Pixelmator Pro on Mac OS is a fabulous product for anyone looking for an alternative to the Adobe subscription offering. However, the iOS offering does not support all the features available on the desktop product; mostly glaringly the lack of support for layers and .pxd file support. For an otherwise very sound product, this came as a rude surprise the first time I started a project on Mac OS, saved the pxd file to iCloud, then tried to open on iOS with the intention to do some masking refinement using the Apple Pencil. Sadly, this was not supported at the time I write this review. So, beware that there is not proper integration between the desktop and iOS Pixelmators and don’t count on being able to move back and forth between the platforms as part of your workflow.

I’m a mobile graphic designer and I use this app and I would 100% recommend it to anyone without a PC or who wants to design on their tablet/phone. There’s a few features I would like to see added such as being able to just select a layer (Pixelmator team if ur reading this plz add it) and just some other small things but like I said it works really well and I use it almost every day!

I have a 2020 iPad Pro and tried out Pixelmator Photo. It has a great upscaling feature that uses machine learning to create a CSI-like “enhance” effect. The results, for an $8 app, are remarkably close to Topaz Gigapixel, which is $99 on PCs. It doesn’t have the granular settings of topaz, but nonetheless works great.

The iPhone 12 has the A14 chip, which includes apples latest neural engine dedicated to machine learning features. But Pixelmator Photo is iPad only, and regular Pixelmator does not have ML Super Resolution. There don’t seem to be any other apps that do local ML/AI upscaling on iOS/iPadOS. I’d love to see this feature come to the iOS version of pixelmator to take advantage of the most capable neural engine yet.

This is probably one of the best apps on the appstore (and I've pretty much tried them all). Very impressive program, it's a pleasure to use.

My only request would be to include some of the ipad-native features within the iphone version, namely the ML super res feature.

Perhaps some of the fine-tuning features can be tweaked a bit as well?

Thanks

I have been using for approx 3 years & I still can’t find a way to resize photos to inches. Metric or pixels for size. I have searched for this from google and still am unable to resize to 4x6, 5x7, 8x10, etc. If someone will tell me how to do that, I will change my rating from 2 to 5 stars. I can work with the tools ok but when I get ready to print, I have to change to a free program to change sizes. Thank you in advance if you can tell me how to set up for inches to resize!

This app would be hugely improved if there were extensions to open image files in Pixelmator, edit Photos in Pixelmator, send file to Pixelmator from another app, etc. Everything has to be initiated in Pixelmator and that’s clunky.

The desktop version of Pixelmator Pro is great. This mobile app, not so much. Bare-bones features, unintuitive design.

Really wish the app had a complete dark mode theme. I downloaded this to check out while lying in bed in my dark room. Soon as I opened one of the submenus, I was taken aback by a full screen of white. The base interface has dark mode so why not use that throughout.

App freezes on me on iPhone 12 Pro Max.

It looses option to continue editing pictures in the middle of editing and you are forced to close the app and loose the option to re-edit.

As much I liked the app before, I hate it now until fixed I guess. Shame to developers for this crucial bugs.

Pixelmator is really easy to use and a great drawing app. I would love to see “choose color” option to easily change the color of text and shapes to a similar color on the image, just like in the paint tool.

I don't use this application very often. So I can't really comment on its usability in that regard. However I commend the developer for not following into this subscription model that's currenty rampant on the App Store. Thank you!

I just paid $5 for this stupid app because it was supposed to be able to remove unwanted objects from photos. Yeah, this can’t so that. Save your money. I have apps that do this exact same stuff that I got for FREE.

I love Pixelmator Pro on Mac OS and it is actually much better than Photoshop. Pixelmator on the iPad was pretty good but unfortunately not comparable to the pro version on Mac OS.

Pixelmator on the Ipad is a total disappointment, and is so confusing when you also have another App called Pixelmator photo.... why

Why not combine the two Apps and create a pro version that can accept Pro files.

