Today Pixelmator dropped version 2.3 of Pixelmator Pro. There are a few highlights of note:

• AI-powered automatic background removal: With just a click, users will now be able to remove the background from any image

• AI-powered automatic subject selection: Again with just a click, users will now be able to automatically select the subject of an image

• A Select and Mask tool for advanced selections: This is designed to make it easy to select the most challenging image areas of all – hair, fur, and other objects with very complex edges.

These new features are powered by ML algorithms that are integrated into Pixelmator Pro using Core ML. As a resul, they are very fast on M1-powered devices. For example, background removal takes around 2-5 seconds on M1 devices and up to 30 seconds on Intel devices for an average image.

I spent some time with the pre-release version and the background removal is remarkably good with the press of just one button. I love how Pixelmator has been jumping on the use of artificial intelligence to make image editing easier (and better). In celebration of the new release, Pixelmator is 50% off starting today and for a limited time.