ve packed in tons of great new features. For example, new Light Leak and Bokeh effects, an Auto Selective Color adjustment, a way to copy Effects and Adjustments between layers, and (really!) a whole lot more.

New Light Leak and Bokeh effects
Two of the biggest new features are the new Light Leak and Bokeh effects. The gorgeous Light Leak effect was always a favorite in the original Pixelmator it’s now coming to Pixelmator Pro, giving you an easy way to add a sunny, old-school feel to any of your photos.

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The beautiful new Bokeh effect was inspired by the Bokeh effect in Pixelmator for iOS and we think you’re really going to love it in Pixelmator Pro too! There are eight stunning Bokeh styles to choose from and, because Pixelmator Pro is a nondestructive editor, you can easily add multiple bokehs to the same image and edit each one individually.

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Tons of other new features
The full release notes for this update are going to be pretty huge, but here are a few of the most awesome new things in Pixelmator Pro 1.1.4:

• Tons of new effects. We’re adding Spin Blur, Clouds, Noise, Threshold, Mask to Alpha, and several effects from the Tile and Distortion categories of the original Pixelmator.
• There will now be a way to switch histogram type when using the Color Adjustments tool. Simply Control-click the histogram and choose a different type (RGB, Luminance, or Colors).
• We’ll be adding an ML-powered Auto button to the Selective Color adjustment. Now you can selectively improve individual colors in an image using the awesome machine learning technologies we’ve been working on and talked about in the last blog post!
• You’ll now be able to copy all effects or adjustments from one layer and paste them onto another with a single click.

Pixelmator Pro beta program
So, this is going to be a fantastic update and, if you’re up for it, you can get your hands on it early by checking out the public beta. We’re opening it up to all owners of Pixelmator Pro as well as owners of the original Pixelmator.

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P.S. We’re still big fans of big surprises, so we’re not planning to test absolutely every new Pixelmator Pro feature publicly but we’re really excited to see how this goes!
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2018-08-24 14:57:54

Looks like a solid update. Any chance we'll see "nearest neighbor" scaling support in this version of Pro?
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2018-08-24 16:36:01

I’m looking for clipping masks. that’s really one of the main things pro is missing from the standard app. Otherwise looks like a solid update as steve said.
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2018-08-24 17:10:49

Looking forward to the update. I'd really like simple sliders for font sizing. It'd be nice to able to option-click a layer to make that layer visible and make all others quickly not visible.
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2018-08-24 17:20:21

Spin blur for the win! :smiley:
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2018-08-25 07:17:10

by st3f Spin blur for the win! :smiley:
Yeah, that one was pretty much exclusively down to your suggestion (and my incessant nagging of the devs). :smiley:
by tangierc Looking forward to the update. I'd really like simple sliders for font sizing. It'd be nice to able to option-click a layer to make that layer visible and make all others quickly not visible.
For what it's worth, the Fonts window (Format > Fonts > Show Fonts) has a slider for sizing fonts and you can scroll inside the font size field to resize as well. Having said that, I was thinking the exact same thing last week — a really quick way to gradually resize text would be nice to have. We'll think about it.

As for Option-clicking to hide every other layer, that one's definitely on the way. I can't say exactly when, but it's coming.
by Andy Beyer-Bowden I’m looking for clipping masks. that’s really one of the main things pro is missing from the standard app. Otherwise looks like a solid update as steve said.
Clipping masks require a little bit more work to be done on the rest of Pixelmator Pro (we're planning a few really sweet interface improvements), but it's an oft-requested feature and we'll come to it for sure.
by Steve Schrab Looks like a solid update. Any chance we'll see "nearest neighbor" scaling support in this version of Pro?
Nearest neighbor won't be coming in this update. It's on the roadmap along with a few other scaling algorithms, but the fact that most of Pixelmator Pro is nondestructive means scaling things using a variety of algorithms is a little tricky. Definitely possible, just needs some architectural work. And in terms of the Pixelmator Pro engine, our focus right now is on improving performance in huge files (files ~100 megapixels in size with several hundred and more layers). We hope to share some of these improvements in the next Pixelmator Pro beta after this one. :muscle:
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2018-08-25 09:50:56

Yeah, that one was pretty much exclusively down to your suggestion (and my incessant nagging of the devs). 😃
Thank-you so much. And thank the devs for me. I'll get lots of use out of this. Last time I did a rotational blur, I did it by hand. It took 16 layers of transparent rotated overlays to fake it.
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2018-08-28 05:26:08

Great! New effects are always welcome. Thanks
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2018-09-09 02:14:22

If Pixelmator Pro is to be a solid photography tool, it will require:
• High Pass Filter — This is used to separate textures (say, skin) from color. Used for skin touch-up
• Layer Blending Options — Used for all kinds of master level touch up work

If Pixelmator Pro is to be a solid artists tool:
• Flow — Current opacity setting isn't enough. Strokes multiply on each other and it's unrealistic.
• Stroke smoothing — Strokes created from tablets are way too chaotic. Photoshop seems to have this built-in.
• Overall brush stroke performance — The system just can't keep up with fast, short brush strokes.