Currently files created on Pixelmator Pro cannot be opened on Pixelmator on the ipad, .pxm and .pxd files are not compatiable.

Art studio Pro on the other hand does a much better job with cross platform compatibility, and the same file can move seamlessly from Desktop to the iPad.

Please, bring Pixelmator Pro onto the iPad platform ....

or at the very least, make the files compatible between the two platforms

thank you

All of my previous Pixelmator projects have lost their thumbnails, so I have to open them in order to see what they are, which changes their time stamps, even if I make no changes. And even then, the thumbnails are not created.

Also, regardless of where you opened your project from, when you close that project, it reverts to a (useless) project list, and you have to navigate back to wherever you were when you opened the previous project. And you can't move documents to different folders. Why bother with folders if you can only really find them by going unit "Recents"?

I can't imagine any reason for this upgrade, though I suppose people who use Bluetooth keyboards are appreciative of having more keyboard shortcuts.

If you could change it so you can rotate a picture while youre moving it around instead of having to open the format screen then i could probably up this to five stars. Its obnoxious because the format menu takes up half the screen so you cant even see exactly how youre placing things :(

Another thing i would change is add an up/down button when adjusting brush size etc., sometimes mu fingers are a bit too fat to place it exactly where i want it.

I see MANY OF MY FILES YOUR TAKING GET THE HELL AWAY PLEASE

I love this app and this is very useful for me.

Excellent for brush-on effects such as soften, sharpen, saturate, etc. Not many apps do this. 5 stars!

My review has been stuck at 2 stars for years now due to Pixelmators lack of keyboard support and convoluted UI. The latest update finally made this app useable so I’ve added 2 extra stars to my review.

- Keyboard support.

Thank you SO much for adding keyboard support. This completely reinvigorates the usefulness of this app. Pixelmator on iPad is finally desktop-class.

- Convoluted UI saved by keyboard shortcuts.

The UI remains convoluted. Having all options tucked into one drop down menu is insane. Even the simplest of tasks requires clicking and scrolling through SO MANY drop downs...BUT, the newly-added keyboard supports adds shortcuts for just about everything in Pixelmator. This means never having to sift through that dreaded paintbrush-shaped drop down menu again. So while the UI should still be rethought for those who don’t use a keyboard with their iPad, any keyboard-using Pixelmator-fanatic should be beyond pleased.

Great job and thank you so much for this fantastic FREE update!

Pixelmator is my favorite app and it’s the only reason I have an iPad. I would much rather use my chromebook tablet to draw on, but pixelmator isn’t available on the play store and it’s so frustrating to have to use apple when I work better with android products. Please just put this on the play store so other artist who prefer android can use it. I haven’t found any art apps on play that I really like. I’m so bummed.

I was excited to download this app, but I found out that there are no clipping/layer masks. The collage templates are unusable because you cannot reposition imported photos within the collage masks. Photos are just immediately cropped to the fixed collage dimensions without any option to re-center subjects.

As a new buyer of PixelMator I’ve really adapted to this app. As a person who enjoys designing, graphics art, and similar editing processes I’ve really become very comfortable using this application. This application has been easy to use from the jump. I make app icons which is similar to let’s say the Facebook app icon on your phone. I make what you could call improvises or mixed versions of such. As using this app I’ve been able to pursue my editing to the next level. This app is very easy to use, very organized, and can be used for any form of art creations. There’s are a lot of really good things but I’m here to mention the cons I’ve found over the past six months of me using this app. I want to first start by saying this app is overall a 5/5 stars for me. The cons do not affect my experience using this software at all, just things that could overall improve this application. I first would really enjoy the option of a bevel affect for the shapes that are included in the shape category. If I could apply bevels to the shapes it would overall make this app perfect. As similar to a shadow effect it kind of is reversed it makes the shape look like it’s going inwards in a sense. Next, more shapes! I love the stock shapes that come with PixelMator but I need more! As you can create shapes by manipulating them with the select feature, I would find it more convenient to have more selections! Other than that, those are the only two things I would wish to have on this app. If you’re on edge about buying this app, trust me as a person that has used Photoshop, Art Studio, and After Effects this is beyond more easier and beyond more fun then the others I’ve used. Thank you PixelMator team!

