Pixelmator: Image Editing for Mere Mortals and Dumb Blondes
Posted on January 25th, 2008
Few applications are more daunting and difficult to the average user than image editing software. Often referred to as “paint programs” by non-professionals, these apps largely fall into two distinct categories: a) the dumb blonde app that looks pretty but can only perform a few simple tasks, and none of them particularly well. Or b) the Pro app, cable of removing acne from Prom photos and former spouses from wedding albums, but requiring a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science to learn.
It’s that latter category that has always posed the greatest challenge to software developers. Turning complexity into simplicity is no small task. Making a Pro app that’s easy enough for consumers - two things that go together like Dairy Queen and lactose intolerance - seems an impossible feat. Well the brains behind a new application called Pixelmator think they’ve found the answer. And having used their product for the past few weeks, I’m inclined to agree.
What’s a Nice App Like You Doing in a Mac Like This?
What is Pixelmator? It’s creators bill it as “Photoshop for the rest us”. “Us” being you common plebes who’ve never touched an image editing app in your life, and immediately ask “What’s this button do?” when presented with toolbars and floating palettes for the first time. You know who you are.
Pixelmator brings the power and features of Adobe Photoshop to consumers. In just a few hours, anyone can learn the basics of image editing and Photoshopping (apologies to Adobe for use of product as verb), without investing thousands of dollars in software that we “pros” use. Inexperience and lack of talent finally pays off!
What sets Pixelmator apart from all other apps in its class is a brilliant interface. Pants down, it is the most stunningly beautiful creative software I have ever used on any platform, and represents state of the art in Mac software design. The team behind this product are clearly at the head of the herd and raise a new bar for software developers to strive for. If there is any higher praise than that, tell me and I’ll bestow it.
Pixelmator is a pure Cocoa based app, and it shows. Where other applications in this class wear the usual boring grey palettes and obscure icons, Pixelmator uses an innovative HUD (Heads Up Display) design with an opaque workspace that floats above the desktop. It looks gorgeous, but serves a dual purpose of making icons and control widgets more viewable against a higher contrast background. A perfect blend of form and function.
Smart Enough for Pros, Dumb Enough for Newbs
On merits of UI alone, Pixelmator passes a benchmark that qualifies it for use as a professional image editor. Experienced Photoshop users will feel right at home with its familiar layout and workspace. Everything is there: brushes, color swatches, layer effects… you name it. It can handles painting and retouching just like Photoshop, including layers. Even image exporting to .psd and other widely use image formats is available. Anyone using Photoshop will hit the ground running with Pixelmator, with very little re-education involved.
Everything is well thought out, from the layout of palettes, to a breathtaking fullscreen workspace view (pictured above) for working with high resolution images; perfect for those paparazzi photographers needing to enlarge embarrassing expose photos of Lindsay Lohan passed out in public restrooms. Haven’t we see enough of those?
Pixelmator’s similarity to Photoshop is sometimes its downfall. For example, I have always loathed Photoshop’s archaic method for layer manipulation; having to highlight individual layers in a palette in order to select them. This is partly what led me into the arms of Macromedia Fireworks long ago, with its far more intuitive live layers. You just move your mouse over your work and each individual layer or element is highlighted. No palettes, no keystrokes. Just click me or don’t. So much better.
Being a raster based program Pixelmator lacks vector tools, ala Fireworks, limiting it strictly to image editing. This app wasn’t designed with Illustrators in mind, I realize that, but I had hoped that Pixemator’s development team would move in such direction rather than model itself so heavily on Adobe. Painting outside the squares, if you’ll pardon the pun. Maybe we’ll see that in future releases.
Of course, Pixelmator was designed with non-professionals in mind - those who’ve never used Photoshop and have no clue what a healing brush is. So how does it measure up as a creative app for consumers? Quite well, however there is definitely a learning curve to be dealt with. The marketing slogan’s promise “For the rust of us” really means those who have some working knowledge of photo editing, or at least familiarity with tool-centric applications. For the true creative challenged, Pixelmator won’t make life any easier. People in that demographic will feel every bit as lost staring at Pixelmator’s interface, however mesmerizing, as they would a jigsaw puzzle.
