The first memory I have of Pixelmator This is the buzz that your ad has caused. The 2007 “alternative” to Photoshop for Mac was the popular GIMP, the Image editor of the GNU Project, but what this new program offered went further: combining the striking and comfortable interface of Mac OS X with its own technologies, such as hardware acceleration, Core Image and OpenGL.
Do more than 14 years that in Applesfera we talk to you for the first time from him. The first glimpse of Pixelmator for Mac before launch was a video that fascinated people. In the comments of the article at the time, there are those who thought that Apple could even buy this new app and integrate it into its iLife suite. Two months later, the first closed beta was released and in september 2007 it was released for Mac in a previous draw for $ 59.
“It’s not so much that applications are born out of the need to take advantage of technology, that products are created to solve problems.” he tells me Andrius Gailiunas, software engineer and marketing manager for the Pixelmator team, who was kind enough to give us an interview on the occasion of the launch of Pixelmator Photo for iPhone.
Pixelmator, a familiar but powerful technology
The company was founded in 2007 by two brothers, Saulius Dailide and Aidas Dailide, and since then, it has continued to garner success: application of the year from the Mac App Store in 2011 (its version for iPad was in 2014) and many others, including the Apple Design Award in 2019.
“New technologies often make it possible to solve problems that were previously intractable. The Arrival of the iPhone version It’s a big leap on your roadmap, now that the technology allows it: “When it comes to Pixelmator Photo, the problem we solve is that people take most of their photos these days with their iPhones and cameras are getting more and more professional, there is a need for apps. level editing every day. more professional time. “
There are days the company repeated success with Pixelmator Photo, the version for iPhone which incorporates important new features. The first thing that one appreciates when entering the application is the high degree of integration into iOS and its non-destructive editing capability: “We’ve put a lot of effort into making our apps look native, with an immediately familiar design and a very strong focus on ease of use. “ This is an important point as these apps tend to be a bit more complicated for newbies, but they should also work at the highest level for those with more experience. “Our tools are of the highest quality – we work very hard to make sure they are powerful and we use advanced image processing techniques to preserve or even improve the quality of the photos.”
And it’s true: as soon as you enter the app, we find the familiar browser by “tabs” below, where you can quickly access all photos, albums, favorites (very useful as these are our own favorites from Photos, not from the app itself) and a special section with edited images to keep track of visual changes. It is not necessary to import beforehand the photographs that we want to retouch, we directly see those that we have in the native iOS browser, even labeled to differentiate those that are in “RAW” format from the rest.
This integration (which for the moment is exclusive to the iPhone version) it’s even better: you can configure this browser in Pixelmator also use files from our iCloud Drive. This way we can access the photos that we have stored in the cloud without having to hire any additional service. “We’ve created the new filmstrip-style browser to make it easier than ever to navigate and start editing your photos.”. The app works great even with a lot of photos, and the navigation is comfortable and familiar. Something they’ve undoubtedly achieved.
The power of machine learning in your pocket
In September 2020, the Andrius himself appeared in the keynote of the presentation iPad Air (2020), to show off the wonders its software and Apple’s new hardware could do. “I think we’ve all seen movies where someone points to the screen and says ‘okay expand that'”. Today, thanks to the Neural Engine and Core ML, Pixelmator is even ready to improve the resolution of almost any photograph, using machine learning.
“Without the power of today’s mobile hardware, an application like Pixelmator Photo wouldn’t be possible. Today, we can also take advantage of technologies like Core ML to create functionality based on machine learning. ‘was just not possible in the past because processors didn’t. were fast enough to handle such complex calculations. This means we can create smarter and more powerful tools than ever before. “
In Pixelmator Photo, integration with Machine learning capabilities they are present in virtually the entire application. The most visible is the “ML” button with a magic wand to automatically enhance any photo. In addition, the application itself displays a comfortable comparator between the original version and the modified version, keeping the screen pressed, where we will see the differences through a line that we can move with our finger. But it also goes much further, when it comes to erasing objects or people from images, for example:
“We use the latest and most powerful frameworks from Apple, such as Core ML, to create ultra-intelligent functions using groundbreaking machine learning research. “ By simply selecting what we want to remove from the image, the application will use the power of the material to get the most realistic shot possible, without having to be precise in the selection or change any type of value.
“Lo más útil de Pixelmator Photo para iPhone es que tiene todos estos increíbles color adjustments, herramientas para la eliminación de objetos, súper resolución, combinación de colores y más, directly in el dispositivo que la mayoría de nosotros usamos para los tomar fotos todos days.” It is without a doubt one of the keys to understand why these tools are the most requested where we keep more and more memories in our pockets and we also share them more.
The part of Editing Pixelmator Photo Images It is extremely customizable: we can choose which settings to show on the screen, leave the ones we usually use and hide the rest. They are also presented in the form of “maps”, which makes them easily identifiable and highly visual. Something important in an application of this type is that virtually the entire interface works both vertically and horizontally.
On how these functions will evolve, Andrius is concrete: “Existing features will also continue to improve as we improve the models that drive them. We can’t announce anything at this time, but we’re definitely working on more AI-powered features going forward. “ the Machine Learning is also integrated into the profiles: Pixelmator Photo has over 30 preset color settings, which are editable using the app’s own tools. We can also create our own and save them as an additional setting.
In each of these parameters, thanks to a specific button, we can use the IPhone Neural Engine Power to use AI to automatically improve that particular parameter that we select. This results in scenes enhanced by artificial intelligence and our own manual retouching in a remarkably simple – but no less powerful way for it.
Pixelmator Photo – Powerful, versatile, anywhere
Andrius is optimistic about the future and the digital photography tour: “We certainly haven’t seen all that AI can offer when it comes to photo editing. As hardware continues to get more powerful, we can start to combine different AI-powered features and create whole new ones that, for now, would be too slow to be. usable “ If we look at the journey of these apps since 2011, for example, the future certainly presents itself full of new opportunities and features that we haven’t seen yet.
In Pixelmator, they continue to work in this direction: “We’ve listened to our users’ feedback and will start working on some of the most popular in 2022 in Pixelmator Photo for iPhone and iPad.” And of course they give us very good news for Mac users as well “We have started working on Pixelmator Photo for macOS … we know a lot of our users are very excited.”
Without a doubt, an incredible journey in an application that knew how to touch the Mac world at the right time and managed to evolve into what it is today: Pixelmator Photo is one of the most powerful tools that we can use (available for $ 3.99 on the App Store), thanks to its use of machine learning, but also for its simplicity and ease of use. One of the essentials of our iPhones if we want to take our images to another level.
