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If you're not a professional designer and are looking for some Adobe suite alternatives on the Mac, may I suggest: Pixelmator[1] (replaced Photoshop) Currently

If you're not a professional designer and are looking for some Adobe suite alternatives on the Mac, may I suggest: Pixelmator[1] (replaced Photoshop) Currently $15 Artboard[2] (replaces Illustrator) $29 Scribus[3] (Cross platform - replaces InDesign) $Free These apps serve me well for basic Web/App Art, my resume, and the occasional flier. The only thing I do miss is the Illustrator XAML export plugin for when I work on WPF/Silverlight stuff. [1]http://www.pixelmator.com http://www.pixelmator.com [2]http://www.mapdiva.com/artboard/ http://www.mapdiva.com/artboard/ [3]http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus http://www.scribus.net/canvas/Scribus

aristus 13y ago
Pixelmator1 was nice because it was a bug-for-bug clone of Photoshop 5 (not CS5, v5) including shortcut keys. Pixelmator2 was a step backward, IMO, without adding many new features except stability. If you're going to throw away all your muscle memory anyway, I'd suggest looking at Acorn. http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/ http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/
- chc 13y ago
  I'll second Acorn. It is weird compared to other image editing interfaces, but it's actually quite usable for most people's needs (or at least what I imagine are most people's needs) and it has really nice polyglot plugin support that should please developers.
  - seltzered_ 13y ago
    Thanks for mentioning this, I've been developing a mac plugin (http://thimbleup.com http://thimbleup.com) and didn't realize Acorn also had plugin support.
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gte910h 13y ago
The excellent Sketch does it quite well, better than Pixelmator IMO http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ It's not a look alike of photoshop, it's entirely redesigned and is fabulous and worth it.
- efields 13y ago
  I used Fireworks for half my career, and when it became obvious that Adobe was letting Fw rot, I went looking for alternatives. It took a little while, but Sketch has finally gotten there. Sketch a purely vector app, whereas Fireworks was a strange but workable hybrid of bitmap and vector. When I need to throw down some raster graphics, I fire up Pixelmator.
  - gte910h 13y ago
    I too find Fireworks CS4 too useful to dump entirely. Particularly canvas resizing.
- Osmium 13y ago
  I also like Sketch -- it's a very powerful app and very polished, though I find I use it a lot less than I thought I would since it seems to occupy an uneasy place between OmniGraffle and Acorn in my workflow. I wouldn't be surprised if I use it a lot more after another few versions...
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  Pixelmator is a bitmap graphics program (like Photoshop and Acorn), while Sketch is a vector graphics program (like Illustrator and Inkscape). Both have different uses.
- deleted 13y ago
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- eightyone 13y ago
  I like Sketch, but it has really poor performance on my MacBook Air. A file of comparable size is way smoother in Illustrator than it is in Sketch from my experience.
felixthehat 13y ago
Sadly the XAML export plugin no longer works in Illustrator CS6, I've spoken to the dev, Mike Swanson and apparently it'd be a nightmare to upgrade. I keep a copy of CS5 installed just for this reason.
- joseph_cooney 13y ago
  Inksckape has XAML export capabilities, depending on what kinds of files you're working on this could be useful.
canthonytucci 13y ago
*Replaces if you only use the most basic features
Osmium 13y ago
I'd also recommend Acorn[4]. It's a phenomenal app, has recently received a major update (early bird pricing until end of May) and is, in my opinion, much more "Mac-like" and pleasant to use compared to Pixelmator. It's my go-to app for fast tasks while still being powerful enough to do more serious things. Not to mention it has rock solid scripting support too. [4] http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/ http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/
shaddyz 13y ago
what about Gimp and Inkscape for alternatives? Both are free software. Gimp - Raster Graphics - http://www.gimp.org/ http://www.gimp.org/ Inkscape - Vector Graphics - http://inkscape.org/ http://inkscape.org/
- kunai 13y ago
  Gimp is really one of the most incredible pieces of open-source/free software I have used. But, it's primary advantages (open source, powerful) are what have led to its limited use. Like many open source projects, the interface is designed pragmatically, like emacs or vi, but this is a problem -- no professional has the time or the money to learn a complex UI. The same goes for LibreOffice. Extremely powerful with a ton of untapped potential, but untapped nevertheless due to a dated and unintuitive UI. Inkscape and Scribus are better in this regard, and I've seen many professionals use them with outstanding results. I've been able to create vectors with Inkscape without much difficulty. I can't say the same about Gimp. If someone really had the time and the dedication, they could re-engineer the entire frontend of Gimp from scratch for each platform, while leaving the excellent backend in place, but I doubt any sane individual would be able to do so without the help of the original developers due to the lack of full documentation available. Still, it's worth trying. It's got 90% of the features of Ps but with 100% fewer dollars paid for it.
  - krapp 13y ago
    I had to use Gimp professionally once (long story short, a sudden web banner EMERGENCY came up and Gimp was all I had available) and it was terrible. I don't doubt it would've been easier and less painful had I been familiar with the UI but it just seemed so poorly designed. It is the best free graphics software out there, maybe, but it's hardly a worthy replacement for photoshop yet (although it is getting better.)
    - douglasheriot 13y ago
      Yep.
  - pserwylo 13y ago
rip747 13y ago
If you're on windows XP or higher, give Paint.net a try: http://www.getpaint.net/ http://www.getpaint.net/ They even have a PSD plugin: http://psdplugin.codeplex.com/ http://psdplugin.codeplex.com/
- voltagex_ 13y ago
  I got the impression that Paint.NET was abandoned.
  - cnahr 13y ago
    It's not, it's just that progress towards 4.0 has been slow: http://blog.getpaint.net/2013/03/30/paint-net-4-0-brushes-and-shapes-and-stuff/ http://blog.getpaint.net/2013/03/30/paint-net-4-0-brushes-an...
- nacs 13y ago
  A big problem with Paint.net IMO is that they don't support pressure-sensitive tablets at all (like Wacom tablets). This is an absolutely essential feature for any serious graphics work. GIMP is far better at the same price (free) and also supports PSD.
mtgx 13y ago
Is Pixelmator ever coming to Windows?
- chc 13y ago
  I wouldn't bet on it soon. It was designed as a Mac app from the ground up. Porting to Windows would be a pretty big endeavor not much smaller than building the app in the first place, and they're currently doing pretty well as the big fish in the Mac pond.

