On November 30, the App Store Awards, where we found out which were the 14 award-winning applications and games in 2023 from the App Store. In the category of “App of the year for Mac” the award was won Photomatorthe popular photo editing application, highlighting its evolution and integration with the ecosystem.
The Pixelmator Team, made up of Aidas, Saulius, Rimas and Simonas, took its first steps in 2007 with a clear vision: develop a native image editing tool for Mac that was easy to use. As they themselves point out, “Our goal was always 'Image editing for the rest of us'”, evoking the slogan of the original Macintosh. This dream, which was born while longing for a similar tool, soon found resonance with a wider audience.
The team's contribution to the world of image editing goes beyond their product. The team points out that they were pioneers in “boost native Mac technologies” with features such as batch editing with Automator and the native Metal acceleration, which Apple is betting so much on today. This allowed them to offer a fast and smooth editing experiencea feat almost exclusive to native Mac apps.
Evolution and design in the Apple ecosystem
The constant design evolution It is essential for the team. From his point of view, “Although the Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) may seem static, we have seen updates and improvements almost every year since 2007. This helps us keep our applications modern and up-to-date“. This is the appearance in which the application interacts with the user, essential for its proper use.
The Pixelmator Team offers two exceptional applications for Mac: Pixelmator Pro and Photomator. Photomatordesigned for photo editing on Mac, iPhone, and iPad, is geared toward photographers of all levels. “We offer an efficient experience to quickly move between photos and make individual or batch edits”. Additionally, Photomator offers photography-specific tools, including recent innovations like Smart HDR and Smart Deband to improve color depth and correct banding (artificial bands that appear in the most abrupt changes of tones of the same color).
By contrast, Pixelmator Pro is a layer-based tool, ideal for creating designs, illustrations, and editing photos and videos. The team emphasizes that “with its wide range of functions, Pixelmator Pro meets the needs of very diverse users”, from the creative amateur to the professional who will feel very comfortable in the application – as we already saw with its last major update.
The motivation to appear in a keynote
Aidas Dailide had the opportunity to present Pixelmator for iPad in an Apple keynote – in 2014 – presented by Phil Schiller himself
The recognition came in the best possible way from Apple in 2014, marking a significant milestone for the team, motivating them to develop even more for iPad. Aidas had the opportunity to present the version of Pixelmator for iPad in a keynote, from the hand of Phil Schiller himself. As a result, Photomator (then called Pixelmator Photo) won the Apple Design Award in 2019 with a version that we found spectacular, demonstrating its success on all Apple platforms.
“The transition to Apple Silicon has accelerated our development process, simplifying it”
The transition to Apple Silicon in the ecosystem has simplified development, which especially stands out: “We used to spend a lot of time solving GPU-specific problems. With Apple Silicon, these challenges have decreased significantly”.
The artificial intelligence integration (AI) in your products is a reality, now and in the future: “We will continue to integrate this technology in future updates, with special interest”. With the advances in Apple Silicon's machine learning processing capabilitiesthe team is constantly looking for innovative ways to harness this power and promise surprises in the future.
The future lies in the Apple Vision Pro
And be very careful with what is coming. He Next 2024 is going to be a very busy year in a technology with what we saw at WWDC23. And of course, I am referring to spatial computing, for which they reveal something that many of us expect: “All of our apps will be compatible with Apple Vision Pro from day one. Initially, they will be available as iPad apps for Apple Vision Pro users, but we are also planning to build a native spatial experience in the future”.
“All our applications will be compatible with Apple Vision Pro from day one”
In closing, the team shares a preview of future plans: “Photomator for Mac will introduce a powerful file browser, offering advanced features such as editing files in external locations and syncing edits with the original file. Although it may seem like a simple addition, this feature has required enormous development efforts. We also have exciting features on the Photomator roadmap“
Of the rest of the applications, they cannot yet reveal anything else: “There are numerous plans in development that we are not ready to reveal yet, but we promise they will be a pleasant surprise”. Something that undoubtedly reveals Pixelmator Team's passion for continuous innovationits commitment to quality, mime to the Apple ecosystem and the exciting integration of new technologies on the horizon.
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Cover image | © Apple, Pixelmator Team