Pixelmator Pro for Mac interface
The Pixelmator Pro interface is divided into several functional areas.
Welcome screen and document browser
When you open Pixelmator Pro, the Welcome screen appears. Use this window to create new documents, open photos, or open other documents. When you choose to create a new document, the document browser opens, where you can select from dozens of professional templates or set up a custom document. See Create a new document and Open a document.
Pixelmator Pro app window
After you open a document, the Pixelmator Pro window appears. Use this window to create designs, edit photos, draw illustrations, and paint digital art.
Layers sidebar
The Layers sidebar shows the elements (images, shapes, color adjustments, effects, masks, text, and so on), also known as layers, that combine to create your composition.
In the Layers sidebar, you can select a specific layer to work on, add new layers, manage layer visibility, and more.
Canvas
The canvas is the visual workspace where images, brushstrokes, and other elements you’ve added as layers are combined to create your composition. To help you align elements on the canvas, you can turn on canvas rulers and overlays such as grids and guides. You can also turn off selection handles if you don’t want to see them. See Use canvas rulers, guides, and other overlays in Pixelmator Pro.
Tools sidebar
The Tools sidebar on the right side of the Pixelmator Pro window contains tools for image editing, composition and layout, graphic design, and digital painting and illustration. Here, the default toolset is arranged by function. You can also customize the Tools sidebar to create a toolset you prefer.
Some tools in the Tools sidebar are grouped with one or a few other tools. These tool groups can be identified in the sidebar by the badge in the bottom-right corner of the tool icon. To choose a different tool from a tool group, click and hold a Tool icon, then choose a tool.
On smaller displays, you may need to scroll down to see all the options.
Tool pane
When you select a tool from the Tools sidebar (or from the menu bar), the tool pane appears at the right side of the window, displaying options and settings specific to that tool. These options let you customize how the tool behaves and adjust parameters relevant to your current task.
For example, if you select the Color Adjustments tool, the tool pane shows controls such as exposure, white balance, color balance, saturation, hue, and levels. Tool options change based on the tool you’ve selected, as does the name of the pane (for example, Color Adjustments pane).
Toolbar
The toolbar at the top of the Pixelmator Pro window gives you quick access to a customizable collection of tools. By default, the toolbar includes controls for opening the color picker, removing the background of an image, viewing document information, and more.
Tab bar
When you have more than one document open at a time, each document is available in a tab bar under the toolbar. The tab bar lets you easily switch between documents.
Pixelmator Pro opens documents in tabs by default, but if you’d like to work in a separate window, you can drag any tab from the tab bar to detach it.
Info bar
To see additional information about an image or a selected layer, you can enable an info bar above the canvas. The info bar displays values that update as you work in the canvas, including color values, cursor position, layer dimensions, position change, starting position, angle, color profile, color depth, and image dimensions.
The info bar is hidden by default. To make it visible choose View > Show Info Bar.