Pixlr blog

Pixlr Express ReUpdate!

2012-02-02T20:13:00.003+01:00

Not to go into too many details here but we have an overall strategy with our editing products, one can say; Simple, Effective and Advanced. This then corresponds to our current offering of Pixlr-o-matic, Pixlr Express and Pixlr Editor.

We get tons of requests of adding more features, sliders, knobs and choices in Pixlr-o-matic but if we did that the reason why o-matic is such a awesome product would go away, it would be too hard to understand and to many settings. So o-matic works very well for novice users and people who want to play with an image once in a while. For more active users and those who want more control over the effects as well as adjustments, touchups, texts, stickers we have the new Express (http://pixlr.com/express/).

The concept of a single strip of items is good in o-matic but in express we really want to surface all the awesome content we actually have and are constantly adding more to. This is where the changes we just released come into play. When you now click one of the tabs you see all the different packs in that section (instead of only the default pack). When you click a pack you get a additional setting for selecting between all the items in that pack.

If there are more items then fits into your screen size you can scroll the content with the arrows in the top left corner or just drag/flick the strip with your mouse.

When you want to try an item you click on it and the strip goes away, it then load and apply the effect. A tip here is to click on the “pin” button in the top right corner to lock the strip from hiding, then you can click trough the list and try stuff out!

We also added buttons for shuffle and favorite, one click on the shuffle and we by random select one item in the pack, great if you don’t really know what you might want. By clicking on the favorite button you add the current item to your favorite list.

As soon as you have any item as a favorite there will be an extra pack in the menu called favorites for quick access to your selected items.

Express is new and will be updated on a daily basis for the next month, more content, fonts and touch-ups to look out for!

//Ola

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

2012-01-28T00:01:00.003+01:00

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!

2012-01-14T05:21:00.001+01:00

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!

2012-01-09T16:07:00.000+01:00

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

2011-12-14T02:05:00.006+01:00

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!

2011-09-26T13:37:00.000+02:00

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!

2011-09-16T14:53:00.000+02:00

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!

2011-09-07T00:40:00.000+02:00

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

2011-08-29T06:58:00.001+02:00

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!

2011-08-18T03:06:00.004+02:00

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!

2011-08-05T20:28:00.000+02:00

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.

2011-07-20T23:56:00.001+02:00

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!

2011-05-23T07:00:00.002+02:00

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

2011-04-13T17:07:00.000+02:00

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

2011-04-01T16:00:00.004+02:00

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!

2011-03-28T23:23:00.000+02:00

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!

2011-03-25T17:55:00.003+01:00

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

2011-03-25T16:15:00.000+01:00

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!

2011-03-21T23:41:00.004+01:00

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 ..

2011-01-20T21:01:00.000+01:00

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 ..

2011-01-14T16:45:00.001+01:00

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

Paste from Clipboard!!

2010-12-15T03:13:00.000+01:00

One of the most requested features for .. well .. the last 2 years have been pasting from the "real" clipboard, i.e the user prints screen and paste into the editor or copy between applications etc..

But .. we decides to do web based applications and how sweet some things may be there are limitations to Flash, JavaScript and HTML5, one of them is security. We simply can't read the clipboard due to limitations or rather your protection (Think if all the websites you visit could just pick your clipboard data) .

Well last week I was attending a conference in Paris (LeWeb) and I got this idea of how one might do this workaround and solve the clipboard problem. A few days later, loads of browser crashes, shouting and cheering I solved it and hope it will work for most of you as well.

I'm really excited and happy to be able to present something so simple but yet awesome as clipboard access!! When you use paste for the first time you will get the waning you see in the image above, just check the box to always agree, then OK and you will be able to paste in the future without the disruption.

There are some limitations, you will need Java 1.6+ installed (most of you do), we don't save to clipboard and we can't do transparency in images yet.

Please let me know if it works for you.
Ola

More languages ..

2010-12-11T22:39:00.001+01:00

Updating languages ..

2010-11-16T23:23:00.004+01:00

The last year or so Pixlr editor have been developed in a very fast pace and the different translations have not been updated in the same time. So we are redoing all the translations from scratch and adding some more.

Check them out and bookmark the editor in your language for quick access!

