Pixelmator is a great deal for some freelancers and beginners who want to start graphics business without enough starting budget! It has lots to offer for both graphic and image editors. While Photoshop used to be a standard muscle for every designer, Pixelmator is so promising app that anyone can simply afford. 

The application has many features as we used to use in Photoshop, it includes basic layers system and photo adjustment, there are image editing features, such as levels, curves, brightness/contrast, and such and such, in addition to many new artistic filters, painting and retouching tools.

One significant thing is the hard work behind scenes from Pixelmator team. There have been many corrected bugs and overall improvement, within a short period of time. The last two updates were within roughly 5 months, but the results were astonishing.

Because it is made for Mac OS, it fully interacts with some built-in apps like iSight and iPhoto. A “New layer from iSight” in the layers menu was never been closer. So when you click on capture and you liked the photo, you simply hit Ok and it goes directly as a new layer into the layers palate, where you can enhance or cut into a custom design. The interaction with iPhoto is another unique feature as well, in which you can access your iPhoto library, albums and pictures folder with the built-in photo browser.

What about using the application? Pixemlator is a user friendly. Its interface is based on Photoshop, so Photoshop users will not be confused when trying to find commands and menus. Actually, menus are located at the same places as in Photoshop. The awesome black windows of tools and options make it more attractive to play with. There are many text and video tutorials around to use Pixelmator creatively, have a look at the official one, it’s much of impression I should say.

With some of the features mentioned earlier, some users might be missing some of the most basics of Photoshop. Pixelmator lacks the adjustment layer feature, which allows you to re-adjust many patterns of a certain image at any time, without permanently changing pixel values. And because it is made for Mac OS only, Windows users still looking for their own copy or another alternative that behave close to Photoshop at a price in the pocket.

Pixelmator is a two thumbs up application at only $59. It really deserves trying for its powerful features and closeness to the Photoshop.