aristus 13y ago

Pixelmator1 was nice because it was a bug-for-bug clone of Photoshop 5 (not CS5, v5) including shortcut keys. Pixelmator2 was a step backward, IMO, without adding many new features except stability. If you're going to throw away all your muscle memory anyway, I'd suggest looking at Acorn. http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/ http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/

chc 13y ago
I'll second Acorn. It is weird compared to other image editing interfaces, but it's actually quite usable for most people's needs (or at least what I imagine are most people's needs) and it has really nice polyglot plugin support that should please developers.
- seltzered_ 13y ago
  Thanks for mentioning this, I've been developing a mac plugin (http://thimbleup.com http://thimbleup.com) and didn't realize Acorn also had plugin support.

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gte910h 13y ago

The excellent Sketch does it quite well, better than Pixelmator IMO http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ http://www.bohemiancoding.com/sketch/ It's not a look alike of photoshop, it's entirely redesigned and is fabulous and worth it.

efields 13y ago
I used Fireworks for half my career, and when it became obvious that Adobe was letting Fw rot, I went looking for alternatives. It took a little while, but Sketch has finally gotten there. Sketch a purely vector app, whereas Fireworks was a strange but workable hybrid of bitmap and vector. When I need to throw down some raster graphics, I fire up Pixelmator.
- gte910h 13y ago
  I too find Fireworks CS4 too useful to dump entirely. Particularly canvas resizing.
Osmium 13y ago
I also like Sketch -- it's a very powerful app and very polished, though I find I use it a lot less than I thought I would since it seems to occupy an uneasy place between OmniGraffle and Acorn in my workflow. I wouldn't be surprised if I use it a lot more after another few versions...
Samuel_Michon 13y ago
Pixelmator is a bitmap graphics program (like Photoshop and Acorn), while Sketch is a vector graphics program (like Illustrator and Inkscape). Both have different uses.
deleted 13y ago
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eightyone 13y ago
I like Sketch, but it has really poor performance on my MacBook Air. A file of comparable size is way smoother in Illustrator than it is in Sketch from my experience.