Arabic - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=ar
Russian - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=ru
French - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=fr
Korean - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=kr
Portuguese - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=pt
Spanish - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=es
Danish - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=dk
Norwegian - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=no
Ukrainian - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=uk
Japanese - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=jp
Turkish - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=tr
Polish - http://pixlr.com/editor/?loc=pl

The rest will soon follow :)

Connection made!

2010-11-12T15:34:00.000+01:00

Just added flickr to the pixlr library, yes you can now open and save images to and from flickr.com ...

If you want to be a bit wild 'n crazy you can even open from facebook and save to flickr ..

Cheerio
Ola

What's next? - Take 4

2010-10-26T17:26:00.000+02:00

Yep it's this time again, I want to know what you would like to see come next from us. Comment this post with the things you feel that's missing and we might put it on the backlog of things to do.

Even if someone said it before say what you want!

//Ola

Editor Update

2010-10-25T19:51:00.000+02:00

Had few days of cleaning up and adding small features to the editor:

1. Updated mouse cursors to match the tools.
2. Updated free transform tool.
3. Added free distort tool.
4. Now possible to drag selections between two images.
5. Drag whit move tool to copy and paste a selected area onto a second image.
6. Open image as new layer.

And also some bug fixes :)

//Ola

Connected!

2010-10-21T19:31:00.000+02:00

As I said when we launched Pixlr Library some days ago we have now addeed the first 3rd party. You can open and save images directly from and to your facebook albums.

Hope you like it!

//Ola

Pixlr Library

2010-10-19T14:23:00.001+02:00

The stuff we mainly are working on right now are all about store, save and collaborate.

The first thing released is the ability to sign up to pixlr and the ability to store images and work in progress in our cloud.

The main idea is not that you should upload and backup all your images but more of saving the work you do, templates and pxd files you have so you can continue working on the images later.

In this release you just have the possibility to open and save from pixlr but the next release will enable you to open and save from Facebook, Flickr and Picasa.

Future releases will also include sharing and collaborating on the same image, quick save drafts while you working on a image (in case of the browser crash or you close the browser).

So much more to come, but if you find anything not working in this release please let us know.

//Ola

New release of pixlr editor!

2010-08-31T17:49:00.001+02:00

In this release of the editor we have a whole new set of icons for the tool-bar. Loads of more colour, might take some time to get used to but I think it looks fab!

Also updated the Crop Tool, now you have options like crop to size and constrain aspect ratio.

Right click menus are added to the canvas, different tools have different menus.

Also some minor bugs where squashed.

//Ola

New hosting

2010-08-22T13:55:00.000+02:00

During the week we moved the pixlr.com site to new servers with a bit more room and speed to support further growth and all the cool stuff coming this fall and wither.

Please let us know if you get some error or something that don't work as it used to.

I would also give a big thanks to Thomas and Netfirms who have supported pixlr during the last 2 years, with them I have been able to focus on developing the service and they have kept the site running without any trouble. I would recommend them to anyone needing high quality hosting.

Cheerio

Ola

2 year anniversary! Big update!

2010-08-17T16:54:00.017+02:00

Today is a special day here at pixlr headquarters, not only is it the 2nd anniversary of our service but it's also the very first day at our first office. Believe it or not but until now pixlr has more or less been running as a side project (a lot of time has went into it though).

So 2 years .. I could do the same as last year and tell you how great it's going and whatnot .. it's all good we have grown more then 350% since last year and made several cool releases but that's not all that fun for you.

Instead I'm going to tell you about the release we just did, some very intense days with not that much sleep have produced no less then 13 spanking new features and updates! All of the updates are for the editor the product which started it all.

Gaussian blur, Box blur and Unsharp mask

First out is some different new blurs and sharpen. We have added two new blur and one new sharpening method.

All three functions are something the editor has been missing since the launch of the service.

Polar coordinates and Water swirl

Two new displacement filters have been added, the image to the left is made with the polar coordinates filter, before at the top and after is the bottom part.

A newish filter is water swirl, it's not entirely new but its now a lot more useful. Setting for size, amount and direction are added.

Glamour glow

Glamour glow adds a fuzz, pale and intense effect on your photo. This filter works best on lighter images and you may need to adjust the curves a bit afterwards depending on the image you are using.

Mimic HDR

HDR is a popular effect where you use several images with different exposure and combine them to get a larger range of colors. Our mimic HDR filter tries to add the same effect but with only a single image.

