Pixelmator for iPad is the one image editing app for all your needs.

For many years, Photoshop was my daily graphics tool. Unfortunately, since the inception of OS X Yosemite, the only version that is available to use is with a subscription to Adobe’s Creative Cloud. And, even though I use it on a daily basis, I just don’t feel like it’s a good use of my money to pay a monthly fee. So, I looked into other advanced graphics editors and found Pixelmator. Pixelmator is an amazing image editing tool for Mac that I’ve been using as my daily graphics tool for some time. Now, the amazing team at pixelmator.com has also created Pixelmator for the iPad.

I received Pixelmator for iPad late last week and spent the day playing with it. I wanted to see how powerful it was and what could be done from it. In my tests, I learned it’s extremely powerful. Before Pixelmator for iPad, I was using many different apps (an entire folder full, in fact) to do the same work that Pixelmator can do. Since Pixelmator has so many options, I think I’ll be able to free up more space on my new iPad by deleting those other apps. I have one image editing app for all my needs.

Some of the features included with Pixelmator for iPad include:

• Paint & Erase – Over 80 handcrafted and full-featured brushes and erasers that resemble real-life painting
• Retouch – A full set of powerful and advanced retouching tools to touch up and enhance images
• Adjust Colors – Beautifully toned color adjustment tools to perfect colors and adjust white balance
• Add Effects –  Over 14 breathtaking effects to subtly improve or change the image’s look and feel
• Select – Powerful and pixel-accurate selection tools to quickly and easily select any part of an image
• Crop & Straighten – Straighten the image angle or easily crop parts of an image with easy-to-use controls
• Text – Choose from 18 predesigned text styles and edit with a full set of advanced typography features
• Shapes – Add shapes in 8 predesigned color styles, then adjust the contours with easy-to-use controls
• Layer Styles – Non-destructive styling options: Opacity, Blending, Fill, Stroke, Shadow, Reflection

I’m very impressed with the effort put into the design and code of Pixelmator. It was designed with the iPad in mind and takes full advantages of the 64-bit architecture. The app is only 120 MB and has language support for French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Spanish. As I mentioned above, I’ve used many, many different image editors on the iPad. As a graphic designer, it’s something that I like to always have access to no matter what device I have with me. Pixelmator is the only graphics editor I need. When working with Pixelmator, I can work with photos from my library, one of their templates, or a blank canvas. The sky is the limit.

Even though I don’t use it too much, I love the painting ability within Pixelmator for iPad. The astounding ability to draw freehand on the iPad is something that until recently was only available through speciality apps that only allowed the freehand drawing. It’s a wonderful addition to a fantastic product.

Pixelmator for iPad was released Thursday, October 23rd and definitely is a tool that shows off the power of the iPad. I can highly recommend it for any graphic designer or photo editor. It’s a must-have app. Not only is it an incredibly powerful stand alone iPad app, but Pixelmator is also a wonderful companion app to the Mac version as Pixelmator works with the Handoff feature of Yosemite. I love being able to start working on my laptop and then pick up my iPad to travel with it and continue working.

Pixelmator for iPad retails for $4.99 and is available for download in the App Store. For more information, visit pixelmator.com/ipad.