Review : Pixelmator – image editing for the rest of us app

A while ago I found out about this possible photoshop alternative for just $59. At first I was skeptical – who wouldn’t be – but as the upgrades came, bugfixes followed by new features, this cheap beast is on it’s way.
It won’t really be the photoshop replacement for all the professionals, but for most people, including myself, there are only a few little things lacking before my photoshop lands on ebay
For the features and overview just head down to pixelmator.com .
My impressions are as follows:
- It’s incredibly fast, utilizing the GPU power (photoshop CS4 also does this but it’s still slower)
- Good integration with the system, you can easily open from iPhoto, use your iSight camera and Quarts plugins and effects.
- It opens PSD files with layers, and has non-destructive (i.e. vector-like) text editing.
- The interface and keyboard shortcuts are VERY similar (like 99% of them) to the same actions from photoshop so the switch is easy.
- The interface looks stunning (not that it matters much but it’s good when you spend hours and hours in the software for it to look good too)
- It has a save for web and slicing features so now it’s easier than ever to use it for web design.
- It imports photoshop brushes so you can move your collection over.

The bad things are there are still some features missing that are really important :
- Grouping of layers, layer styles (that’s a must now)
- A better,more functional and more app integrated text tool and color tools (without that sudden ugly gray windows that open)
- Resize and rotate text should be possible without rasterizing it.

And that’s pretty much it. I use this software daily, and the 59$ didn’t hurt my pocket, I bought it around the version 1.1, now the community awaits version 1.6 which might fix some of the issues mentioned above and photoshop copies will start flying off to auctions. Or recycle bins.