This effect is like the glamour glow, it don't work on all images but it can create a rather cool effect on the right ones.

Hope

I'm quite sure I don't need to explain this filter so much but for you who have lived on a other planet for the last couple of years it creates an effect that mimics a certain poster ..

Sepia, Solarize and Exposure

Three new color adjustment added to the editor are sepia which gives the image an old feel, solarize mimics an effect from old days and exposure can fix under or over exposed photos.

Added more curves presets and new gradients

The last news in this release we have filled up two existing features with more content.

In the curves adjustment we have added an additional 15 presets that create nice looking photos, my favorites are "The 60's vintage" and the new "Cross process" but "Light Amber" and "Chocolate" are also nice on the right photo.

In the gradients tool and color lookup adjustment we have added 25 new gradient presets.

I'd love to hear what you think of this large update, play around and let me know will ya.

With love from middle Stockholm!
Ola & Kim

imm.io - up again

2010-07-13T13:43:00.000+02:00

So for you who have noticed imm.io has been down for a couple of days. The provider we used for that service (not the same as pixlr.com) didn't like us since we used a lot of storage and bandwidth.

We have moved imm.io and it's up and running for most of you. If you cant see the site it's a delay in some DNS servers.

All the images are currently being uploaded to the new site so it might take a day or so before all the content is back.

Peace!

//Ola

High-res brushes

2010-06-29T16:24:00.001+02:00

I just added three more brush packs in the editor, clouds, dirt and suds. These sets are all in high-res and quite large so it can take some time to load them.

Have fun =)

//Ola

Color replace tool

2010-05-26T15:24:00.007+02:00

By request here is the release of our color replace tool. In the first release we focused on getting the tool out and see what response we get. We will add functionality and tweak the algorithms going forward.

The tool works in the way that you select a color in the main color pad (bottom of the toolbox).

Then you start drawing on the color you want to replace, the tool use the center of the brush as a reference for the replace color (i.e the entire brush don't have to cover the color).

A tip is to play around with the tolerance and also do the entire replace in one sweep.

Let us know how it works!

From Sweden with love - Ola

Elliptical Marquee

2010-05-13T00:53:00.004+02:00

Just added the Elliptical Marquee tool to the editor .. It's a bit embarrassing that we do this so late into the game .. just sorta fell of the list of (fun) stuff to do :)

We have also added quite a lot of new brush sets during the last couple of weeks - so if you haven't played around take the chance to do so.

Cheerio - Ola

Brush browser!

2010-04-29T00:31:00.005+02:00

So it's a bit past midnight here in Sweden and (since I'm a firm believer that sleep is highly overrated) I just made a new wicked feature available. It's the brush browser, this little util makes the previous releases a bit more usable.

With the new feature you will be able to browse through the different custom brushes we have to offer thus enabling you to create even more stunning images.

There are a handful packs right now but we will be releasing new brush packs as often as posible. To open the browser just click the "MORE" button on the right hand in the brush panel.

Play around and enjoy!

Peace - Ola

Crushed paper, doodles and circles ..

2010-04-19T21:00:00.004+02:00

Three additional brush sets:

Crushed Paper

Circular

Doodles

//Ola

New brush packs

2010-04-17T17:30:00.007+02:00

Three new brush packs:

Star Burst

Soft Dots

Flowers (updated)

If you want to create you own pack just draw figures on a white or transparent background, select the area with one of the selection tools and the click Edit->Define brush (Ctrl+K).

If you made a wicked brush pack please send it to us!

Have a nice weekend - Ola

Custom brushes ..

2010-04-15T22:43:00.010+02:00

Earlier today we made a pre-release of the new brush features with the possibility to load custom brushes - this means painting with anything from charcoal to hearts and all other types of objects and shapes.

Right now we just released the basic features and you will need to load the brushes from your local computer. Soon will will add the brush browser so you can load direct from our server into the editor.

The browser is next on the list but for now you need to download some of these sets and load the set from the editor.

Animal Tracks

Atlantis

Charcoal

Eyelashes

Flowers

Hearts

Peace And Love

Smudge

Splatter

Stars

~~Download, open brush selector, click Load set and select one of the downloaded files. Please let us know what you think, it's important that it works well.~~

If you want to create your own brush just select the area you want and click "Edit->Define brush" in the menu. If you create a cool set please send it to us so we can share it with the rest of the users.

