Pixelmator - The Image Editor That Mac Users Should Be Using [Giveaway]

Ever since we first featured Pixelmator in March 2010, it has been improved in so many ways. It's pretty much the affordable Photoshop alternative for Mac. We're giving away 25 copies of the latest version of Pixelmator this week, worth almost $1,500 in total; and saying goodbye to GIMP.

Personally, Pixelmator is my everyday go-to image editor. Very rarely do I feel the need to use Photoshop for the purpose of simple image editing, plus Pixelmator is more intuitive anyway, in my humble opinion.

Perhaps the most significant enhancement since we initially reviewed Pixelmator was the addition of 64-bit architecture support, which resulted in huge performance improvements. I'm not really going to dive into the details about what makes Pixelmator tick and the technologies used to drive it. If you're really interested in those details, I'd recommend that you read up here -- it's better than me trying to explain it to you anyway. I'll be showing you how Pixelmator works and how you can integrate it into your image editing workflow.

Pixelmator is compatible with over 100 different file formats including PSD, TIFF, JPEG, PNG, PDF and EPS; so you'll have no trouble opening just about any image in Pixelmator. It can also output images in a whole load of image formats, which we'll discuss a little later.

Did you know that you could get a free 30-day fully-functional trial of Pixelmator? Download it now and give it a whirl. The first thing you'll notice about it is it's sleek interface -- it belongs on a Mac. Everything else just falls into place. Unlike Photoshop, there's no bounding window. Instead, you're presented with floating toolbars which you're free to re-arrange however you want. It's very tightly integrated with OS X, providing you access to iPhoto, smart albums, iSight, and Aperture.

On the left, you have the instruments you'll need to edit your images. Pixelmator provides a variety of 4 selection tools: Rectangular Marque tool, Elliptical Marque tool, Lasso tool, Polygonal Lasso tool and the Magic Wand. In addition, you also get an assortment of freestyle painting tools: Pencil, Brush, Eraser, Magic Eraser, Paint Bucket tool and Gradient tool. Not forgetting, the high-sought Clone Stamp tool is also included. Essentially, its a complete toolkit for basic image editing.

If you look carefully on the right-hand side of the screenshot above, you'll see something that resembles a layers palette. In fact, it is -- Pixelmator is a layers-based image editor. Like Photoshop, it allows you to blend layers, adjust their intensities, create clipping and layer masks to accurately edit your photos.

In regards to image correction, Pixelmator is no slouch. It has all of the powerful adjustment tools that Photoshop has -- Levels, Curves, Exposure, Colour Balance, Channel Mixer, Colour Replacement, Hue and Saturation and of course, Brightness and Contrast. Just about everything you need to properly adjust your photos can be found in Pixelmator, including over 60 Quartz Composer and 130 Core Image-powered filters and effects, which you can preview in real-time.

A fun feature of Pixelmator, one which I'm sure a lot of users will utilise is the ability to export directly to Facebook, Picasa and Flickr.

Pixelmator supports the popular image formats and allows you to easily export them as JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PSD and PDF with a single click. However, what you don't see are the other formats that it's capable of exporting: WEBP, GIF, PICT, ART, AVI, AVS, BMP, DNG, DOT, DPX, EPDF, EPI, EPT, FAX, FIG, FITS, FPX, GPLT, JP2, MAN, MONO, MNG, MPEG, M2V, MPC, MSL, MTV, MVG, OTB, PCL, PCX, PDB, PDF, PFA, PFB, PGM, PICON, PIX, PNM, PPM, PS, PS2, PS3, PTIF, PWP, RAD, RLA, RLE, SCT, SFW, SGI, SUN, TGA, TIM, TTF, UIL, UYVY, VICAR, VIFF, WBMP, WPG, XBM, XCF, XPM.

If you're a preparing an image to be shared online, Pixelmator will grant you the option of saving a web-optimised version of JPEG, PNG or GIF.

If you'll be using Pixelmator for painting, you'll be pleased to know that it supports the use of a graphics tablet and almost every brush property can be adjusted; from its size, hardness, spacing, flow, stroke jitter, as well as the graphics table sensitivity.

Give it a try. Its tight integration with OS X and beautifully simple interface might just encourage you to stop using GIMP. If you're happy to purchase Pixelmator, you'll find it on the Mac App Store for $59.99.

We're giving away 25 copies of Pixelmator this week, don't miss out on the change to win this fantastic image editor for free!