The potential for reaching those users is there, if the team at Pixelmator would adopt a task-based approach for certain scenarios in the form of wizards and dialogs for novices. A framework that holds the users hand, guiding them through daunting editing processes. In this way Pixelmator could operate in dual modes, serving a dual userbase; a “Pro” mode for those more familiar with image editing software, and a task oriented “Express” mode for novices. Sound like a good idea? Great, because I intend to collect royalties for it.
Wrapping up…
If it sounds like I am in love with this app, that’s not far from the truth. Every platform has its signature application. One that defines it’s role, or screams…”See! This is why I exist”. For Windows, it’s Office (or Crysis). For Linux it’s… oh I don’t know, emacs I assume. I think Pixelmator is definitely the new platform poster child for Apple. While it still has a ways to go before it can replace Photoshop, or become simple enough for Grandma to use, the roots are there. As a pro tool, Pixelmator is almost there. As a consumer tool, it’s a bit farther away from “there” but still within the zip code.
Which brings me to the topic of trends. I see a paradigm shift playing out more and more between the old guard, commercial software developers like Adobe and Microsoft, outclassed by smaller garage shops, like Pixelmator, as engines of innovation. Panic’s Coda looks like it could replace Dreamweaver as my workaday web development app because it loads quickly, is less bloated, and does everything I want.
Nothing has yet replaced my stalwart favorite, Adobe Fireworks, for web graphic design. But when that day arrives I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find Pixelmator starting back at.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 7:51 am and is filed under Design, Reviews, Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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Pixelmator looks nice, but there’s one much better graphic software our there - GIMP (www.gimp.org). It’s very advanced, yet simple to use. You have quite large community that will help you learn it and at the top of it - it’s free (the whole application is open source, which means you can use it for free). I have it on my Mac and I wouldn’t want to switch to Photoshop (even if I would be given the PS for free as well). Cheers
Robert
January 27th, 2008
I love Pixelmator. I still use Photoshop if I need to do something a little more in-depth (and I’m not a design professional, just someone who likes to create/adjust graphics or screenshots for various projects/for fun), but if I need to just create a “quick and dirty” image - Pixelmator more than fits the bill. I had a chance to use the private beta of Pixelmator and was impressed then, but there were a few compatibility problems with Leopard that kept me from buying it until they were sorted out. Once I found out it was part of the recently completed MacHeist II bundle (which at $50 was cheaper than Pixelmator alone and included 13 other apps), it was a no brainer.
As for GIMP, look, I respect the work of the project and think what they have accomplished is amazing, but it is incredibly un-Mac like. Personally, I can’t see using an incredibly ugly application for design. It just makes no sense. For Linux it’s one thing — there hasn’t been any drive by independent or larger software companies to offer a commercial alternative — but this is Mac. With Pixelmator and also Acorn, there are reasonably priced alternatives that are both aesthetically pleasing and don’t have a user interface from hell. I consider myself a VERY advanced computer user and if I am frustrated with an apps UI, and I’ve been using Photoshop for half my freaking life, someone not experienced with design tools is going to be completely unable to cope.
As for creating vectors, you might want to check out the brand new app, VectorDesigner. It created a sensation at Macworld, winning a “Best of Show” award. And while I’ve only had it for a few days (at the last minute it was added to the MacHeist bundle too - what a great deal), I have been truly impressed. A replacement for Illustrator? Probably not completely, but again, a great “quick and dirty” tool.
Christina Warren
January 28th, 2008
In response to your Fireworks replacement, I would suggest you have a look at Drawit (www.getdrawit.com). It’s a bit more mature than Pixelmator but it uses clever mac ways to doing things. I do have some concerns about it’s speed which does seem somewhat sluggish at times, however it’s a great bridge between vector and raster programmes.
With respect to Pixelmator, I too love the interface and the speed, however there are some specific tools that are missing and it’ll be a few years I would expect before those issues are addressed, since there is only one programmer on board doing everything, unless they bring another as well, to speed up production.
khaled
January 28th, 2008
Gimp, is great for Windows and Linux, but for Mac it’s not so good. It uses X11 which for Linux is probably fine, but for OS X, it makes Gimp look like something from the stone-age.