Cheers

Ola

Maximize windows

2010-03-30T00:15:00.007+02:00

Just released a new feature for the Pixlr Editor, beside the close button there is now a maximize icon as well. When you click it the canvas will expand and cover the entire screen. The controls jump up to the right of the optionbar. When working in maximized view there is also an icon to list all of the open document so you quickly can jump between them in maximized view.

Feels good to be back on track and develop new features. Don't miss out on giving your 2 cents on what you want us to release next..

http://blog.pixlr.com/2010/03/whats-next-take-3.html

Also fixed some bugs from the release yesterday.

Ola

Whats next - Take 3

2010-03-29T15:33:00.005+02:00

For you guys who have been around for a while (60% returning visitors!) this is not new :)

Again we would like to hear what you like to be next and you know we listen, ALOT of the stuff that are requested are implemented in the editor in a fast pace.

Even if someone else just said it - go ahead and make your voice heard as well. The stuff most commented will be higher on the list!

Thanks!

Ola

New release .. finaly!

2010-03-28T15:01:00.003+02:00

It feels like it was ages since I wrote about a update ... so it's really great to finaly release this update of the editor. Almost three month of development and you will not see the difference, yes we have done a lot of boring re-factoring.

However the things you will see is the first update of the text tool, now there is a floating palette when playing with the tool, more updates will come. It's also possible to draw lines with the different brush tools by holding down shift key.

As usual don't hesitate to contact us if you find any error, there are a lot of changes done.

Peace!
Ola

Pixlr Grabber - now for Chrome!

2010-02-19T16:29:00.004+01:00

So it's been a while since we released something, we are actully doing a big boring refractory of the editor *phuh*. So I'm very happy (and humble) to announce the Grabber extension for Chrome. It's popular on Firefox and has been requested by many to Chrome.

This is a BETA so I love to hear what you think, we had to do some weird stuff to get the small number of chrome features to do what we want.

-> Get it HERE <-

//Ola

New Pixlr Service - Imm.io!

2010-01-24T21:28:00.012+01:00

This is a exciting day, we are happy to announce our latest service - Pixlr Imm.io. Imm.io is a one click image sharing service, that alone is of course not that special. But if you hook the other pixlr services onto imm.io that's when the real power arise.
Both Pixlr editor and Pixlr Grabber now has a choice to publish your image direct onto imm.io. In return you will get a short url to share among your friends and foes.

We also released Grabber 2.0 for Firefox.

This version of the popular extension we have redone the entire thing and I'm very happy with the result. Now you can choose to Edit, Share, Save or Copy the screen grabs you make. So as soon as Mozilla have approved the new version it will pop up in your browser.

The next time you what to show of something you did just select the "Share to imm.io" in the new editor save dialog.

Peace!

//Ola

New release!

2010-01-11T00:37:00.008+01:00

We just sent out a new release of the Pixlr Editor, this time we focused on the selection tools and updates to filters and adjustments.

Since we have added anti-alias and feather all of the tools, filters, cut/paste, mask etc had to be updated.
Now if you want to make a cutout or filter a specific part it will be smooth sailing.

This is whats new:

- Feather in Lasso and Marquee tool.
- Anti-aliasing in Wand, lasso and paint bucket tool.
- Hue/Saturation, Brightness/Contrast and Threshold adjustments are now shown in real time.
- Cross-process, desaturate and Tilt-shift are much faster.
- A bunch of small tweaks and fixes.

That' all for now :)

Out!

New decade - major release!

2010-01-02T16:54:00.010+01:00

Hope all of you had a nice decade and looking forward to this new one. I can tell you that we are very pepped to see what the turns of the web and cloud services takes us.

This first release of 2010 we bring you more advanced users good news, we just release a update of Pixlr Editor with the possibility to add Layer Masks. This is the first release of masks so the basic stuff should be there and will be updated later on.

Since masks are a very big deal this also means that to get masks into the application we had to go poking in all areas of the code, all from saving to resizing and painting. If you run into any bug or weirdness please please help us by submitting a bug report.

You find the mask in the "Layers" top-menu, in the right-click context menu of the "layer panel" and also the icon.

Other updates in this release:

Fixes of a couple of bugs and glitches.
The image will always open to fit on screen so you don't need to zoom out.
You can now press CTRL+J to create a layer copy.
If you save the same image you are working on often it will remember the type and name.

