Review: Pixelmator 1.1
When I kickstarted this blog, I took the time to review Flying Meat's Acorn, a $40 image editor I spoke of positively. Much to my surprise, it generated a nice amount of feedback for a first post, including a reply from developer Gus Mueller. I wrote that review in September (three months ago as of this writing), and I still think it's a good product. But September also saw the release of Pixelmator, a comparable $60 image editor aimed for the same market as Acorn. I never got around to reviewing that, for a slew of reasons- now, it's time to give it a run-through.
Before I begin, I want to keep the line established between Pixelmator and Photoshop- because obviously, they're not targeted for the same markets- so Photoshop simply has more features. Still, that doesn't necessarily leave Pixelmator out of line for comparison to Photoshop in terms of implementation. A relatively low price tag of $60 certainly excuses comparing the number of features, but not how these existing features are designed.
Interface and Behavior
So let's start with the interface, then. Quite simply, Pixelmator has been designed to feel like Photoshop- which is okay, because generally speaking, Adobe did a good job of designing it. This isn't to say Pixelmator is a word-for-word copy, per se; consider the inspiration as more of the paradigm of a toolbar and palette-based interface.
You'll find a more concise example of the Photoshop inspiration by simply looking at the menu bars of each application:
- Photoshop: File, Edit, Image, Layer, Select, Filter, View, Window, Help
- Pixelmator: File, Edit, Image, Layer, Filter, View, Window, Help
As an image editor aimed for "the rest of us", one of the goals Pixelmator must fulfill is to make a powerful, easy-to-use interface. As canned as that sounds, it's not easy and rings true: it is difficult to draw a line between features and simplicity. I am impressed at how the team has approached this, because the app felt familiar even at first launch- within 5 minutes, I felt like I could command the interface to do mostly anything I wanted (mostly; see "Tools" for why not all).
Some of this falls into the attention to detail. A selected toolbar item is magnified to emphasize its presence; full-color icons help distinguish similar functions- like the difference between a brush and pencil; integration with services like the iLife browser and iSight cameras are, while not often necessary, touches that make these simple tasks no longer menial Finder-browsing chores; and, surprisingly, removing consumer-unimportant features and bringing certain ones "closer" to the user makes everything feel more Mac-like. Indeed, in terms of the interface, Pixelmator feels like an iApp plus one.
But being able to command a $60 price tag is probably also helped by its layer-based environment, which is fairly well-designed. The usual functions you would expect from these operations- renaming, organizing, yadda yadda yadda- but some niceties like masking, blending, and transparency/opacity controls are supported. What is conspicuously missing is layer grouping; you can link layers together, but it's not an organized way of doing things. Simply put, being forced to see every layer collapsed and in front of your eyes at once is a pain.
The rest of Pixelmator's interface doesn't get off problem-free either, and I do have some complaints. This first one is merely aesthetic; Pixelmator makes use of heads-up displays, semi-transparent black windows, which are generally better-looking than standard Aqua windows. It looks good on palettes and the toolbar- but from my perspective, it doesn't make any sense when applied to the main document window, and personally, I find it a little distracting.
Now, the usability problems. In CS3, palettes can be docked and condensed so you still have access to them without actually having to see their contents. In addition, a top toolbar is present to command options relating to the tool you've selected. Though I could live without the former, you still can't "lock" anything into Pixelmator- because everything is a freely-movable palette, one of the downsides is that you have to organize everything yourself. And finally, you can't switch between foreground and background colors. (Come on, guys! Even MS Paint includes this!)
But I digress; these are minor faults, ones that can be fixed through simple updates and enough nagging in bug reports. As a whole, I do like Pixelmator's interface; it feels like it was designed by people who know what they're doing, know how to take an interface aimed for professionals, and condense it and simplify it for beginners.
Tools
Like its other software brethren, Pixelmator includes a plentiful tool set, especially notable given its $60 value. Some of these tools remain unchanged since the early days of drawing programs- like the Fill, selection, and pencil tools- and some have been re-imagined by the Pixelmator team, for better and worse.