Now when Gimp starts using native graphics on the Mac, then it might be a good contender for Mac users.
Dave M.
January 28th, 2008
Christina from TUAW? sweet!
Anyways, I think everyone can agree that the GIMP is very un-macish. Sure, it’s fine on linux… but there are better alternatives for other platforms. Pixelmator is a prime example, providing a powerful, easy-to-use, low cost alternative to Photoshop and GIMP. And for windows, paint.NET is a great alternative.
Ed
January 28th, 2008
Eh. Put me in the Dumb Blonde category for photo software. I use Photo Toolkit on the PC under XP. All I basically need is what it does: resize, crop, straighten, simple things. When I get a Mac, I’ll be sure this check out this app.
Mike Cane
January 30th, 2008
Can’t agree with all you guys about GIMP.
a) there has been a update recently - and new version isn’t that ugly
b) Pixelmator don’t have the pen tool - and that’s a big disadavantage for me
c) “low cost alternative to GIMP” - I think you should reconsider that;)
But we shall put this discussion to the end - let’s everybody use what they like. The final effect is most important anyway - not the tool we’ve used for it. Cheers;)
Robert
January 30th, 2008
Robert, how is Gimp “not that ugly” when it still uses X11 for it’s UI elements?
So I installed it and tried it out. First, it won’t run in a folder with a space or special symbol in it’s name. The folder path was: ~/++ New Apps ++/Gimp.app and it was crashing with an error message “Cannot execute: No such file or directory”. Sheesh.
So I moved the program into my Applications folder and tried again. It launched. It still has a menubar in the Gimp tool window instead of the Apple menubar. I created a new 1024×768 pixel image and moved the cursor over the new window. The tool circle (paint brush) followed behind my motion by about a half a second. I am running a Mac Pro 2.6GHz Quad core system (Not the 8 core, but original 4 core system). It shouldn’t be that slow.
I then pressed the mouse button to attempt to draw on the image only to have the program crash. Looking at the console log only makes my head hurt with all the text it added to the log.
Sure Gimp is free, but I’m not sure how useful a free program is if it will not run or run well. I’ll stick to my copy of Pixelmator and other image editors for now, thank you very much!
Dave M.
January 31st, 2008
Hi Dave.
I’ve downloaded and tried Pixelmator.
1. There’s no pen tool (and that’s what I use the most)
2. Black icons on black background (when you go to full screen) - bad idea for me. (I’m not happy with transparent tool windows as well)
3. When I tried to open new file by right-click -> open in Pixelmator - new instance of the program was launched. (and soon I have four Pixelmators running - each for one image).
Too bad you have those problems with Gimp - I running it on MacBook Pro 2.16 - and it’s sleek and fast.
But, as I said - lets each of us use the tools that we like - the final work is the most important here:).
Cheers
Robert
February 1st, 2008
@Robert
You’re obviously enamorated with GIMP, and you keep saying “to each their own”, yet you keep coming back and arguing how great GIMP is.
GIMP sucks on Mac. Period. There’s no other way to put. GIMP’s UI is the worst piece of crap ever invented and just because it’s free, it doesn’t mean it can suck.
And there’s also another thing, Pixelmator uses the GFX card to render everything, resulting in slick filters, while GIMP still goes at it the old CPU way.
But hey, to each their own, right? If you are happy using a sub-par program then go right ahead, but I don’t see a need to come bashing Pixelmator, in a review about Pixelmator.
Carlos Lage
February 2nd, 2008
Count me in the “Gimp was beaten with the ugly stick” camp. It’s one of the ugliest creative applications I have ever used. Why open source cheerleaders are proud of this software stumps me, though I assume it has something to do with the virtue of being “free” which is a dubious honor.
Still, if you think Gimp is horrible, look at Amarok; a popular Linux based media player application. It is nothing less than the worst UI design ever conceived. And yet its users will tell you it’s the most beautiful (and best) media player available on any platform. In truth, it’s the worst. The UI is the ugliest I have ever seen among any app in any category, media or otherwise, and the layout of controls is astonishingly imbecilic.