Thank you for this amazing year!

Cheers
Ola

Adding Christmas hat to your profile picture - 6 easy steps!

2009-12-16T14:15:00.035+01:00

So Christmas is just around the corner and you of course want to add a Christmas hat to your twitter, facebook, myspace etc picture. In this quick tutorial I'm going to show you how to do this in just 6 easy steps!

Step one: Select and open a hat in Pixlr Editor, just click the hat you like and we will do the magic.

I choose to click the third one and a window opened which look like this:

Hope this is similar to what you see :)

Step two: Now it's time to open a image of you. Click "File" -> "Open" in the top menu. Locate a nice and happy image of you and click "Open"

The image of you will now be open in the editor on top of the image of the hat.

Just like this :) (Oh no I'm not Brad Pit, but it's Christmas and one can wish)

Step three: Click on the window with the hat to put it in front of the image of you, now locate the layers panel at the right, with your mouse Click and drag the "Layer 0" layer to the window with you (yes it's now behind the hat window), drop the layer on-top of the image of you.

The image with you will now pop up in front of the hat and the hat will be copied to the image with you.

Step five: Transform the hat so it fits your head! The image you just copied to the image of yourself kinda don't fit, so now we need to move, resize and maybe rotate the hat so it fits.

In the menu click "Edit -> Free transform". Outline and corners will be added to the image of the hat.

See the Corners!

Move the hat by dragging the entire square. Resize by dragging in one of the four corners, hold down the shift key to constrain the proportions. Rotate by dragging outside of one of the four corners just like I do in this screen-shot:

When you are happy with the size and placing just click outside the square and click "yes" in the dialogue.

Step six: When you are satisfied with the result then it's time to save. Click "File -> Save" in the top menu. Select Jpg and type the name of the file you like, click OK.

Woila´, now just upload the image as a new avatar and spread the Christmas Spirit!

Merry Christmas to you all!
Ola

Copy & Paste Layer style, Drag & Drop Layers.

2009-11-21T20:28:00.003+01:00

Ok I'm not going to make this such a big thing that apple did when they added Copy/Paste to iPhone ;)

But you can now copy and paste layer styles between layers in the same image and between different image.

You are now also able to drag and drop layers from one image to another. Just grab a layer in the layer panel and drop it in a other image, tada!

And yes both features where requests from you users!
Over and out - Ola

Grabber branding

2009-11-17T16:45:00.004+01:00

Icons for pixlr editor and pixlr express was added a while ago. Now we have got the icon for pixlr grabber, so soon you will see a update to the grabber firefox add-on.

The last couple of month we have been working hard on delivering a custom editor to a large German web service, now it's done and we can go back to adding candy to the pixlr.com service. Stay tuned for new great updates, might be some of the requested items on the list!

//Ola

Whats next - take 2

2009-10-14T14:33:00.003+02:00

A couple of month ago I asked what we should do next with pixlr.com, since then a lot of the stuff you wanted has been released and some great stuff you didn't know you wanted ;) like the excellent pixlr grabber.

But once again I want to know; if it was up to you what would the next thing to be released be?

//Ola

Drag and Drop support added in layers panel!

2009-10-12T23:19:00.009+02:00

I'm still working on creating a better work flow for you .. just added drag n' drop to the layers panel.

This is what you can do:

1. Drag the layers to sort them. Unlock the background to be able to move it.
2. Drag a layer to the trash to delete it.
3. Drag a layer to the New Layer icon to duplicate it.

I'm quite satisfied with it, ie it works as i should :) What do you think?

Peace!

//Ola

Pixlr Grabber for Windows now available!

2009-09-29T16:38:00.007+02:00

Just released the Pixlr Grabber for Windows. Now you can right-click any image on your desktop and edit them in the Pixlr Editor without the hassle of manually starting the browser and browsing the image.

Download it from http://pixlr.com/grabber/ and install it today!

A plus is that the Pixlr pdx documents now has its own icon and you can just double-click it to open them.

A new take ..

2009-09-23T12:01:00.003+02:00

On the look of things ..

Over and out !

Ola

New version of the editor is out!

2009-09-09T00:39:00.003+02:00

Yepp just relesed a new version of the Pixlr Editor. We did a large re-factoring of how the layer handeling works. This means we have made changes to all parts of the application and this also means that I need your help to report any bugs you might find.