Forget spin blurs. These fundamentals need immediate attention. God speed, gang.
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2018-09-09 11:17:40

Forget spin blurs.
We all have different needs. I had two projects in a row that needed a rotational blur so I'm glad to see it. Next time I need one (or if one of my current projects need a change) it'll save me time.
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2018-09-10 15:08:48

by Teelar If Pixelmator Pro is to be a solid photography tool, it will require:
• High Pass Filter — This is used to separate textures (say, skin) from color. Used for skin touch-up
• Layer Blending Options — Used for all kinds of master level touch up work

If Pixelmator Pro is to be a solid artists tool:
• Flow — Current opacity setting isn't enough. Strokes multiply on each other and it's unrealistic.
• Stroke smoothing — Strokes created from tablets are way too chaotic. Photoshop seems to have this built-in.
• Overall brush stroke performance — The system just can't keep up with fast, short brush strokes.

Forget spin blurs. These fundamentals need immediate attention. God speed, gang.

Fair suggestions overall, although:
• High Pass Filters can be created manually in Pixelmator Pro, the steps for this can be found here.
• Layer blending options — opacity and blending modes can be changed using the Style tool. It's a little tricky to find but the functionality is there. More on this topic can be found in the online Help manual here. We have a few different ideas in mind for interface improvements with upcoming updates and this is on the list of things to improve.
• Flow settings are unavailable directly, although if you turn off the Merge Brush Marks option in the General category of a brush's settings, reduce the brush's opacity to 1-5% and then adjust the opacity settings of the Paint tool itself, you'll get the more or less the same result as changing the Flow settings in other apps. This should be made more obvious though, probably with the addition of a Flow slider.
• Stroke smoothing — feature request noted. :thumbs_up:
• Overall painting performance — something we've already been working on and absolutely plan to improve, probably after the performance improvements that we're working on for large, complicated images at the moment.
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2018-09-29 21:45:28

by Andrius 2018-09-10 15:08:48
Fair suggestions overall, although:
• <span class="posthilit">High</span> <span class="posthilit">Pass</span> Filters can be created manually in Pixelmator Pro, the steps for this can be found <a href="viewtopic.php?t=15577&amp;p=48704#p48704" class="postlink" target="_blank">here</a>.
• Layer blending options — opacity and blending modes can be changed using the Style tool. It's a little tricky to find but the functionality is there. More on this topic can be found in the online Help manual here. We have a few different ideas in mind for interface improvements with upcoming updates and this is on the list of things to improve.
• Flow settings are unavailable directly, although if you turn off the Merge Brush Marks option in the General category of a brush's settings, reduce the brush's opacity to 1-5% and then adjust the opacity settings of the Paint tool itself, you'll get the more or less the same result as changing the Flow settings in other apps. This should be made more obvious though, probably with the addition of a Flow slider.
• Stroke smoothing — feature request noted. :thumbs_up:
• Overall painting performance — something we've already been working on and absolutely plan to improve, probably after the performance improvements that we're working on for large, complicated images at the moment.
I wasn't very specific regarding layer blending, which Pixelmator Pro does. I should have said, the ability to pull a slider (Affinity uses a bezier curve), this expands or limits the blending to a range of value. (In Photoshop, one double clicks the layer and the sliders are there to adjust).

This manual high pass tut I'll look over, thanks for it. Cheers.
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2019-11-06 13:25:50

Hey there, just wanted to point out that the site for beta sign up says it's closing in 10 days!
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2019-11-06 15:12:39

Yep, HockeyApp is being phased out but the move to App Center should be relatively quick and painless. We'll let you guys know if you need to do anything.
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2022-08-18 10:14:47

Is there a beta available for pixelmator pro / photo for macOS ?
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2022-08-19 09:21:45

by Stev Nicholas Is there a beta available for pixelmator pro / photo for macOS ?
We're not quite there yet but you can follow us on social media or subscribe to our Newsletter to learn all the latest news about Pixelmator Photo for Mac. We'll make sure to announce any beta-related news there.