The Pixelmator Team (http://www.pixelmator.com) has updated Pixelmator — a US$59 GPU-powered image editing tool for creating, editing and enhancing still images — to version 1.6 (codenamed “Nucleus”). The upgrade, free to registered users, boasts performance improvements, 64-bit support, layer groups, an Import feature, Flickr, Facebook and Picasa support, redesigned transform tools, and more.
Pixelmator is based on Core Image and OpenGL technologies that use Mac’s video card for image processing. Core Image and OpenGL utilize the graphics card for image processing operations, freeing the CPU for other tasks. If a high-performance card with increased video memory (VRAM) is present, the user will find real-time responsiveness across a wide variety of Pixelmator operations, including editing tools, color correction tools, and filters, according to Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team.
Pixelmator supports more than 100 different file formats, including Photoshop images with layers, and it comes with more than 15 color correction tools and 50 Core Image-powered filters, transform tools, fill and stroke, gradients, QuickMask mode, full-screen editing mode, Automator support, ColorSync support, Spotlight support, and more. A demo is available at the Pixelmaator Team web site. Pixelmator is Universal Binary so runs natively on both PowerPC and Intel Macs. It requires Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.