Pixelmator Pro, the acclaimed image editing software, has just received a substantial update in the form of Pixelmator Pro 3.4, affectionately known as Camelot. This update introduces a significant overhaul to its PDF engine, bringing advanced capabilities and versatility to the realm of PDF editing.
With this latest update, users can now delve into multi-page PDF documents with ease. The revamped PDF engine allows for the extraction and editing of individual pages from these files. You can also manipulate vector PDFs, edit image elements within Apple PDFs, and much more. Whether you’re a casual or frequent user of PDFs, these new features are bound to impress.
Effortless Page Importing
Pixelmator Pro 3.4 enables the importation and editing of specific pages from multi-page PDFs directly within the application. The process is streamlined through a user-friendly import dialog, allowing you to select the desired page for editing. Furthermore, you have control over page resolution, width, and height, ensuring your edits meet your exact specifications. This update also introduces the capability to import PDFs with layers intact, allowing individual elements like images and shapes to be edited separately. Alternatively, if you prefer to work with flattened PDFs, you can import them with all layers merged.
Seamless Reintegration
After editing and exporting a PDF page, it can be effortlessly reinserted into a multi-page document using macOS’s Preview app. Just open the original document in Preview, drag and drop the edited page into the list of PDF pages on the left, and your multi-page PDF is ready. To create multi-page PDFs from scratch, the Shortcuts app in macOS offers automation to simplify the process.
Unlocking Vector PDFs
Pixelmator Pro 3.4 brings robust support for vector PDFs, allowing users to treat shape and image elements as separate layers and scale documents without sacrificing quality. This empowers easy editing, rearrangement, and deletion of elements within existing PDFs, or the creation of new vector PDFs for further editing in other applications. Complex layer properties such as blend modes, opacity, and masks are also supported and preserved during export.
Bitmap vs. Vector PDFs
It’s important to note the distinction between bitmap and vector PDFs. While bitmap PDFs are image-based and open with their contents merged into a single page, vector PDFs can contain both vector and bitmap elements. When upscaling bitmap elements in vector PDFs, quality loss and blurriness can occur. To maintain quality during upscaling, Pixelmator Pro offers the AI-powered Super Resolution algorithm, preserving sharpness and detail through machine learning.
Enhanced Compatibility
Pixelmator Pro now fully supports vector PDFs generated by Safari, Keynote, Pages, and other iWork applications. This means you can export web pages to PDF directly from Safari, and they will appear in Pixelmator Pro exactly as seen in your browser. All image, shape, and other elements are editable as regular layers, providing a seamless workflow for Mac users.
Expanding Possibilities
The full support of Apple PDF files unlocks a realm of new possibilities. You can, for instance, export shapes from Keynote to PDF and then convert them into a new Pixelmator Pro shape collection, seamlessly integrating Keynote elements into your designs. The updated “Convert Image/Video” action in the Shortcuts app simplifies the conversion of multiple Pixelmator Pro documents, Adobe Photoshop files, and more into PDF format. You can choose whether to convert documents to bitmap PDFs or preserve all layers.
These features, when combined with macOS actions, allow for the rapid creation of multi-page PDFs or the preparation of individual pages for editing in Pixelmator Pro. Pixelmator Pro 3.4 Camelot offers a wealth of new capabilities for PDF editing and is available as a free update for existing users. For newcomers, now is an opportune time to acquire Pixelmator Pro, as it’s currently on sale at a 30% discount on the Mac App Store.
