Pixelmator Pro 4.3 for macOS

Content Hub and two new generation tools land in June 2026

The June 2026 update brings a Content Hub for dropping in photos and graphics, plus two new generation tools: one that builds images from a text description, and another that applies text-based edits and transformations to an existing image. You can also generate custom vector shapes from words now.

A deeper workflow, step by step

1. Start in your library. The app talks directly to the Photos app, so you can launch an edit and save the result right back where it belongs. No exporting, no duplicates.
2. Open what you already have. Got layered Photoshop files? They open natively, layers intact. The file format list is long: JPEG, TIFF, PNG, HEIF, SVG, PDF, and more.
3. Retouch with purpose. The retouching tools handle blemishes and unwanted objects without turning the whole image into plastic.
4. Call in the machine. The Core ML-based enhancement reads your photo and makes its own adjustments. Sometimes it nails the lighting; other times you'll dial it back. Either way, it's a fast starting point.
5. Process a whole folder. Automator actions let you set up batch processing that runs while you go make coffee. Resize, reformat, or apply the same adjustment to a hundred shots.

None of this is about replacing what you know. It's about giving you faster ways to get to the part of the image you actually want to fix.

A real retouching run, start to finish

Say I pulled a dozen shots from a Saturday market. The light was harsh, a few strangers walked through the background of the best one, and the colors feel flat. Here's how I'd clean it up in one session.

I open the keeper directly from the Photos app. It's a RAW file, and Pixelmator Pro reads it without sending me to a separate converter. The single-window layout keeps the tools tucked to the sides — no floating panels drifting off my laptop screen.

First pass: I tap the ML Enhance button. It warms the white balance and pulls some detail out of the shadows under the awning. I back the intensity down to about sixty percent because the original had a slight cool cast that I want to keep. Next I grab the Repair tool, set the brush a little larger than the blemish I'm removing, and click through three strangers near the fruit stand. The Content-Aware fill blends the cobblestones behind them without smearing.

Now the fun part. I want the vendor's red peppers to stand out more. I switch to the color adjustment tools and lift the reds just enough that the peppers pop without looking radioactive. Then I use the repositioning tool on a crooked sign — I drag a selection around it, tilt it two degrees, and the surrounding brickwork stitches itself back together.

Last step: I batch-process the other eleven shots through Automator. I set it to apply the same shadow lift and a uniform resize for a web gallery, drag the folder in, and let it run. By the time I pour a cup of coffee, the whole set is done and dropped into a new folder.

A closer look against Photoshop, Affinity Photo, and Acorn

On a Mac, the natural comparisons are Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, and Acorn. I've spent time in all three, so here's the straight version.

Pixelmator Pro vs. Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop is the heavyweight — deep color management, CMYK and prepress tools, a plugin ecosystem that's been growing for decades. Pixelmator Pro doesn't try to match that. What it does is feel native. The interface isn't a port from another operating system, and the Core ML features actually speed up common fixes instead of burying them in menus. If you're prepping work for print, Photoshop still owns that corner. If you're editing photos, making composites, or drawing vector shapes on a Mac, this one fits the screen without fighting you.

Pixelmator Pro vs. Affinity Photo. Affinity Photo is powerful and gets closer to Photoshop's feature set — frequency separation, HDR merge, focus stacking. Pixelmator Pro takes a different path. The generation tools in version 4.3, the Content Hub for pulling in graphics, and the vector shape generation from text descriptions are things Affinity simply doesn't do. Affinity feels like a professional darkroom; Pixelmator Pro feels like a creative workshop that grew up on the Mac.

Pixelmator Pro vs. Acorn. Acorn is the scrappy indie — lightweight, fast, and friendly. It handles layers and filters well, but RAW support is more limited and the machine-learning features aren't there. Pixelmator Pro covers more ground: SVG editing, full RAW development, batch processing, and now image generation from text. If all you need is quick layer work and basic retouches, Acorn is easy to recommend. If you want one Mac image editor that reaches further, this is where a pixelmator pro download starts making sense.

Laura builds a spot illustration from a layered Photoshop file

Laura draws spot illustrations for a food magazine. She works on an Apple silicon MacBook Pro, usually with a coffee cup somewhere near the keyboard. A typical Tuesday: her editor sends a Photoshop file with three layers — a rough sketch, a color block, and a note layer with font suggestions. She opens it directly. No conversion, no flattened preview. The layers are there, named and stacked, ready for her to add her own.

She needs a vector lemon slice for the sidebar. Instead of building it from circles and arcs, she types a description into the shape generator: "lemon slice with eight segments and a thin rind." The app returns a clean vector shape. She tweaks the stroke weight, fills it with a warm yellow, and drops it into the composition. Later she uses the Content Hub to grab a stock photo of basil from the built-in library, masks out the background with a quick brush, and places it behind her illustration.

Before lunch she's exported a layered PSD for the art director and a flat PNG for the web team. The whole job stayed inside one app, and none of the files bounced through an importer or a third-party converter. For someone who thinks visually and talks to editors, that's the kind of morning where the tool just stays out of the way.

Version 4.3, released June 30, 2026, adds tools that shift how you start a project. You can now pull photos and graphics from a Content Hub, generate an entire image from a text description, or edit an existing photo with text-based commands. It also introduces custom vector shapes from text and better support for Switch Control and VoiceOver.

• macOS 26 or later
• Mac with Apple silicon