For you as a user the changes are:

Lower memory footprint when working with layers.
Free transform is just around the layer and not the entire image.
Layers can be dragged and moved around (and outside) of the document without them being cropped.
New layout of the Menu, layers box and history box. Yes it's blue and not so many lines, the scollbars also just shows when they need.
Rotate/flip layer works as it should.

So not that much news for you but a lot of changes and small fixes is done, it will help in future development of the editor.

All out!

Ola

Icons for the applications ..

2009-08-28T00:02:00.002+02:00

We are getting some real application icons for the editor and the express applications, here is some sketches I've gotten :) I love concepts.

One year anniversary! hurray

2009-08-17T18:18:00.012+02:00

Today one year ago I (Ola Sevandersson) released the first of the pixlr services, at that time I had been coding/designing for almost a year. All done in my spare time since I had a regular job as a product development mng for one of the largest social networks in Sweden.

The release was followed by these words in the blog:
"So it's sunday afternoon in Sweden and tomorrow I will let a few know about pixlr. I wonder what they will say about the result of from a years work and thousands of lines of code?"

Well I have to say that the "few" people i let know about the service grew to about 50.000 visitors in the FIRST two days .. quite a good release from my perspective .. Of course it was because it was featured in a couple of large tech-blogs (More on the first week)

Here is a graph of the growth of pixlr.com per month until today:

Solid climb :) Thanks to you all!

One of the key to success was that I didn't just focus on the English speaking part of the world but made it easy to translate the service and today pixlr is available in over 25 languages.

Visitors from Russia, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Brazil, Sweden, Mexico, Germany is often seen on the site :)

The first version of the editor was pretty basic and lacked a lot of features, but continued development has added a lot of tools, adjustments and filters for you all to enjoy. The first version didn't even have Type tool and free transform, wild times ;)

Some other facts:

Firefox add-on (rel 9 dec 2008)
Over 50.000 downloads of the plugin.

Pixlr Express (rel 28 mar 2009)
Great for inclusion in other sites via the API

Pixlr on Twitter (9 nov 2009)
More then 1200 followers.

Pixlr facebook apps (rel 16 june 2009)
Edit your facebook images direct with pixlr editor and pixlr express

Be first!
Pixlr has always tried to move the line of how a application on the web behaves and performs, still the Pixlr editor is just 186 kb large and is one of the most advanced online editors out there. With features like open psd, white balance, tilt-shift filter, curves, levels, dodge, burn, brush editor and more.

Does it end here ..
Noooo, now we are looking forward on the year to come .. you will meet the pixlr products in several more of the largest sites of the world and you might even use our product without knowing :)

I can't say to much but more connections to your desktop are in the pipe as well for a new redone version of the editor. A bit more clean look and a lot of optimization of the footprint.

Thanks you all for this wonderful year!

With the greatest gratitude
Ola

Help needed!

2009-07-21T23:19:00.002+02:00

Are you good at writing and know the workings of wiki systems? Want to contribute to the free pixlr service? I need som help getting the support pages updated and i'm so short on time.

Tutorials and other stuff would be great as well.

E-mail me and I'll add a wiki account.

Cheers
Ola

Release me!

2009-07-21T16:26:00.006+02:00

A couple of days ago I made the desiccation to stop supporting flash 9 in the new development and with over 85% using flash 10 that's not such a big impact on the users.

All flash 9 users will still be able to use pixlr editor but it will be a version that don't get any future development. (Update dammit! ;))

Due to the fact that we only develop for flash 10 we can use all of the new great things to make a even better product. First out is a optimized version of jpg saving and drawing, now we will focus on the new text engine to get great type possibilities.

I also released a set of features yesterday. First of the "Auto Levels" and also ...

Rename Layer

Color Lookup Filter

Tri Tone Filter

Peace
Ola

Poking around with the brushes ..

2009-07-05T22:55:00.003+02:00

Just released a new update with changes to the brush handling. Optimizing the work-flow again.

Also added short-cut keys for resizing/soften the brush, click "," and "." on your keybord to change brush size. Holding down shift and clicking "," and "." will change the hardness.

Use pixlr with facebook

2009-06-16T12:53:00.003+02:00

Now you can use the pixlr services on you facebook images.