felixthehat 13y ago

Sadly the XAML export plugin no longer works in Illustrator CS6, I've spoken to the dev, Mike Swanson and apparently it'd be a nightmare to upgrade. I keep a copy of CS5 installed just for this reason.

joseph_cooney 13y ago
Inksckape has XAML export capabilities, depending on what kinds of files you're working on this could be useful.

canthonytucci 13y ago

*Replaces if you only use the most basic features

Osmium 13y ago

I'd also recommend Acorn[4]. It's a phenomenal app, has recently received a major update (early bird pricing until end of May) and is, in my opinion, much more "Mac-like" and pleasant to use compared to Pixelmator. It's my go-to app for fast tasks while still being powerful enough to do more serious things. Not to mention it has rock solid scripting support too. [4] http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/ http://flyingmeat.com/acorn/

shaddyz 13y ago

what about Gimp and Inkscape for alternatives? Both are free software. Gimp - Raster Graphics - http://www.gimp.org/ http://www.gimp.org/ Inkscape - Vector Graphics - http://inkscape.org/ http://inkscape.org/

kunai 13y ago
Gimp is really one of the most incredible pieces of open-source/free software I have used. But, it's primary advantages (open source, powerful) are what have led to its limited use. Like many open source projects, the interface is designed pragmatically, like emacs or vi, but this is a problem -- no professional has the time or the money to learn a complex UI. The same goes for LibreOffice. Extremely powerful with a ton of untapped potential, but untapped nevertheless due to a dated and unintuitive UI. Inkscape and Scribus are better in this regard, and I've seen many professionals use them with outstanding results. I've been able to create vectors with Inkscape without much difficulty. I can't say the same about Gimp. If someone really had the time and the dedication, they could re-engineer the entire frontend of Gimp from scratch for each platform, while leaving the excellent backend in place, but I doubt any sane individual would be able to do so without the help of the original developers due to the lack of full documentation available. Still, it's worth trying. It's got 90% of the features of Ps but with 100% fewer dollars paid for it.
- krapp 13y ago
  I had to use Gimp professionally once (long story short, a sudden web banner EMERGENCY came up and Gimp was all I had available) and it was terrible. I don't doubt it would've been easier and less painful had I been familiar with the UI but it just seemed so poorly designed. It is the best free graphics software out there, maybe, but it's hardly a worthy replacement for photoshop yet (although it is getting better.)
  - douglasheriot 13y ago
    Yep.
- pserwylo 13y ago

rip747 13y ago

If you're on windows XP or higher, give Paint.net a try: http://www.getpaint.net/ http://www.getpaint.net/ They even have a PSD plugin: http://psdplugin.codeplex.com/ http://psdplugin.codeplex.com/

voltagex_ 13y ago
I got the impression that Paint.NET was abandoned.
- cnahr 13y ago
  It's not, it's just that progress towards 4.0 has been slow: http://blog.getpaint.net/2013/03/30/paint-net-4-0-brushes-and-shapes-and-stuff/ http://blog.getpaint.net/2013/03/30/paint-net-4-0-brushes-an...
nacs 13y ago
A big problem with Paint.net IMO is that they don't support pressure-sensitive tablets at all (like Wacom tablets). This is an absolutely essential feature for any serious graphics work. GIMP is far better at the same price (free) and also supports PSD.

mtgx 13y ago

Is Pixelmator ever coming to Windows?

chc 13y ago
I wouldn't bet on it soon. It was designed as a Mac app from the ground up. Porting to Windows would be a pretty big endeavor not much smaller than building the app in the first place, and they're currently doing pretty well as the big fish in the Mac pond.