Very good Application but still need effort.

Need more features 💪🏻

Recent update did a great job 👍🏻

Feedback: add option to create custom images in different measurements like (inch, feet, cm, etc.)

I use this weekly just for funny photoshops like making my friend the sky in the background of pictures or putting my face on a statue in my sisters pictures. Best five dollars I’ve spent. Bit of a learning curve.

My job includes basic image editing, and an iPad Pro is my primary computer, so I turn to Pixelmator just about every day. It’s highly functional and well designed.

Absolutely love Pixelmator, and I often use it to add custom watermarks to my images. But it’s a huge time drag to import each one individually. And chance you could add a batch import option?

It would be a joy to bring in five or ten photos all at once.

Until then, I’m still loving the app!

Save your money. I’ve been trying to make this app work for years as my Photoshop replacement on iOS.

Two things have stood in my way since day one:

1. No P3 Support. I’m an iOS developer. Let me edit my assets! The desktop version has always supported this just fine!

2. Random graphical glitches that end up getting baked into the export. I have circle shapes near each other and one starts to look like a square in one corner. It makes zero sense. Just lousy job guys.

The sad thing is this is literally such a good app but these two issues are MAJOR. what the heck! It’s like they want to shoot themselves in the foot and never fix these low ratings!

Really love the new keyboard and trackpad support—really makes it feel like a pro app. Thanks for fixing the issues with selection editing with the keyboard too!

As some of the other reviews mentioned, the UI is definitely a little clunky especially on big iPad screens—especially the two modal screens you have to go through to choose a specific brush or selection type. The keyboard shortcuts make this a lot easier, but I don’t always have access to a keyboard (like when I’m drawing with Apple Pencil). Would love to have a tool sidebar kind of like the desktop Pixelmator app!

There’s also some keyboard functionality missing like being able to select multiple layers/objects on the canvas with Shift or Command.

A nice little bonus would be to have enhanced pointer shapes with brushes, erasers, etc. What if we had bigger pointers for larger brush sizes? Maybe a crosshair for more precise sizes? How about a unique pointer shape for the pixel brush tool, which also has pointer snapping to each pixel for even more precision? So many possibilities to make this a really unique experience for the iPad.

It would also be nice to have support for multiple windows to make working with multiple docs at the same time easier. Totally understand if this can’t be done due to app memory limits though…

Why does the app keep popping up a message to only use when apple pencil turned on? I’ve gotten it 5 or 6 times in 20 seconds and its super annoying.

Now when using stylus and/or apple pencil the image shifts around with the strokes. VERY frustrating. Please fix this.

Pixelmator remains the go-to iOS app for pixel retouching (along with Light Brush). There are several global adjusting editors that work well but relatively few that permit precise manipulation of specific image areas. Pixelmator was one of the very first and is still the workhorse!

Great app but there needs to be a paint bucket tool.

This app is 4.99 and is absolutely useless. If you’re looking for similar functions get Retouch. Is only 1.99 and works much much better. Seriously don’t waste your money on this app.

am i missing this obvious feature? WhereTF is history?

I have no idea how to get app to work like Apple's keynote presentation on it on Sep 15 2020. They would crop then the Apple would fix the image creating an enhance image of the crop. I tried it and nothing happened at all save a zoomed in unenhanced image. What am I doing wrong?

Do not buy. This is a direct quote from their forums: “Over the last couple of years, we had shifted our focus to Pixelmator Pro and Pixelmator Photo, so Pixelmator for iOS didn't receive many new features. However, with the most recent major update, we've started making more significant changes to the app — we'll keep this in mind as we continue to update and refresh Pixelmator for OS!”

I have very conflicted feelings for this app. On the one hand, it’s free and surprisingly powerful for a lot of simple tasks.

