The Pixelmator Team today released Pixelmator Pro 2.3, codenamed Abracadabra, a major update to the award-winning Mac image editor designed to make powerful professional tools accessible to everyday users. The update brings AI-powered automatic background removal, automatic subject selection, a Select and Mask tool for making advanced selections, and much more. The app is also going on sale for 50% off its usual price for a limited time.
“Here at Pixelmator, we’re constantly looking for new ways to leverage machine learning in order to improve image editing workflows,” said Simonas Bastys, lead developer at the Pixelmator Team. “And AI-powered background removal and subject selection completely eliminate one of the most difficult and time-consuming image editing tasks, massively improving almost every image editing and photography workflow.”
Using the jaw-dropping Remove Background feature, users can now remove the background from any image with just a click. Using a combination of three individual AI algorithms, Pixelmator Pro automatically detects and selects the subject of a photo, refines the edges of the selection, and intelligently removes traces of the previous background from the object’s edges. In addition to being available in Pixelmator Pro itself, the Remove Background feature can also be found as a Quick Action in the Finder app, a shortcut action in the Shortcuts app, and can even be scripted using AppleScript.
Selecting image areas is one of the most common and one of the most time-consuming image editing tasks. Thanks to the new, AI-powered Select Subject feature, users can now select the subject of any image with just a click. A cutting-edge machine learning algorithm takes out all the hard work from selecting image areas, so users can focus on the creative side of photo editing.
For making advanced selections, Pixelmator Pro 2.3 adds an all-new Select and Mask tool. This is designed to make it easy to select the most difficult areas of all – hair, fur, and similar objects with very complex edges. Using the AI-powered Refine Edge Brush and Smart Refine features, selecting even the most challenging areas of images is easier than ever.
Subject selection, selection refinement, and color decontamination are powered by individual machine learning algorithms and integrated in Pixelmator Pro using Core ML for blazingly-fast performance. These new tools are especially fast on the new M1-powered Mac devices thanks to the Neural Engine, which accelerates processing of machine learning models. For an average image, backgrounds can be removed in around 2-5 seconds on M1 devices and around 30 seconds on Intel-powered devices.
Today’s update also adds the ability to specify export sizes when exporting images and includes several other improvements and fixes.
Pricing & Availability
Pixelmator Pro 2.3 Abracadabra is available exclusively from the Mac App Store as a free update for existing users and $19.99 for new customers, 50% off its usual price of $39.99.
Pixelmator Pro requires macOS Catalina or later.
For more information, visit pixelmator.com, Facebook and Twitter.