We'll start with the brushes. While Pixelmator does include a few preset sizes, I was particularly impressed by the addition of a brush creator, which lets you specify the size and hardness of the brush. Simply put, this is a great feature, and especially cool when paired with a tablet. But this solution succeeds, again, because of the implemenation: sure, it's easy to download brushes online for Photoshop, but it's even easier to make them yourself in Pixelmator.
Just to be clear, Pixelmator is not a tool for vector graphics, so aside from text, everything you draw is raster. To make squares and circles, for example, you use the selection tool, then use the fill to make your shape. This explains why there aren't any dedicated shape tools; all it would save is the one step of having to fill in your selection. Regardless, I still believe there should be vector shapes, especially when comparably-priced applications like Photoshop Elements or Acorn do include these.
But for an app with so many well-designed tools, I must say that gradients are disappointing. The way Pixelmator handles this is through a "controller": in a separate window, you pick the two colors on each side (or pick a preset), the way the gradient should be drawn (linear, radial, or angle), and then use the cursor to draw the length.
It's not the process that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Rather, it's how it's engineered. Most (if not all) graphics programs determine the colors you use based on your foreground and background colors; Pixelmator breaks from this and requires that you determine your colors outside of your "master" colors- which is stupid, because a.) it doesn't work with your already-specified choices, and b.) it doesn't work well.
Though not "tools" per se, Pixelmator also takes advantage of Mac OS X Core Image filters and Quartz Composer compositions, similar to Acorn. However, a nifty little handle lets you see where your filter is being applied, allowing you to "drag" around the effect more easily:
Over 130 filters are included; some are superfluous standbys (twirl, vortex, and glass lozenge), and some are useful for minor touch-ups (gamma adjust, noise reduction, and color map). As system-wide, made-for-Mac filters, this is one area where Pixelmator really outdoes Photoshop: Adobe's 15 year-old Toyota to Pixelmator's 4 month-old BMW.
While on the topic of useful features, there are some dedicated color correction tools, including Levels, Hue/Saturation, Exposure, Threshold, and of course, Brightness & Contrast. The results generated look pretty good, too: I'm not an expert at color tweaking or profiles, but I certainly had no qualms with the output.
Resizing and Cropping
It's worth noting that Pixelmator is terrific at document resizing. Canvas sizes can be specified in either pixels or percentage points, and image resizing also allows settings for DPI, proportions, and image resampling. Nice touches.
But in terms of individual layer resizing, there is one huge problem: it can't do it proportionally. The accepted method of allowing this is to hold Shift whilst dragging your image, so the width and height aren't distorted in the downgrade. While you can proportionally resize full documents, it's unacceptable to do this if you're working with multiple layers in a single document, and need to freely change their sizes at any given moment. It's disruptive and inconvenient- but luckily, something nothing more than a small feature update could fix.
It's also too difficult to get to the bounding box. Whereas this is a setting in Photoshop (in its equivalent "Tool Options" palette), it's buried away in Pixelmator as a menu item, under Transform -> Scale, and, like proportional resizing, disruptive to the workflow; if you mess up your scaling, you have to undo and go all the way back into the Transform menu to do your thing.
Thankfully, the cropping tool works nicely. Dragging is simple and unlike the usual policy of forcing you to make your final crop on your first try, the image is dimmed and your resize handles pop up, allowing you to tweak it continuously without constantly pressing Undo.
Fonts and Typography
Notably, Pixelmator makes use of the standard OS X Font palette. There are good and bad factors to this decision; the good is that because it is the Font Panel, you get tighter integration with the Font Book app, which is a great font organizer. If you've ever used Font Book for categorization, happen to have a lot of fonts, and work in Photoshop daily, then it goes without saying that not having access to these font "playlists" in Adobe's app, to put it bluntly, sucks.