Image Editor
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=110226352246

Photo Express
http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=44331323412

And also be a Pixlr fan
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pixlr/35846011511

Let me know what to do to improve the apps.

Cheers
Ola

Whats next ..

2009-06-08T23:33:00.001+02:00

The backlog for pixlr is quite long and just some of the items are on the wall to be done soon.

It's always hard to prioritize what's the next thing to put your hours into.

If you had your wish what would you like to be the next thing released?

Cheers
Ola

Finaly .. our own format :)

2009-06-08T09:31:00.003+02:00

So I just added or .. did add late last night a pixlr document format (.pxd). Saving a pxd file will keep all the layers, filters, texts etc so you can revisit the image and continue working on it.

It's also good if you would like to share files with friend or colleagues or for creating templates.

The pxd format will be open for anybody who wants to create readers, I'll add the document specification later on.

Remember this day!

2009-06-04T20:41:00.004+02:00

Yes you can now open Photoshop PSD files in the Image editor and Photo Express. We are first to do this native in Flash and online!

For all you who are not always in front of your desktop or just need to preview psd images. The Image editor opens layers and the express version open an flattened version.

We will optimize it more and give some feedback on loading etc, but I just wanted to get it out there!

Out!

Translation help :)

2009-04-24T16:34:00.017+02:00

Hi all, need some help updating the language files for image editor and adding new languages to photo express. There have been a lot of development since some of the translations were made.

To help with the translation just download the file you want to update, write a comment to this post that you will do the work so that we don't get a lot of double translations.

The new lines are at the bottom of each file in English. When you are done send the file to us by email.

Image Editor
de = German (0 lines)
en = English (0 lines)
dk = Danish (0 lines)
he = Hebrew (0 lines)
es = Spanish (72 lines)
fr = French (0 lines)
it = Italian (0 lines)
pl = Polish (76 lines)
pt-br = Brazilian-Portuguese (0 lines)
ro = Romanian (53 lines)
nl = Dutch (0 lines)
ru = Russian (0 lines)
uk = Ukrainian (0 lines)
sv = Swedish (0 lines)
sl = Slovenian(0 lines)
el = Greek (45 lines)
cs = Czech (45 lines)
th = Thai (47 lines)
tr = Turkish (52 lines)
jp = Japanese (43 lines)
tr = Korean (43 lines)
zh-cn = Simplified Chinese (0 lines)
zh-tw = Traditional Chinese (72 lines)

Photo Express
en = English (0 lines)
sv = Swedish (0 lines)
de = German (0 lines)
fr = French (0 lines)
no = Norwegian (0 lines)
dk = Danish (0 lines)
pt-br = Brazilian-Portuguese (0 lines)

If you want to add your own language and you feel that you can do a professional translation just copy the English file and translate into your language and send it to us.

Have a nice weekend!

Update: Thanks for all the help so far!

//Ola

White balance ..

2009-04-17T11:33:00.003+02:00

Still focus on doing the work flow better in pixlr image editor, added the possibility to use the colorpicker during the time the color chooser is active. Not a big change but oh so nice to have.

This also created a foundation for adding Sampling of white, grey and black points in the curves dialogue. It was requested yesterday by a photographer, apparently you use it to set the correct white and black point in a photo when it's taken in different lightning situations.

Oh and he was a bit surprised that we actually read and answer mails and listen to our users.

Cheers
Ola

Doing som updates

2009-04-15T23:54:00.002+02:00

Started doing some small updates on the Image editor, added context menus to the layers box for some quick shortcuts.

Also added Dutch language and fixed a bug regarding small 1x2 pixel images :)
Cheers!

Photo Express fresh from the press

2009-03-28T23:55:00.009+01:00

The first beta release of pixlr photo express is done *yay*. Give it a go @ http://pixlr.com/express and tell me what you think, what's good what's bad etc .. you know the drill!
The thought behind this application is that people with low experience from desktop photo editors still will be able to do basic and cool (Tilt-shift!) stuff to their photos.

I made it thinking of all the things you users love in the image editor, first of all its just about 55kb small(!) witch means that it loads like a sun of a gun! It has the same API as the image editor so it's a perfect partner for CMS and blogging systems.

Just added all the stuff i had laying around, will add more "panels" with effects and stuff in the future.

Love to hear from you all!

oh so long ago :)

2009-03-13T23:28:00.003+01:00

It's been a while since my last post .. no I've not gone to vacation ;) just been occupied with two great news for pixlr ..

