Thank you Pixlr fans: Pixlr-o-matic wins Best Photo Editing App!

Today Pixlr-o-matic received a 2011 Best App Ever award for the Best Photo Editing App on Android.

This is an annual set of awards hosted by 148apps.com. It’s particularly special because the award doesn’t come from an individual or editorial team. Apps are nominated by users and the winners are chosen by users, so this award is truly from you.

Thanks to all the Pixlr-o-matic fans that made this possible!

The Amazing Pixlr Express Re-launch!

Pixlr-o-matic has become a great success for us, especially in the short period of time and across all the different platforms and devices we support. Millions of people create stunning photos on their phones, tablets and in the web browser each day - this with just three simple clicks.

The main focus of the pixlr-o-matic apps has always been, easy and playful. It's important that anyone can understand and use the application. With that mantra in mind we can't add lots of new features because then we kinda lose the wide user base and the simpleness of the app.

So to give you people that feel a bit constrained in the pixlr-o-matic app more power we created the new Pixlr Express (http://pixlr.com/express/). Here you both can user the general adjustments like crop, re-size, colors, contrast and red eye reduction as well as control the impact of an effect, border or overlay. 

We really focued on the image and I'm extremely happy how the UI turned out, very scaled back but somewhat fun and very easy.

It might just be because Iv'e been coding and designing too many nights to get this product done, but really I feel like this is one of our best apps so far.. I'm very proud to make it public!

There are a bunch new things, like the new crop with simple constraints and straighten with it's easy but powerful grids.

And with just a click on the "More" button you get access to all the different content packs we have with tons of old and new effects, overlays and borders!

We will keep updating the content so come back often and check for new awesomeness!

As always when one creates a product from scratch there can be things that don't really work as it should or stuff that seems weird. If you find anything please let us know in the support area.

Ah and don't be greedy, let your friends know about the new app as well ;)

Be Safe - have fun! (http://pixlr.com/express/)

//Ola

Packs, packs, auto crop and packs!

It's hip to be square! (sorry for the bad 80th ref) .. For some odd reason people want their images to be square nowadays.

To please is what we do so we just added a "Auto crop" feature in Pixlr-o-matic (web version for now). Click the crop icon to toggle from original to squared format.

The feature might seem a bit limited but this is to keep the product what it is, easy, fun and fast.

You guys who want more control over the crop effects, overlays, borders etc just have to wait a week and get the new awesome Pixlr express.

Our designer have been busy creating new packs, the last week alone we added a total of 6 packs with over 120 different new looks, we will keep adding new stuff and have some really cool effects in store.

Out!

//Ola

FAQ: Yes packs are coming to Android, they are part of the next release due in a couple of weeks. No we will not do Blackberry or Windows mobile at this time :). Yes you can sneak peak at the new express (http://pixlr.com/secret/index.htm), but don't tell anyone. Yes we have some issues with the last Pixl-o-matic for iOS, some of the new effects are to memory expensive and crash on big images. Yes effect packs on iOS will be much cheaper soon.

Share “Your World” with ABC News, Pixlr

We teamed up with ABC News to help you create and share “Your World” as part of a viewer generated art project to re-imagine our globe. ABC will combine the individual views to create a new vision of our planet and debut the crowd-sourced creation on "TED + Diane" in January 2012. Get started by downloading a template from ABCNews.com, then color and design your world in any way you see fit.

We’ll also share the final piece with you here on the Pixlr blog, but make sure to tune in to see the global perspectives live on ABC!

Content packs for Pixlr-o-matic web!

One of the great things about our Pixlr-o-matic products are the amount of different high quality effects we have in them. Well .. now we are adding tons and tons of new effects, overlays and borders.

For now there is a big plus in the end of the strip, click that to get into the pack browse and start adding and removing items from your strips.

We'll be adding more packs in the coming days and keep adding them.



Off to play!

//Ola

Pixlr-o-matic for Android!

The number one request we have had since the first launch of Pixlr-o-matic for iOS has been to release it on Android as well.

So today I'm happy to reveal the Android version of pom, download the app here!

Now go off and play, let us know what you think!

Say hello to some new friends!

I just released an update to pixlr-o-matic for the web. It mostly contains a lot of tweaks under the hood but we managed to squeeze some new effects in there for you to play with.

New to the effect family are Samantha, Ramona, Fred, Dean and Jean. We also have done some tweaks to Harry, Bob and Melissa to make them look better.

We did however lose some effects at the same time, gone are Rachel, Courtney, Agatha, Leslie and William. Mosley because no-one liked them..

