Pixelmator for iOS updated with 5x faster Repair tool, new Dynamic Touch feature and more

Pixelmatro 2.0.2 for iOS iPhone screenshot 001

Pixelmator for iOS, which almost two months ago became a universal app with native iPhone support, was refreshed in the App Store this morning with a few new features and dozens of improvements, performance improvements and stability fixes.

The Repair tool, which debuted on Pixelmator for Mac, is now up to five times faster on iPhone and iPad, and even more precise.

And the all-new Dynamic Touch tool intelligently changes the stroke size of all Retouch tools based on your finger input: use the tip of your finger and you’ll create thin strokes; press harder, or use a larger surface area of your finger, and you’ll produce thicker lines.

Moreover, Pixelmator’s Photo Editing extension has been improved to make it easier to apply Pixelmator’s effects within the context of iOS’s stock Photos app.

Making retouching images way faster and more precise with the new Dynamic Touch tool required a more advanced touch detection algorithm.

“When you touch the screen with your finger, Dynamic Touch detects the finger surface area in contact with the screen and automatically adjusts the brush size when the surface area changes,” explained the team.

The same goes for Pixelmator’s advanced repairing algorithm, which originally debuted in Pixelmator for Mac. The much improved Repair tool in Pixelmator for iOS, in addition to being five times faster, makes it super easy to remove objects from your photos.

It works like magic: simply tap on an area and it analyzes underlying image data and automatically removes unwanted spots, blemishes and even whole objects.

“There are numerous ways to repair any area of an image, so we did a lot of testing on a Mac Pro to optimize the algorithm of our Repair tool,” said Simonas Bastys, the lead developer of the Pixelmator Team.

“We analyzed millions of possible ways to repair areas of various complexity, and then compared the speed and quality ratio of each final result. After six months of testing, we derived a repairing algorithm that gives stunning quality with incredible speed every single time. Pixelmator for iOS now takes advantage of the same algorithm.”

In addition to these improvements, Pixelmator for iPad has gained more robust support for the latest Adonit styluses, fixed an issue with stylus shortcuts and replaced the Brush Tool and Eraser Tool stylus shortcut options with one Toggle Eraser option.

Pixelmator 2.0.2 changelog:

New

  • The Repair tool is now up to 5 times faster and even more precise.
  • Dynamic Touch lets you adjust the stroke size of all Retouch tools by simply using the tip of your finger to create thin strokes and a larger surface area of your finger for thicker lines.
  • Lots of improvements to the Photo Editing extension and more.

Improvements and bug fixes

  • The Blur effect lets you apply more blur to your images.
  • We’ve enhanced the look of the Pinch and Bump effects, so now they look even better.
  • The Effects preview thumbnails of very wide images were too wide. Fixed.
  • Now you can Cancel or Apply an effect with the settings popover open.
  • The Clone tool now starts cloning grouped layers when and where you ask it to.
  • The Retouch tools now work just as they should on layers with Lock Alpha on.
  • The rhombus shape looks much more crisp.
  • The Font Size setting had no effect on a few fonts. Fixed.
  • The values of the Color Balance settings used to stay the same after applying Undo. Fixed.
  • Previously, after canceling color adjustments for text, shape or grouped layers, you were still able to Undo the adjustments that you never made. Fixed.
  • Removed Undo Image Size after creating a new Custom Image.
  • The Replace Photo popover is now displayed properly when customizing a template at a high zoom level.
  • We’ve made it easier to zoom the canvas into Fit and Full-Screen views.
  • Your canvas now also fits the screen nicely after rotating the device with the Tools popover open.
  • Browsing the Image Gallery is easier, when you can start swiping from the Name or Date labels, too.
  • Images copied from Messages and other text-based apps are now pasted properly.
  • Shapes with gradients created with Pixelmator for iOS look just the same on Pixelmator for Mac.
  • Now you can see Pixelmator document thumbnails in the iCloud Drive Document Picker.
  • Once in a while, the Photo Editing extension used to stop responding while saving changes. We found the reason and fixed it.
  • The Photo Editing extension used to save the changes you made, even if you made no changes. Fixed.
  • The app used to quit unexpectedly when you tried to enter Effects while editing a very wide image. Not anymore.
  • We’ve improved the stability of the app when opening PSD documents with custom fonts.
  • The Low Disk Space alert is now displayed only when you launch the app.
  • Once in a while, the app used to stop responding after running in the background. Not anymore.
  • The app would sometimes stop responding when opening an image from another app or via Handoff. We fixed this.

Improvements and fixes to Pixelmator for iPad:

  • We’ve updated to the latest Adonit stylus SDK for a better painting experience.
  • Replaced the Brush Tool and Eraser Tool stylus shortcut options with one Toggle Eraser option.
  • Fixed an issue with Stylus Shortcuts, which sometimes used to perform two actions at the same time.
  • First Writing Style was available but non-selectable. Fixed.

In addition to the aforesaid improvements, the Pixelmator team has said that users who want to learn everything there is to know about the app can now check out all-new Pixelmator for iPhone tutorials or consult the full Pixelmator User Guide.

This update is available at no charge to Pixelmator’s existing users.

The 95.9-megabyte app requires an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 7.0 or later.

Pixelmator for iPhone and iPad is $4.99 in the App Store.

In my view, that’s a steal considering this full-featured image editor supports layered Photoshop files and technologies like iCloud content syncing, Handoff and more.

Pixlemator for Mac is $29.99 in the Mac App Store.