14 DAY TRIAL // The Pixelmator Team has released a brand new update for users of its powerful photo-editing tool, introducing an all-new file format that reportedly “uses all of the today’s OS X technologies and makes your image editing even faster and more enjoyable.”
Pixelmator 2.2.1 is said to be twice as fast and can perform saves in the background, which means that “while you play with your images, Pixelmator automatically saves the changes in the background,” the development team reports.
The updated app makes faster iCloud saves using an incremental method which applies only the edits you make to iCloud instead of saving the whole picture over and over again.
A progress bar now shows the accurate status while opening and saving documents, and QuickLook support has been improved.
Users will notice a new checkbox that permits opening images in their original file format, and the Effects Browser has received a truckload of improvements that let you search, preview, and apply effects faster and more efficiently.
The Effects themselves have been improved too, offering “more flexibility in previewing effects and faster, more accurate performance.”
For example, the Pixelmator Team reveals you can now “zoom in or out, pan, enter Full Screen, enlarge the document window, switch between Pixelmator documents, or open more images–all while applying an effect or using the Select Color and Refine Selection features.”
Also coming in pretty handy is the new option to quickly compare how an image looks with and without the effect using the Alt/Option+Cmd.
For those making use of the Sharpen effect on a general basis, the development team has included a better and more accurate preview on zoomed images.
Light and Dark effects are now applied twice as fast, while the Halo and Sunbeams preview is more accurate now. See the Pixelmator 2.1.1 changelog to get the full scoop on this release.