Adjust effects in Pixelmator Pro on Mac
After you add effects to a layer, you can fine-tune their appearance and behavior by adjusting controls in the Effects pane. While some controls appear across many effects, others are unique to specific effect types.
In Pixelmator Pro on Mac, select a layer in the Layers sidebar.
Select
in the Tools sidebar.
Any effects applied to the selected layer appear in the Effects pane.
In the Effects pane, adjust any of the following controls to fine-tune one or more applied effects (available controls vary depending on the effect):
Radius: A slider that defines the area of spread for an effect. In blur effects like Gaussian blur and Bokeh blur, adjust the Radius slider to control how far blurring extends from each pixel—larger values create softer, more diffused looks.
Amount/Intensity/Sunniness: Sliders that adjust the strength of an effect, labeled differently depending on the effect. In Motion blur and Zoom blur, adjust the Amount slider to control pixel displacement. In Sharpen effects, adjust the Intensity slider to control how much contrast is added to edges. In Light Leak intensity is called Sunniness.
Angle: A slider control that sets directional properties for effects with inherent orientation. In some tools Angle appears as a wheel or text field.
Scale/Size/Width: Sliders that adjust the size of generated elements or imported content, labeled differently depending on the effect. In Star, a Generator effect, adjust the Cross Scale slider to control the size of the star. In Clouds, another Generator effect, adjust the Size slider to control the scale of the cloud pattern. For Fill effects adjust the Scale slider to control scale of the effect in relation to your content. In some Generator and Halftone effects use the Width slider to control the size of individual pattern elements.
Transition: Transition controls are specialized sliders found in effects that create gradual changes between different states, like focus-related blur effects. In Focus blur and Tilt-Shift effects, Transition determines how the image changes from sharp to blurred—low transition values create sharp boundaries between focused and blurred areas, while high values create smooth, gradual falloffs that look more natural. This helps create realistic depth-of-field effects that mimic how camera lenses work.
Opacity: A slider that changes the transparency of an effect.
Effect ropes: Graphical ontrols that appear over your image in the canvas for applied effects that have positioning features. In Focus Blur and Tilt-Shift effects, drag the effect rope handles to position the area of focus. In Distortion effects like Bump and Pinch, drag the effect rope handle to position the center point of the distortion. In Generator effects like Star, drag the effect rope handles to position the star.