Photoshop Elememts or Pixelmator

[Debojyoti Das]

Hello all,

So recently I have planned to switch to the Mac and I am planning to buy the new MacBook Pro as soon as Apple updates it with Skylake.
Now I am facing this dilemma. I am a pro Photoshop user as long as PC is concerned. However I don't want to clutter my Mac with all those extra garbage from Adobe or other vendors (a big reason for my switch). I will always have a PC lying around, in any case.
So my question is, what shoul I buy, for simple day to day photo retouching? Elements or Pixelmator?
Which is more purist, junk free and works well?
I am open to other options as well.

Thanks.

 

[maflynn]

Which is more purist, junk free and works well?

I don't know about more purist, but I believe Pixelmator has more features. Visit Pixelmator and download the trial and see how it measures up. Also you should be able to compare the features of Pixelmator against Elements.

 

[Debojyoti Das]

I don't know about more purist, but I believe Pixelmator has more features. Visit Pixelmator and download the trial and see how it measures up. Also you should be able to compare the features of Pixelmator against Elements.

Thank you so much for the reply. I am downloading the trial now.

 

[8692574]

Pixelmator has my vote hands down!

 

[Debojyoti Das]

Pixelmator has my vote hands down!

Reason please?

 

[Lunfai]

Reason please?

Maybe this is out of he question but wouldn't Lightroom + Photoshop be a little more ideal for photo editing? It's always on an offer combo but if not, I would pick pixelmator as I think element is a stop gap product to the real thing.

 

[theluggage]

I am open to other options as well.

Affinity Photo is another contender - again, free trial available.

Personally, I've always liked Photoshop Elements (up to 11 at least) - in "expert" mode it gives a pretty good subset of full Photoshop and while pixelmator/affinity have lots of creative features, I've found PS elements far better for boring old day-to-day stuff like prepping graphics for web use: e.g. rendering pdf/postscript to bitmap, setting colour depth/pixel format, cropping, resizing and format-converting. The others can do all this to an extent, but PSe (at least v11) has more flexibility and options.

That said, there has been a dumbing-down of PSe over the years and I don't know what Elements 14 is like, which leads me to my own question:

Has anybody upgraded from Elements V11 (which doesn't work properly on El Cap) to the current V14? Does it still have "expert" mode and "Save for web"?

 

[8692574]

Reason please?

Because:

• it is lightweight it does most (yes not all) that photoshop does,
• it has a great support and a good upgrade path (I bought it when it was first released and up untill today I have been able to upgrade for free......but i would pay again since it is worthed)
• it has an iPad app that integrates well, because it works with Photos (might not be a big plus but...)
• It has a nice interface (it is subjective, but for me it works)

All in all is a solid program, easy to use and quite powerful but still zippy, compatible with PSD files and at a price you can't beat.


Now Affinity Photo is another GREAT contender (I use mostly Affinity Designer as I work on vectors) they made an awesome product and they are keeping it up to date, also the pricing is very good for what it offers.

 

[Porco]

I would say get Pixelmator first, it's cheap and great, and if you want to specifically avoid Adobe junk if possible then it's self-explanatory why. If you find you need one or all of the others later none of them are terribly expensive (I find Elements is often on sale on Amazon around Christmas).

 

[Debojyoti Das]

Affinity Photo is another contender - again, free trial available.

Personally, I've always liked Photoshop Elements (up to 11 at least) - in "expert" mode it gives a pretty good subset of full Photoshop and while pixelmator/affinity have lots of creative features, I've found PS elements far better for boring old day-to-day stuff like prepping graphics for web use: e.g. rendering pdf/postscript to bitmap, setting colour depth/pixel format, cropping, resizing and format-converting. The others can do all this to an extent, but PSe (at least v11) has more flexibility and options.

That said, there has been a dumbing-down of PSe over the years and I don't know what Elements 14 is like, which leads me to my own question:

Has anybody upgraded from Elements V11 (which doesn't work properly on El Cap) to the current V14? Does it still have "expert" mode and "Save for web"?

Affinity is a brilliant suggestion, thanks a lot.

 

[Miguel Cunha]

Affinity Photo, definitely!
I'm very curious about Autodesk Graphic, but since there is no trial I haven't tested it.

 

[Starfia]

"Which is more purist, junk free and works well?"

Pixelmator. (Before I switched, I only used Photoshop Elements for graphic editing and tablet drawing, and since Pixelmator feels much, much more lightweight, focused, uncluttered, and powerful-featured than that, I assume it only feels more so compared to full-on Photoshop. The only power feature I slightly miss from Elements is those complex layer styles which could make simple shapes look like 3D materials in one step. That gap has since been narrowed by Pixelmator's layer styles. I waited to switch to Pixelmator because it was once much less mature; I watched it gradually gain on Photoshop Elements for years, and now it's well beyond it.)

The only thing you added that gives me pause is the description of yourself as a "pro" Photoshop user – I'm not sure specifically what you might look for in Pixelmator and not find.

Pixelmator's developers are committed to native Mac development – they leverage its APIs, keep up with new OS releases, and seem to stop and focus on adding powerful features every while. And their product is a very good deal at full price. If there's a trial, obviously try the trial.

 

[robgendreau]

Pixelmator and Affinity Photos are more like Photoshop, with the former being a bit less capable, and the latter more capable. I've never found the Elements application on the Mac as good as on the PC, frankly. And overpriced.

Affinity might still have a demo you can download; unfortunately the rather lame Mac App Store doesn't do demos.

But I have no idea what "purist" is, and by "junk free" I assume you mean it doesn't spray files all over the place like Adobe does, and that's true for both Pixelmator and Affinity. You might find plugin and scripting lags, however. Just depends what you spend your time in Ps doing.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Affinity Photo is supposedly targeted at Photoshop users, while Pixelmator should be more catered towards Photoshop Element users..

Also, Affinity Photo is currently -20% off.

Personally I was all over Pixelmator when it was released, but the developers doesn't seem to want to accept that not all people work in a completely dark room where dark grey on black is a sensible UI choice.

 

[v3rlon]

I find I like Affinity better than Pixelmatr. It takes Photoshop plugins/brushes and is generally easy to "translate" Photoshop tutorials/instructions over. Either one will get the job done though.

Both also include some extensions to add to Apple Photos, if you decide to go that route for photo management. Also, if you go that route, get the "External Editors for Photos" for $0.99US. This allows round-tripping to any image editor on your Mac.

If you want Lightroom for managing photos, you are pretty much living with Adobe (and all the good and bad that comes with it) at that point and the $10 a month for it and Photoshop might be your best answer.