macOS

Pixelmator 3.6 for Mac Offers Touch Bar Support, Tabs in macOS Sierra, and More

The Pixelmator Team on Tuesday released Pixelmator 3.6 Cordillera, a major update to their popular image editing app for macOS. The new version brings full support for Apple’s new macOS Sierra operating system, as well as support for the new Touch Bar found on the latest MacBook Pro models.

With full macOS Sierra support comes support for the operating system’s Tabs feature, making for easier window management. The update also offers a content-aware Smart Refine feature, Deep Images support, and more.

Pixelmator’s Touch Bar support is fully customizable, allowing users to select the Pixelmator tools they wish to place in the Touch Bar, keeping their favorite tools always handy. The Touch Bar automatically changes, based on the task at hand, keeping needed options at the user’s fingertips, to be ready when needed.

Pixelmator’s new Tabs support in macOS Sierra makes it easier than ever to manage you Pixelmator document windows. The feature allows users to open multiple documents in a single window, which keeps multiple windows from piling up on your Mac’s Desktop. The app’s tabs work exactly like they do in native macOS apps such as Safari, making them easy to manage.

Pixelmator 3.6 also offers a Smart Refine feature, which locates any objects in the image and precisely snaps the edges of your existing selection to any edges in the image. This makes accurately selecting areas of an image easier than ever.

The updated app’s Deep Images support includes full support for P3 color and Wide Color displays. With support for Deep Images, all 16-bit images on the new MacBook Pro, iMac with Retina 4K display, iMac with Retina 5K display look more vivid and true to life.

Other new features include support for the macOS Sierra Universal Clipboard, a faster and more accurate algorithm for the Repair Tool, a live preview for the Quick Selection tool, and the ever popular “performance improvements and fixes.”

Pixelmator 3.6 Cordillera is available exclusively from the Mac App Store for $29.99. [GET IT HERE] The update is free for existing customers who purchased an earlier version of the app from the Mac App Store. For more information about Pixelmator 3.6 Cordillera, or to download a free 30-day trial, visit the Pixelmator website. For a complete list of what’s new in version 3.6, see below.

What’s New in Version 3.6

Pixelmator 3.6 Cordillera brings full support for macOS Sierra and the all-new MacBook Pro Touch Bar, adds Tabs, includes a content-aware Smart Refine feature, Deep Images support, and more.

• Pixelmator is now fully compatible with macOS Sierra.
• The Touch Bar keeps your favorite Pixelmator tools and the most useful options always at hand.
• Use Tabs to easily manage your Pixelmator windows.
• The new Smart Refine feature lets you instantly improve selections with stunning accuracy and speed.
• Support for Deep Images makes colors in 16-bit images more vibrant and true-to-life on Wide Color displays.

Touch Bar:
• Set the most useful tool options for your selected tool right in the Touch Bar.
• The Touch Bar is customizable, so you can choose exactly which tools you’d like to keep in it.
• Use the Touch Bar to change color, alignment, and other text properties.
• When previewing effects or adjustments, a Show Original button lets you take a peek at the original image.
• Use Rotate and Scale sliders to transform layers.
• And do a lot more!

Tabs:
• Quickly drag and drop layers between documents in different tabs.
• Merge all your Pixelmator windows into a single one by choosing Window > Merge All Windows.
• Close all tabs except the current one by Option-clicking the Close button of the tab you’re in.
• New images open in a new tab according to your preferences in System Preferences > Dock – either Always, In Full Screen Only, or Manually.
• If your tab preferences are set to In Full Screen Only or Manually, hold down the Option key when opening or creating new documents to open them in a new tab.

New features and other gems in macOS Sierra:
• With support for the Universal Clipboard, you can now seamlessly copy images and text between Pixelmator on your Mac and iOS devices.
• Precisely align windows and palettes by moving them close to each other.
• Double-click the edge of a window to automatically expand that edge.

Smart Refine and Refine Selection:
• Using an advanced edge-detection algorithm, Smart Refine precisely snaps your existing selection to object edges in your image.
• Customize just how edge-sensitive Smart Refine is using the Edge Detection slider in the Refine Selection dialog.
• You can now edit your selection while the Refine Selection dialog is open – paint to subtract from your selection, hold down the Option key and paint to add to your selection.
• Use the [ and ] keys to change the size of the selection brush.

Deep Images:
• With support for P3 color and Wide Color displays, all 16-bit images on the new MacBook Pro, iMac with Retina 4K display, and iMac with Retina 5K display look more vibrant and true to life.
• 16-bit images also look better on standard displays, as dithering is applied to subtly smooth gradients and remove visible banding.
• Dithering is also applied when reducing the color depth of an image from 16 bits to 8 bits.

Quick Selection improvements:
• The Quick Selection Tool now has a live preview.
• It’s also much faster, thanks to a faster algorithm.
• And it’s more accurate, too – especially with black and white images.

Chris Hauk

Chris is a Senior Editor at Mactrast. He lives somewhere in the deep Southern part of America, and yes, he has to pump in both sunshine and the Internet.