Table of Contents

Adjust hue, saturation, and vibrance

The Hue & Saturation adjustment lets you shift all the colors in an image along the color spectrum and increase or decrease their saturation and vibrance. You can also improve the hue & saturation automatically using the machine learning-powered ML adjustment.


Adjust the hue and saturation of an image

You can apply the Hue & Saturation adjustment to a single layer or, using a color adjustments layer, multiple layers in a composition.

To edit the currently selected layer, do one of the following:

  • Choose Format > Color Adjustments > Hue & Saturation (from the Format menu at the top of your screen).
  • In the Tools sidebar, click and turn on Hue & Saturation.
  • Press A on your keyboard and turn on the Hue & Saturation adjustment.

To edit multiple layers in a composition using a color adjustments layer (all layers below this layer will be affected):

  • Choose Insert > Color Adjustments (from the Insert menu at the top of your screen) and turn on the Hue & Saturation adjustment in the Tool Options pane.
  • Click at the top of the Layers sidebar, choose Color Adjustments, and turn on the Hue and Saturation adjustment.
  • Press Shift ⇧ + Command ⌘ + A on your keyboard, and turn on the Hue & Saturation adjustment.

Note: If the adjustment isn't visible, you can turn it on from the Customize menu at the bottom of the Color Adjustments pane.

Shift all the colors in an image along the color spectrum

Drag the Hue slider to the left or right to shift all the colors in the image along the color spectrum. You can also click the Hue value and enter a percentage from –100% to 100%.

Show Original: Click the Show Original button or press Control ⌃ + M on your keyboard to see what the image looks like without any color adjustments.

Show Split Comparison: Option ⌥ – click the Show Original button, press Control ⌃ + C on your keyboard, or force click the canvas.

To reset all Color Adjustments, click Reset at the bottom of the Color Adjustments pane.

Adjust the saturation of all the colors in an image

Adjusting saturation makes every color more or less intense.

  • Drag the Saturation slider to the right to make every color in the image more saturated.
  • Drag the Saturation slider to the left to make them less saturated.

Show Original: Click the Show Original button or press Control ⌃ + M on your keyboard to see what the image looks like without any color adjustments.

Show Split Comparison: Option ⌥ – click the Show Original button, press Control ⌃ + C on your keyboard, or force click the canvas.

To reset all Color Adjustments, click Reset at the bottom of the Color Adjustments pane.

Adjust the vibrance of all the colors in an image

The Vibrance slider targets only the most or least saturated colors depending on whether you’re increasing or decreasing vibrance.

  • When reducing vibrance, the intensity of the more saturated areas is reduced, while the less saturated areas are less affected.
  • When increasing vibrance, the intensity of the less saturated areas is increased, while the more saturated areas are less affected.

Press and hold the Option ⌥ key before dragging if you’d like to extend the range of the Vibrance slider beyond 100%. You can also click the Vibrance value and enter a percentage from –200% to 200%.

Show Original: Click the Show Original button or press Control ⌃ + M on your keyboard to see what the image looks like without any color adjustments.

Show Split Comparison: Option ⌥ – click the Show Original button, press Control ⌃ + C on your keyboard, or force click the canvas.

To reset all Color Adjustments, click Reset at the bottom of the Color Adjustments pane.

Automatically adjust the hue and saturation in an image

The ML adjustment improves hue and saturation in your image automatically using a machine learning algorithm trained on millions of professional images.

Click the ML button in the Tool Options pane next to the Hue & Saturation adjustment to adjust the colors automatically.

Show Original: Click the Show Original button or press Control ⌃ + M on your keyboard to see what the image looks like without any color adjustments.

Show Split Comparison: Option ⌥ – click the Show Original button, press Control ⌃ + C on your keyboard, or force click the canvas.

To reset all Color Adjustments, click Reset at the bottom of the Color Adjustments pane.

Pixelmator Pro User Guide