Most of the navigation functions appear as vertically positioned tabs running along the left border of the app window. Now I’m not sure if the developers behind this app are simply amateurs (most likely) or they believe their users will be running this app while lying on the floor, curled in a fetal position, but any app that forces me to tilt my head sideways in order to use it is simply a waste of bandwidth and processes. iTunes has become increasingly bloated, but it still remains the best all-around media player/jukebox/content delivery engine available.
From the above examples I can only conclude that Open Source advocates simply have low standards in software design, from the OS they use (Linux) to the applications that run on it.
Kent Pribbernow
February 2nd, 2008
Pixelmater is good software, but it misses something.
1. You cannot precisely control selection box, such as 120 x 120 pixels box. That is a bit of hard for picture cropping.
2. It’s too irresistable to be use.
P chandranupap
February 3rd, 2008
@Robert: It sounds like you might have a version of Gimp compiled specifically for the Mac. Is this so?
If so, could you post a link on where to get it?
I have to agree with your comments about black icons on black backgrounds. I find that a little weird myself. I can’t even see what the top right most tool is. I looks like it might be a cursor with a plus sign down and to the right of it.
I personally don’t lean one way or the other when it comes to tools on the Mac. I get what I find useful and nice on the eyes. With Office suite’s for instance; OpenOffice is a nice idea, but doesn’t work well with the Mac. NeoOffice is a better choice, but I still use iWork simply because it’s clean and fast. I recently got a copy of Microsoft Office 2008 for the Mac and am reserving judgment so far. My initial impression is that it is as bloated a program as any other Microsoft app is. However, that may be mute if the program works well.
If there is a native version of Gimp for the Mac, I would certainly give it a shot. There is a huge following for Gimp in the OS community for it.
Dave M.
February 4th, 2008
For those of you enamored with GIMP but hate its ugly UI, there is another open source project called Seashore that is based on GIMP code but uses Cocoa. Try it yourselves…
http://seashore.sourceforge.net/index.php
Kent Pribbernow
February 4th, 2008
@Dave M.
I’ve used the one from this site:
http://wilber-loves-apple.org/pages/download.html
Cheers
Robert
February 15th, 2008
Repeat after me!
“OS X!”, “Consistency!”, “Intuitiveness”, “Innovation!”, “Elegance!”, “Reliableness!”
I think that pixelmator is too dumb even for “Dumb Blondes” right now and black, translucent interface is that “brilliant” only from a distance and for a very short period of time, what are those orange spills on the tool box anyway, placeholders?
That’s a good one: “Pants down, it is the most stunningly beautiful creative software I have ever used on any platform”, pissing on the wall isn’t the only way to draw FYI.
“and represents state of the art in Mac software design.” right now, I’d call it rather vandalism, not the art.
“it makes Gimp look like something from the stone-age”, well… it looks like that something is a flying saucer, an archeological find!
“In just a few hours, anyone can learn the basics of image editing and Photoshopping (apologies to Adobe for use of product as verb), without investing thousands of dollars in software that we “pros” use. Inexperience and lack of talent finally pays off!”, what is this bullshit anyway?
Don’t apologize, they don’t care. Have you actually used pixelmator? or have you Photoshoped them so that they feature it?
“Even image exporting to .psd and other widely use image formats is available.”, some grammar mistakes over there.
“Sounds* like a good idea? Great, because I intend to collect royalties for it.”, but first you’ll have to go through the internship, fixing “a couple” of bugs. Sounds like a great idea, doesn’t it? Ow yea, I can hear the crowd is getting excited.
Let’s an “Ultimate”, “Home” and probably an “Enterprise” versions too then.
Judging by your blog design, you are an experienced designer, but a lousy reviewer. Wanna see
what the intended users think? Visit the forum hell then!
I adore well integrated OS X apps. I have the license for pixelmator. But the icon for it is not in my dock, yet. I’m looking to the future, with hope(not for the features you propose, Mr. Kent :P).
C’mon Devs - you CAN make it!
Mike Brunette
February 18th, 2008
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