Pixelmator, one of the best Photoshop alternatives on any platform, has received a nice little update in the Mac App Store this morning. Bumped to version 3.4.1, the refreshed app brings half a dozen new features and refinements and packs in nearly two dozen bug fixes and stability improvements, including faster and more responsive performance on 2011 Macs with Intel’s HD 3000 graphics cards.
Now when you paste text into Pixelmator, you can use a new paste-and-match-style feature that also carries over text formatting. Gradients now work “much better” with large image files and you can hold down the Option key when clicking OK in the Image Size dialog to resize the image with the nearest-neighbor scaling.
And if you use Adobe tools, rest assured that Pixelmator now supports the latest features put forth by Photoshop CC’s most recent update.
Pixelmator 3.4.1 changelog
New features and improvements:
- Use Paste and Match Style when pasting text into Pixelmator
- Pan an image with the Hand Tool while using the Polygonal Lasso Tool
- Gradients are now faster and work much better with large images
- Resize images with nearest-neighbor scaling: hold down Option key (⌥) when clicking OK in the Image Size dialog
- Improved compatibility with the latest Photoshop CC features
- Improved zooming in the Pixelmator Distort Extension
Fixes and stability improvements:
- Autosave for images with all layers hidden now works properly
- Midpoint values of gradients used as Fill in Layer Styles are saved correctly
- It is now possible to edit a text layer gradient that has been added with drag and drop
- Layers palette dims when disabled
- Stroke effect thumbnail shows the effect preview
- Add Effect to Favorites feature works as it should
- Now you can exit the Quick Mask Mode while having an active selection
- Select tools from the Tools palette while Transforming or Croping objects, as well as while preparing your image to Export for Web
- The Infowar displays an object’s width, height and angle as well as the X, Y and delta X, Y coordinates much more accurately
- Labels of the Hue effect adjustment wheel appear where they should
- Keyboard shortcuts for changing gradient type and preset now also work when the Gradients palette is hidden
- Large zoomed out images are now displayed sharper than before (requires OS X 10.11.2)
- Fixed a rare issue where a zoomed out image became transparent while dragging a layer on Macs with a Retina display
- Disabled Force Touch-Sensitive Painting. Visit our Forum to learn how to reenable it: bit.ly/reenable-force-touch
- Improved stability of the Pixelmator Distort Extension
- No more hangs when moving documents from iCloud Drive to another location using the title bar
- Issues with Intel HD 3000 graphics cards
This update is provided at no cost to existing users of the app.
Availability
Pixelmator for Mac requires an Intel-based Mac with a 64-bit processor and OS X 10.9.5 or later. This app is localized in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.
Pixelmator is currently $29.99 in the Mac App Store.