On the other hand, it’s really frustrating to use. The controls are unintuitive and difficult to discover, and it’s missing a lot of features that would make it more useful beyond basically just adding text to a picture. It’s also missing keyboard shortcuts, which is really disappointing and just adds to the frustration.

Again, it’s free, so I can’t really complain, but I would personally rather just pay for a fully-featured editor than use pixelmator.

when you need to work on the go and access your pixelmator pro files, youcan forget it, it just ant gonna happen. Which leave you without any way to open you files on the go in the pixelmator format, even exporting it as a psd or svg doesnt do anything. it will only open your file into 1 merged layer which defeats the point. until this app can support pixcelmator pro files its pretty much useless, unless all you plan on doing is creating art from scratch that is all you can do here.

Use Artstudio Pro, a grown-up graphics editor

Dealbreakers:

- image creation mechanism primitive

- no cut/copy/paste, access to clipboard

- no toolbar

- selection tools entirely puerile

Fully inefficient.

People don’t believe me when I tell them I made a photo edit on my phone. This level of portability has opened so many doors for me.

If it was easier to use and had more editing tools it would be perfect. Such as the fact that there’s no curved line making tool, and you can’t redo something after you undo it. It would be better to be able to see a list of undo’s and redo’s. Please read all off your customers reviews as many of them explain ways this app can improve. For an app that costs money (when I can just use Paint.NET on PC for free and have more options) these issues need to be addressed.

I kept seeing this app pop up in the editor’s choice section. Their endorsement made me very curious and I debated whether to purchase it for a while. $5 was worth scratching that itch of curiosity.

To those that came to a similar point of curiosity, this is for you. There are no gesture shortcuts. You find yourself trying to use a two-finger tap to undo. When you use undo, there’s no redo option. If you accidentally click the undo icon past the brush stroke you wanted to stop at, you can’t regain that progress without redoing it manually. The biggest offender is the lack of an option to disable finger touches. You will constantly make unintentional brush strokes. Combine this issue with an absence of any redo and you end up with frustration. I’m disappointed in this app, but I don’t regret spending the money to know that I won’t be interested in using this. The Adobe Fresco sub is $10 per month, and they haven’t even provided any big updates in a while.

I’ve had this app for two years. Always use for small projects for school. After the update, I see a bunch of people wrote pretty critical reviews over how difficult it is to manage through the new UI. A bunch of wussies. Whenever something new is implemented that takes longer than 3 seconds to adapt too all hell breaks loose and an app turns from solid to “extremely difficult and annoying”. This shouldn’t ward anyone away from this app.

Used for a long time & am glad they are finally pushing updates. One thing i would like to add though, better text options would be great. When working on a small photo the text is super blurry in addition the stroke feature on some fonts do not align which is pretty annoying. Overall great app i use about everyday

Why break the app. It was great the way it was. Now it can’t even import. Useless.

I would like a refund 😡

This app is a great app for editing photos. It’s awesome. The layers, color selection tools, painting tools, selection tools, color editing tools, all the tools are really good.

The biggest function that this app lacks in my opinion is a key frame option. The inability to creat gifs or other short animated forms is a reason why I still use other photo editing applications such as photoshop. A key frame feature would be awesome maybe even an option to turn each layer into a gif when exporting.

The biggest issue I have with this app is that it never saves projects on the device. I like that it syncs and is well connected to the iCloud but when your working on a project then close the app for a second to check something and then come back and have to wait for the project to download again it’s a big annoyance after a while. If an option could be added to store projects on phone that would be great.

I want to thank the Pixelmator team for making this app. It is a great app and overtime I think it will continue to get better. I hope you take on my feedback and eventually the features I mentioned get added. But once again thank you for making the best photo editing app on IOS.

Every now and then I get the bug where when I try to undo a repair it says repair undone but it doesn’t undo it please fix

I was using the select tool on Pixelmator until my picture got messed up and it ruins my picture. Please fix this issue.