However, the Font Panel does have its own slew of problems, based on a fundamental level. If there's any reason I absolutely do not like this system palette, it's because it's detached from your document; yes, it does float over the text you're working with, but it's not integrated correctly.
A perfect example of how this can be a pain is due to the lack of a bounding box. In Photoshop, text can be resized arbitrarily while simultaneously allowing you to move the text around and make adjustments. However, in Pixelmator you're locked into using the Font Panel; so if you need to resize your text, you need to go back to the panel and change your font size, then go back and move it to your heart's content. A small complaint? Maybe. But the lack of flexibility makes it inconvenient if you work heavily with type and demand a tightly-knit workflow.
I also have a problem with something the Pixelmator team left out: a "Text" menu item. Whereas "Font" works with typefaces, sizes, shadows, and colors, "Text" deals with some of the grittier details, such as kerning and line height. I understand this application is not designed for page layout or web design, but even TextEdit includes this menu- so it's not a lot to ask.
Finally, the issue of font smoothing. Font smoothing has long been an interesting topic, and many, many different algorithms exist for it. While Pixelmator doesn't offer multiple font smoothing options, the fact that it uses Quartz is good enough for me- those who need choices won't be looking into Pixelmator anyway.
Miscellaneous Notes, Whose Separate Contents Didn't Constitute Entire Sections of Writing
Among the many benefits of Pixelmator being so tightly integrated into the operating system is the terrific exporting. As a QuickTime-based application, Pixelmator supports many, many filetypes, the full list of which is on their Tech Specs page. The output isn't shabby either: testing just a few different filetypes, my 9-layer, 640x480 PXM (Pixelmator filetype) generated a 92KB JPEG, a 480KB PNG, a 980KB PDF, and a 13MB Photoshop file. Granted, the latter 13MB result leaves something to be desired, but the result retained all of the layers and transparency, the only fault being that it rasterized my text layers. For a 1.x app not designed for vector graphics, I'm not going to complain; however, keep in mind that saved images will be watermarked if you haven't purchased the app.
Some other observations which didn't fit into full paragraphs:
- In terms of support and help, the built-in guide- via the "Help" menu- is very well-written, and the full 87-page menu is excellent. Those who are looking for one-on-one help can use the forums as well.
- I opted not to talk about performance, but to put in a few words, everything is generally nimble. My 2.4GHz iMac Core 2 Duo did almost every task flawlessly, though your mileage may very on older hardware.
- This didn't warrant a whole paragraph either, but I was very impressed with the actual size of the application, as well as the installation process- no installer or restart was needed, and the whole thing shipped in a single application.
Conclusion
It's a difficult chore to make an app for creating things, but it's even more difficult to find that perfect zen balance of form, function, and value. And for every one thing Pixelmator gets wrong, it gets many things right; take the Built-for-Mac interface as an example. It places emphasis on tools consumers want and use, and carefully scraps the ones only professionals dare touch. That doesn't make it perfect, or the absolute best in its pack; rather, it makes it easy to use and not a bother to master.
Pixelmator's depth extends more than the interface though, and the toolset must be considered as well. For consumers, taking a glimpse through every one of these tools will be a pleasant experience, and by the time they're done, I'm sure Pixelmator 2 will offer plenty more to learn about. No, it's not perfect, and in some respects, one could argue not every tool was necessarily given the extraordinary attention to detail others were- shapes and fonts, for example- but even the most-neglected areas of Pixelmator are still acceptable for getting the job done.
Would I recommend Pixelmator? Yes. I believe this application goes beyond its $60 price point in some respects, and even if you're not going to use all of the tools, pay for the ease-of-use it offers. Is it intended for graphic designers who demand a vector environment? No. Will it open up the world of page layout and typography to newbies? Probably not. But Pixelmator fills its niche well, and in an increasingly-competitive landscape of affordable image editors, this one stands out brightly.
Copyright © 2007-2008 Austin Heller.
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