Luminar vs Pixelmator

By Eva Williams 3 days ago, Software Reviews

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If you are wondering what program is better, Luminar or Pixelmator, read this review to learn more about the pros and cons of each software and select the option that will help you enhance your photos.

Luminar AI is an all-in-one tool for viewing, editing, and organizing your photos. With its AI-driven tools, you can solve many tasks automatically and then undo or change the edits whenever you want. Once you have uploaded an image, the program will automatically select templates depending on its style.

Pixelmator is a Mac-only software with easy-to-use enhancement tools. It comes with a set of pro-level features that can be found in advanced editors. This option is perfect for photographers, artists, and designers, who work on complex projects. Besides, you can draw images, add text, shapes, create sketches, etc.

What is Luminar?

Skylum Luminar is an all-in-one photo editor with many handy features, a modern interface, unique retouching tools, and non-destructive editing options. It supports RAW files, which allows users to embellish their photos in a few clicks.

If you compare Luminar vs Pixelmator, you will see that the former supports layers, has masks, blending modes, filters and a variety of professional features, like LUT display. Because of this, many people download Luminar since it is in many ways similar to Lightroom, Photoshop, and the best Photoshop alternatives.

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Luminar: Pros and Cons

AI tools for landscape photos. You don’t need to use masks to edit the sky in your landscape photos since this process is automatic. With the help of AI-driven tools, this software will select the sky without selecting other elements, such as leaves, grass, birds, or hair. Besides, this tool will help you soften the edges and remove halos to ensure that an enhanced photo matches a source image.

Allows editing RAW files. Luminar comes with the RAW Develop Engine. It supports files in DNG format and main RAW formats, which makes it perfect for owners of digital cameras released by the top manufacturers. What makes Luminar different from other similar options is that it supports enhanced dynamic range.

Customizable workspace. In Luminar, you can remove and add various tools to the panels that you use most often. While Capture One Pro has even more convenient workplaces, this feature still makes Luminar better than Lightroom since the latter doesn’t have it.

AI Skin & Portrait Enhancer. With this feature, you can enhance portrait photos by dragging a slider. For instance, you can quickly remove all skin imperfections with the help of a dedicated tool. Luminar can also remove skin blemishes without affecting freckles.

Slow performance. Since there are many smart tools, the program occasionally lags if you use several of them simultaneously. Besides, I noticed that the program slows down when I import many RAW files at once.

Limited functionality. While it’s easy to adjust brightness and colors using special sliders, you can’t move several sliders at once to adjust shades or fix chromatic aberration issues properly.

What is Pixelmator?

Pixelmator Pro comes with a variety of options and an intuitive user interface. It is considered to be one of the best photo editing apps for Mac. Thanks to Core Image and OpenGL support, it allows users to edit images with the help of Mac’s graphics processor.

Pixelmator Pro makes the most out of the Apple features. Since it was designed for macOS 10.13, you can use it to solve many tasks and create amazing projects thanks to the Metal graphics platform support.

When comparing Luminar vs Pixelmator, you will notice that the latter has an amazing collection of smart film emulation presets, AI-driven options, great color adjustment tools, etc. Besides, the program supports many popular formats, has a large collection of editing tools and image enhancement features.

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Pixelmator: Pros and Cons

Convenient interface. If you are a beginner, you will like a well-thought-out toolbar with convenient icons. Those who edit large images will find it useful that this program has handy indicators that allow users to understand how quickly a file will be saved and loaded.

Supports popular file formats. The program supports RAW files, which allows users to work with several layers. You can also open HEIF and PSD. Thanks to iCloud supports and useful extensions, you can easily share your works.

Quick export. Pixelmator Pro comes with professional compression tools and allows users to export presets. You can use these options to quickly process web images.

Limited text tools. It might be difficult to add text to your photos. For example, the program doesn’t allow you to adjust a letter or line spacing. Besides, there is no way to select a custom font size.

Luminar vs Pixelmator: Price

You can use a trial version of Pixelmator for 15 days. To use all the features, you need to pay $39.99 for a single-user license.

Luminar can be used as a stand-alone program, you can pay $79.00 for it, however, this price doesn’t cover any future updates, and you will need to pay again for a new version once it gets released.

Luminar vs Pixelmator: Who Wins?

In terms of prices, Pixelmator is a better option since its license is more affordable. However, in terms of editing tools and AI features, Luminar is clearly a winner since it is based on more advanced algorithms and has fewer bugs.

While you can fix all minor post-processing issues by yourself, you might waste a lot of time, which makes Pixelmator a poor value for money.

LUMINAR FOR FREE

PIXELMATOR FOR FREE

Bonus Tools

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Try using Luminar filters to embellish your photos and optimize your workflow. They are perfect for photographers and retouchers who don’t want to spend much time on editing. With them, you can edit images more quickly than with the help of Lightroom tools.

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