Pixelmator Classic for PC and Mac

Software Reviews and Criticism

• By cucucumbur

  Software is okay, business strategy is deceptive

  I like pixelmator. I use it a lot. I would give it 4 stars. However, I bought it right after Pro had come out (or right before) and from that point until today they have not made a significant effort to make it clear to people that this is the old app being phased out. Now, since it’s app store only, I can’t even get a upgrade discount to get Pro, I have to pay for twice the price of Pixelmator all over again if I want Pro - which I would have just bought in the first place if the makers tried to inform new purchasers-to-be about Pro taking up the mantle. Great, they’ll keep it updated so it doesn’t break for a few months to years. It’s obviously not where the focus is, though if you look at the app store you would have to specifically make sure to check other software by Pixelmator to see they had Pro out on discount. It’s a bad business practice and it has hurt my goodwill towards the company; in the future I will look elsewhere or return to adobe, because I am not giving them another $60 because of app store deception.

  
  
• By Red Grange

  Lacks some essentials

  I like to create artwork rom scratch and have all of the major programs (like Phosotshop, Illustrator, Painter, Sketchbook Pro and Pixelmator). I like the simplicity of the Pixelmator interface (unlike the unintuitive and exhaustive Photoshop user interface), but Pixelmator lacks 2 VERY essential tools: a decent airbrush tool and a way to create a mask (frisket) to airbrush into “clean areas” (think traditional airbrush work using cut frisket film). Photoshop makes this cumbersome and while Sketchbook Pro is perhaps the most natural and “lifelike” product to use, it also lacks a way to create a “frisket” or mask (Painter was once a decent program but has gone the route of Photoshop and has so many features it requires classes to use). Pixelmator has promise, but needs to add these essential features. I will also say the folks at Pixelmator respond to questions and I am rooting for them to create a new version for artists (and some new tutorials).

  
  
• By bhyahoo

  Too difficult to use for casual user

  I am always banging my head getting this to work. Other apps it’s easy to do an effect, and I can find the parts in the app to do it, but it never works. I google, I try the online tutorials, and it doesn’t work. I see other people complaining about the same thing. No error message, just no result. It shouldn’t be this hard. I fired up a different app (named after a tree seed) and found effects and it worked as expected first time (too bad their UI wasn’t as easy to navigate as Pixelmator). If the devs are wanting this to be a photo editing tool for the common person, it needs to be less cryptic. My success rate of getting things to work following their video tutorials is 20%. I just bail and do something else. I love that they have all the videos, but there is a design issue or a UX issue, and I know it’s not just me because I see plenty of other posts online from others saying the same thing.

  
  
• By Rehtneug

  Tools suddenly stop working, never get fixed

  I've been using Pixelmator for years, and it has had almost every feature you could possibly want, and at the price it an excellent replacement for Photoshop. However, some features like the clone stamp tool and text tool and crop tool simply cease to function without any explanation or fix. I've checked to see if others have had these issues and it seems that the clone stamp tool has been out of commission for a while and has never been addressed. Cropping can't be resized, the handles on the edges simple move the selection around. I'm semi-interested in Pixelmator Pro, but I can't find any comparison or list of new features to tell me if it's worth the upgrade. I get the impression that Pro is just a new UI of the same software, and that Pixelmator is just abandonware at this point.

  
  
• By Neumahn

  Even buggier than befpre

  This software is nice but buggy. For example, if you past a new layer image and adjust its opacity then rotate and resize it, it will all of a sudden return to the normal size when you try to readjust the opacity. It is really annoying. Another issue is pasting initial images. For some reason the program adds a big white space at the top of new images. Another issue is if paste a new image then crop it then copy and past it into another image, you don't get the crop, you get the whole image again even though it was cropped before being copied. I cannot recommend this software until they fix it. Now most of the tools for doing sharpening are not completely broken. If you try and sharpen a layer it works until you clock OK then the layer completely vanishes. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling the program to no avail. I am very disappointed. I also have the Pixelmator Pro software but find the user interface to be far inferior to the classic. Please fix this!

  
  

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