Popular Photoshop alternative Pixelmator Pro has updated its macOS app on the Mac App Store with a bunch of new features, including the ability to replace image layers while preserving nondestructive edits, use a bunch of handy keyboard shortcuts and more.
The new Replace Image feature, as you may have guessed, lets you replace image layers while preserving all their layer styles, color adjustments, effects and other nondestructive features.
As part of today’s update, Pixelmator Pro now provides additional productivity keyboard shortcuts for image editing, including quickly activating Replace Image with Shift-Command-R, invoking the new Invert command with Command-I, inserting a new layer from the Finder with the Shift-Command-V keyboard shortcut, creating and releasing clipping masks with Option-Command-G, toggling layer visibility with Option-Command-comma and more.
For the full list of keyboard shortcuts that are available in Pixelmator Pro, choose the option Keyboard Shortcuts from the Help menu.
Here’s everything new, fixed and improved in Pixelmator Pro 1.6.2 for macOS:
- Pixelmator Pro 1.6.2 adds the ability to replace image layers while preserving nondestructive edits, brings a number of handy keyboard shortcuts, and includes a few other improvements and fixes.
- The new Replace Image feature adds a way to replace image layers while preserving all their layer styles, color adjustments, effects, and other nondestructive features.
- Quickly activate Replace Image using the Shift-Command-R keyboard shortcut.
- You can now create a mask from an image using the Choose Mask command in the Format menu.
- Format > Invert Colors will now invert the colors of image layers and masks without applying the nondestructive Invert adjustment.
- The Command-I keyboard shortcut has been reassigned from the Invert adjustment to the new Invert command.
- The Shift-Command-V keyboard shortcut will now insert a new layer from the Finder.
- The Option-Command-G keyboard shortcut will now create and release clipping masks.
- The Option-Command-comma (,) keyboard shortcut will now toggle layer visibility.
- Option-clicking Add Mask in the Layers sidebar shortcut menu will now add a mask that reveals all the contents of the masked layer instead of hiding everything.
- If you Option-click Add Mask with an active selection, the selected area will be hidden by the mask rather then everything outside the mask.
- Scroll bars will now always be visible when “Show scroll bars” is set to Always in System Preferences.
- The Motion blur effect will now use degrees (from 180º to -180º) as the unit instead of a percentage based on radians.
- The largest icons were missing from the Pixelmator Pro app icon set. Fixed.
- Certain layers would not appear after hiding and showing their parent group layers. Fixed.
- Opening very large documents would occasionally cause Pixelmator Pro to stop responding. Fixed.
- Control-clicking the layer mask in the Layers sidebar would not make the shortcut menu appear. Fixed.
- Rotating certain low-resolution images by 90 degrees would introduce blurring. Fixed.
- Drag and dropping images was not working correctly on Mac computers with Intel Iris graphics processors running macOS 10.15. Fixed.
- Solid white or solid black layer masks would not be preserved when exporting to PSD. Fixed.
- The color of text layers would shift slightly when exporting to PSD. Fixed.
For further information, visit pixelmator.com/pro/updates.