The big thing under the hood was adding code for a release of something we call "packs", in the near future you will be able to add tons of different new effects, borders and overlays to the strip.

Now go along and play with the new effects and let us know what you think!

//Ola

Pixlr-o-matic for Windows and OSX

The Pixlr-o-matic product line has been a smashing hit for us here at Pixlr HQ*, we made it available in Facebook, Chrome web store, on pixlr.com and as an iOS app for you mobile Apple devices. (Soon also Android)

Some time ago I got this mail from a guy who loves the web version of o-matic, he doesn't own a smartphone and he want's to create vintage photos on his travels, especially in areas that don't have internet access like the middle of nowhere Asia.


So I'm getting this picture in my head of a lonely guy stranded in Asia with a Buddhist monk on his right side and a panda bear on his left side, they are all sad and have tears in their eyes ... Therefore I'm especially excited to make this guy (and the panda) happy because today we are releasing Pixlr-o-matic for Windows and OSX. Jump over to the download page and install the app for you offline days!

Out!
Ola

*We actually don't have a HQ, the people working with Pixlr are spread out over several offices from Stockholm in Sweden, to Shanghai in China, to Tonto in Canada, to San Francisco and Portland in USA.

Three years anniversary and millions of reasons to be happy!

It kind of interesting how fast one get used to how things are right now and take stuff for granted - I remember writing this post a year ago and I was so happy about our growth and numbers. Compared to last year we have grown over 250% and today we edit more than 20 million images per month with our web based utilities (Crazy).

Another epic win for us is the release of our first mobile application Pixlr-o-matic has totally blown up, we are talking about hitting one million downloads from iTunes store in just 11 days! We also pushed the all so popular Instagram of its throne and we were at one time the 10th most popular free iOS app in the world.

I'm so looking forward to the release of Pixlr-o-matic for Android and the other mobile applications we have in store for you.

Short and sweet - it's been a amazing year and I'm looking forward to the coming one, I promise we will deliver ever more cool, fun and wicked updates and products.

Humble and happy!

Ola - Founder, pixlr.com

Pixlr-o-matic goes mobile!

Yes it's true, now you can get the same fun and cool effects direct on your iDevice! Today we released Pixlr-o-matic for iOS i.e iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Not much to say - Just go to iTunes and hook the sweet app to your device!

http://itunes.apple.com/app/pixlr-o-matic/id450263811?mt=8

Over and out!
Ola

ps .. yes there will be an Android version soon enough ;) ds

Pixlr now a part of the Autodesk world.

So yes, we where bought by Autodesk - for you guys who don't know who they are ..  I'm not surprised, not that they aren't a big and important company but just because they - until a couple of years ago just worked with professional tools. Stuff like 80% of all modern cars are designed with and like all the special effects in movies and games are made in tools from Autodesk... You know the movie Avatar was made with tools from this company (and your IKEA furniture and LEGO toys)...

So yes they are big and great - In our case (The big PIXLR) we are part of a department called "Consumer group" they work with a slightly  different set of rules and approach, we have the freedom to try out different stuff and see if people like them. In this group there are products like Sketchbook, Thinkerbox and 123d.

The BIG! changes we are going to do on pixlr.com are .. nothing, nada, zip .. the people at Autodesk believe in the stuff we have done so far and we are going to be free enough to still deliver kick-ass products. We are however going to be more people working on the service so better, more stable and new products are going to be the result. (Like Pixlr-o-matic for iOS - I didn't say that by the way ..;) )

Oh and a other change is the tone on my tan since I'm going to spend a lot more time in San Francisco :) (Sweden have harsh winters)

To sum it up - No change, still free, open and great!

Cheerio
Ola

Pixlr-o-matic!

People - I'm so excited today, the reason being the release of our new product, we call it Pixlr-o-matic! Until today we have focused on creating utilities, you know applications that can help you being more productive and be there when you need to fix an image, do a screenshot or share work in progress.

Pixlr-o-matic is our first product that we release for the broader market, an application that anybody can understand but still create awesome photos!. The application is foremost designed to fit within Facebook but works great on its own as well, you however lose the ability to open and save from and to your Facebook account.

The idea was to create a fun and playful "post process" darkroom where you can experiment with different base effects, overlays and borders.

Start of by selecting an image to play with either from your webcam, Facebook, your computer or you can just click one of our examples in the bottom.

The image is brought into the darkroom where you can select from a large number of effects, overlays and borders .. but why take my word for it? Go to http://apps.facebook.com/o-matic/ if you have a Facebook account or http://pixlr.com/o-matic/ if you don't.

