This app is absolutely awesome, and there is a good chance you already have it right there on your Mac. Without even knowing it.

We have sneaked a totally wicked but secret feature into Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry. It’s a trick to convert your standard Pixelmator into a completely new drawing app. We call this new app (or more accurately this mode of an app) Vectormator.

Vectormator brings up and conveniently places all of the drawing tools and palettes on your screen. So you can create stunning shapes, illustrations, logos, and so much more, more easily than ever before. 

To switch to Vectormator, simply press the Command-Shift-V keyboard shortcut, and watch the tools and palettes instantly change to Vectormator. To switch back to your Pixelmator, press the same keyboard shortcut again. Watch that happen in our short Vectormator video or try it yourself now.

This is it. Pixelmator is now a fully featured vector graphics app.

Today the Pixelmator Team released Pixelmator 2.2, a major update of the world’s most innovative, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editing app. Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry features new, easy-to-use Smart Shape, Move and Paint Selection Tools, and a new Light Leak effect for creating retro-artistically illuminated images. Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry is available today as a free update from the Mac App Store.

“We’re excited to deliver even more, easy-to-use, advanced features to our Pixelmator fans and continue to create the best and most enjoyable image editing experience,” said Saulius Dailide of the Pixelmator Team. “With new state-of-the-art Smart Shape Tools, people can fully enhance their images, create logos, Web layouts, posters, and much more, all easier than ever before.”

Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry comes with more than 100 new features and improvements, including:

Smart Shapes Tools, which let you quickly adjust a shape’s outline with easy-to-use controls to get just the look you’re after;

Shapes palette packed with dozens of readily available shapes that are as easy to add as dragging and dropping;

Shape Style palette, so you can effortlessly create more polished and advanced shapes;

Convert Text into Shape feature, which allows you easily apply gradients, shadows, strokes, or even reshape individual letters;

Smart Move Tool, which knows when you are working with image or shape layers and gives you the options you need at that time;

Paint Selection Tool, which is the simplest and the fastest way to make the most challenging selections with a few brush strokes;

Light Leak effect, which makes it easy and fun to create stunning, retro-artistically illuminated images from any of your photos.

Additional features include the new Color Popovers for quicker access to color swatches, new gradient presets, improved drawing tools, an improved Type Tool, the ability to copy and paste shape styles, and major performance improvements.

Pixelmator 2.2 is available from the Mac App Store at a promotional price of $14.99. For existing Pixelmator customers who purchased the app from the Mac App Store, the new update is free.

P.S. In addition to this awesome new major update we are also introducing a completely revamped Pixelmator Tutorials web site.

I must say our pricing, ownership, and development philosophy are completely different from Big Brother. We focus only on creating the world’s best image editing app. Nothing else. No distractions. Just this to drive us forward: the compulsive curiosity to see what happens after we have the perfect image editing app ready for you.

At the Pixelmator Team we believe that our way is the right way.

In fact, previous Pixelmator updates are the evidence of what I’m saying now. All of them come with a multitude of amazing new features and improvements that are completely free. But what’s even more important is that your feedback is unbelievably great about every single one of them.

We’ll prove ourselves again later on this week. On Thursday, we will storm the Mac App Store with a free Pixelmator 2.2. Blueberry upgrade for all of our existing customers. Don’t be confused by versioning numbers. This isn’t a minor update—it’s a MAJOR UPGRADE—and it’s great one.

Then, as I mentioned sometime ago, we are on track to ship layer styles later this year. We just wanted to complete this awesome Blueberry upgrade.

After Big Brother’s latest move, I am confident that our philosophy of pricing ($15), ownership (you own the app), and development (focus on creating the world’s best image editing app) are simply the right things to do.

Happy coloring! As for me, I’m back on Pixelmator 2.2 Blueberry, and I promise you won’t have to wait for the next post too long.