Live data from Hacker News

Pixelmator 3.0

pixelmator.com

91–100 of 109 posts

Re: Pixelmator 3.0

#91
post #82

Did anybody else spend half a minute trying to interact with the "app", then give up and close the tab, thinking it was broken before coming back here to discover that it was just a full-page screenshot of a desktop app? I'd never heard of Pixelmator, so I made the natural assumption from what came up on screen that it was some form of web-based photoshop thing. But it's not. And there's nothing but a screenshot abov…

This sort of negative commentary is always distasteful. Any person who's used a computer in the last twenty years would understand that the interface is not responding and try alternate input methods (like scrolling, one of the most common paradigms on web pages.) It doesn't "just look broken".

At least 4 people on HN had the same instinct, myself among them. HN is definitely a more technical cross section of the internet population. Anyhow, yes, it was a .5 second instinct to interact with it and then I figured it out. Not sure if that constitutes a negative UI experience or not, but it IS an issue. Hell, maybe there's some psychology at work that makes me want to download it to get the ability to interact! Who knows!

Re: Pixelmator 3.0

#92
post #76
post #53

Pixemlator is positively awesome, one of the highest quality + polished native apps I've used, at insane value! It quickly became my primary graphics editor of choice. Though it's weird that I bought a copy years ago and am still getting free upgrades? I'd happily pay for an upgrade again.

It is an insane value. Over a year ago I was looking for a more lightweight image editor that could replace photoshop. After trying a few different options I downloaded Pixelmator and was blown away at how accessible yet powerful and featured it was. Just rock solid and as you said, and they keep developing. If any hobbyist, amateur, or semi-pro editors out there needs a great editor that isn't as robust as photoshop…

Photoshop is a lot of things, but I've never thought of it as "robust" These are two very different programs, and there are lots of things that one may still need the real deal photoshop for, but I wonder what you mean by "robust" here?

Re: Pixelmator 3.0

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you give an example of an opposite way?

There are almost no preferences at all. It automatically opts into the Lion-era autosaving and document-persistence garbage that I have no need or desire for, with no way out. The text tool starts with "Text" in it, which has to be selected and replaced! What?! And instead of a default text style, it just uses the last one you used, regardless of time or document? And text attributes just overflow off the side of a d…

From the features list it looks like they might have fixed some of these things. I haven't quite managed to figure out pixelmator myself, though I personally chalk it up to my familiarity with photoshop biasing my expectations, rather than anything inherently wrong with pixelmator which seems like it deserves to have a bit of a learning curve, from the praise it gets.

Re: Pixelmator 3.0

#94
My first thought when on the iTunes web page of Pixelmator: "$29.99, wow this is nothing for that many features"

My second thought when on the App Store Page of Pixelmator: "Update [for free since I bought yrs ago Pixelmator]": WTF these guys are awesome

Re: Pixelmator 3.0

#95
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is an insane value. Over a year ago I was looking for a more lightweight image editor that could replace photoshop. After trying a few different options I downloaded Pixelmator and was blown away at how accessible yet powerful and featured it was. Just rock solid and as you said, and they keep developing. If any hobbyist, amateur, or semi-pro editors out there needs a great editor that isn't as robust as photoshop…

Photoshop is a lot of things, but I've never thought of it as "robust" These are two very different programs, and there are lots of things that one may still need the real deal photoshop for, but I wonder what you mean by "robust" here?

My guess is that he meant "fat"

Re: Pixelmator 3.0

#97
post #50
post #38

This is probably the most successful Lithuanian IT startup (which is still based there, as far as I know). As a Lithuanian, I'm feeling really happy to see how far and awesome they got!

OK, this belies my ignorant American self, but for some reason I got the idea in my head they were Greek and were based in Philadelphia.... Awesome to see indy Mac development in Lithuania...here's to them keeping it up. I haven't launched an Adobe product in years, in part thanks to them.

Interestingly Pennsylvania is the only place where I was suspected being Greek (I'm Lithuanian). Lithuanian and Greek surnames sometimes has the same ending "is" but in Pixelmator case it does not apply.

Re: Pixelmator 3.0

#98
post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm glad others like it, but I find it a massive pain every time I use it. A million things seem the opposite way than they should be to me. I really, really wish there were more all-purpose lightweight image editors on OS X so I could get away from it. I suppose it's high time I gave Gimp another shot...

I really want to like Gimp, but at least on OS X the experience is pretty dreadful.

Have you tried Seashore?

http://seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/About.h...

Based on GIMP it adds a proper Mac UI. Not all GIMP functionality is there but for the basic stuff it's not bad.

Re: Pixelmator 3.0

#100

36MB to download the full app. It takes up 66MB on my disk. Photoshop CC takes up 1.1GB, that’s 20 times as much – quite a contrast.

I wonder what takes up that much space in Photoshop. I suspect the brush files, iirc those take up quite some space. I can imagine Pixelmator uses much more native / vertex images, like those you can create using PaintCode [1], which generates a bit of native Objective C code to produce the image you draw in that app. Paintcode is a great way to reduce the size of your app's downloaded content, btw.

[1] http://www.paintcodeapp.com/

Post reply on HN