We would like your help though - please like and share the application so that all of your friends get to create cool looking photos as well.

A single photo can have more then 25 000 different looks!

Help us out by like, tweeting, blogging etc if you need any material you can download logo/image pack here

//Ola

Pencil tool renewed

The old pencil tool was kinda pointless, well it was the same as the brush but with a "hard" stamp instead of soft shades. I just released a new version of the pencil that's aimed towards people that sketch and/or paint on a blank canvas. There are six different styles of fills to select from all a bit different and you can select the one you like to get the smoothest and best result.

If you are looking for the old pencil behavior there is now a setting on the brush tool called "Hard tip" that will match the previous pencil.

If you do create something stunning don't forget to share it on facebook or twitter.

Cheerios!

//Ola

Marquee sizing options

We've added some new sizing options to the Marquee tool. You can now choose to make a selection with a specific aspect ratio or specify the exact size of the selection you'd like, just like you can with the Crop tool. This makes it even easier to select exactly the area you want to work with.

Happy Editing,

Jeff

Night Vision!

We've added a new image filter that gives your photos that "secret mission" look. The filter gives you control over how bright the image is (the gain) and also lets you control how much noise is generated by your virtual night vision camera. Just add your favorite photos!

Happy Editing,

Jeff

Image sharing for everyone!

Imm.io is growing like crazy, we just passed 5 million image views a day. Clearly people like it.

A week ago we moved imm.io to a new more robust and stable home. This change now makes us confident that we can offer image sharing to any other service that wants to use it.

So check out our new api page at http://imm.io/api/ and start building cool stuff!

Cheers

Kim

Color pod

In our quest of creating the best image editor for the masses I started to think about the color selector and the pads. The result for the toolbar was the new color pod where we now just have a main color and then six additional history pads.

So when you are drawing or working with skin tones etc you get this automatic swatch of the last used colors. When using the color picker you can simply select 6-7 colors you want to work with and then get going :)

The shortcut keys X and D are still working, X will reset to black and white while D will switch the main color to the last used one.

Out!

//Ola

Color management REDUX!

Wow, long time since the last blog update. We have done a lot behind the scenes like moved imm.io to amazon to handle the 5 million+ image views a day, updated grabber for firefox 4 and we also released the color balance adjustment and then some.

But that's not why I'm typing today .. I just released a new color selector that I would like to talk a bit about. We have not updated the color tool since the first release 2,5 years ago so it's about time.

The idea behind the new color tool is to simplify color management so everyone can understand the works behind blending color but still have the power to be precise. The dialog now have four different tabs, let me walk you though them.

1. Hue, saturation and lightness (HSL)
This is a new refined layout of the old way to select color, you define the base of the color, the "Hue" with the 360° color wheel. The middle map is partly the amount of color, the saturation and partly the lightness of the color.

2. Red, green, blue (RGB)
I know you all remember drawing classes you had as a child, you know when the teacher learned you about the blending of colors to produce new ones and you all started to blend all paint which always ended up as grey smudge ..

Well the rgb tab simulates just that blending which helps most of us understand the working of colors and blending on the screen.

3. Web colors (WEB)
Back in the days when I started as a web designer it was very important to keep to the defined web colors to ensure that your design would look as good as possible on all types of monitors.

4. Image colors (IMG)
The last tab give you access to the most common colors in the image you are working on. This is really good if you want to add background gradients or text  that fit into the overall color style of the picture.

The outputs has also gone though some changes, now you will get some alternatives on the selected color, just click the color you like to work with that.


This is just the first release of the color selector and we are working on adding swatches and color history to the workflow as well, but we wanted to get this out and see what you think of it.

Over and out!
Ola

More language things ..

This week we made some changes how we handle languages. By default we will load the language you have in your browser. That's great for most of you and makes it much more straight forward, no fiddling with the menu.

If you (like me) don't want the language we provide there is a setting if have a account.

This also means that the loc parameter in the API is deprecated since we do this for you.

Now I'm off to create a new color wheel! :)

//Ola

Picasa joins the connected club ..

Today we released a new version of the editor where we added Open and save to Picasa. The image to the left is actually saved via the editor and included in this blog (blogger) direct from picasa web album. Always nice to skip steps when writing your posts.

There are also a couple of small tweaks in this release first the dialogs remember the location so if you use filters and adjustments a lot and put the window to the side or under the image the next will also be in the same place.

You can also zoom a image with the scroll wheel on your mouse.

We also finally fixed the save bug in Linux. (*yay*)

Now I'm of to see Tron!

//Ola