Pixelmator Pro today released version 1.3.4 with two major new features. ML Match Colors lets you drag an image into the Color Adjustments sidebar. Pixelmator Pro analyzes the image, pulls out the dominant colors, and then sets the adjustments such that the image in the canvas adopts the same color palette.
Pixelmator Pro also adds a new Free Transform tools to skew and perspective transform layers in the canvas. The original Pixelmator offered a Transform option, and now the developers have brought the same feature to Pixelmator Pro … and improved on it further.
ML Match Colors makes it really easy to set an ambiance for an image. Just find a previous image you’ve taken with the target color palette and drop it into the Pixelmator Pro Color Adjustments panel. You can adjust each parameter after the fact manually and like almost everything in Pixelmator Pro, these adjustments are applied non-destructively.
You can also go the other one and paste an image into a scene, and have the pasted image match the colors of the existing canvas. With an image on the clipboard, you can find a ‘Paste and ML Match Colors’ action in the Edit menu. If you need to add an object into an image as if it was always there, matching colors goes a long way to making it blend in with its surroundings.
Free Transform lets you manipulate layers with the mouse across four types of transform; free, skew, distort and perspective. Each mode changes what happens when you drag the handles for the bounding box of the layer. There are also sliders to adjust perspective in vertical and horizontal directions if you require more precision than the drag of a mouse pointer. Transforms can be applied to all layer types, including text and shape layers.
This latest update also brings a nifty shortcut to center objects when dragging-and-dropping them into the app — just hold Shift. You can also Force Touch a layer in the sidebar to make the text editable and immediately start renaming it; a cool application of pressure-sensitive gestures.
As always, Pixelmator Pro is available exclusively in the Mac App Store. The app sells for $39.99 and, of course, the update is free for existing users.