Here is a sneak peak on what some express time has gone into:

The other new feature for the image editor I will keep a while .. oh oh it's so great!

Cheeeeeeers!

日本の最高の写真を編集する

2009-02-09T19:30:00.002+01:00

Just added three new languages Czech, Korean and Japanese.

Now pixlr is available in 18 language!

Big thanx to Martin Loužecký and David Smeaton

:)

Curves ..

2009-02-01T04:42:00.002+01:00

Just added Curves, you find it at Adjustments -> Curves.

Curves is great for total control of color adjustments. There are some presets you can try, I will add a few more.

Later!

Just wanted to say thanx!

2009-01-28T21:02:00.004+01:00

Googled pixlr today and got over 12.000.000 hits .. that is amazing .. just 5 month ago the same search gave me a couple of hundred results. Also the trend just keeps going upwards and the application is included in more other photo sites, it is really fun working on the service and it surley keeps me motivated through long nights.

So thank you all great users! If you have any suggestion or comments just send me a mail I have a policy to answer everybody :)

Back to coding some goood stuff :)

//Ola

Can some of you help me?

2009-01-27T11:29:00.004+01:00

If you haven't tried our Firefox add-on please go to the Mozilla add-on page and install the pixlr screen grabber and image fetcher.

When you are all wowed up how good it is and how it makes you day all bright and shiny can you be a pal and Write a Review (for some reason the previous are deleted) so the god-&#"!&% add-on can get public.

Thanx!!!

Vignette filter

2009-01-27T00:08:00.005+01:00

This thing about sleeping is getting really dumb .. anyways added vignette filter, makes photos and portraits a bit more intense. Filter -> Vinette

Pleasant night to all you who are on my side of the globe ;)

Tilt shift - More info

2009-01-26T14:31:00.010+01:00

"Miniature faking is a post-processing technique, which involves selectively blurring a photo to simulate the narrow depth of field found in macro photography and some tilt-shift photography, making the image appear to be of a miniature
model."

Yah, that's wikipedias explanation of the tilt shift post production technique.

My thought is that it is a wicked way of creating toy look alike pictures :) Give it a go :) You find it at Filter --> Tilt shift. If you get any cool result mail me and i'll post em here.

Click the images to see the result better .. blogger do crap up the images ..

Tilt shift and Heat map Filters

2009-01-26T03:13:00.001+01:00

New wicked stuff! Tell you more about it in the morning .. i gotta sleeeeeep.. Try em out :)

Basic drawing tools

2009-01-25T23:05:00.004+01:00

Just added basic drawing tools like line, ellipse, rectangle and rounded rectangle.

Will sooner add predefined custom shapes as well.

Keep it krewl!

New filter Cross process

2009-01-21T03:02:00.002+01:00

Got the chance to add my absolute favorite filter Cross process, it will make your image look a bit 70 ish and it looks so cool and makes almost all images interesting. You find it a Filter -> Cross process.

Later :)

Gradient is up!

2009-01-21T01:46:00.003+01:00

Been kinda sick today and slept away most part of the day, this of course gets back to you and I'm not really tired at all and the clock is showing 2:01. Something good have come out of it all, jacked up on painkillers and vitamins I finished the gradient tool. I think the result is great and I hope you all like it.

Gotta get some sleep, going to participate in the 24h business camp starting tomorrow and I refuse to be ill and miss it.

Taking color requests ;)

2009-01-20T00:21:00.004+01:00

A little sneak peak on the Gradient tool that soon will be released. (about time!)

Do you have any favorite gradient? I'm taking in request for the default preset gradients, it is a true honor to be among the chosen one! ;)

Undo/Redo and fixes!

2009-01-12T23:28:00.003+01:00

Just released a new version of pixlr, there is a lot of re-factoring done in this release. For you who don't work as developers it's when you tidy up the code and rewrite it to fit the current needs (and not the one we had several month ago.)

For you as a user there is not much news, well the undo is now accompanied with a redo and it's setup so we can start doing a graphical representation of the undo/redo history (Will be released soon). Also fixed a couple of bug and did some improvements, fist there where some actions that was missed in the undo, they are now added and there where fixes done on the fill and wand tool regarding transparent pixels.

We also redid the algorithm for resizing, this means much better quality on the image result.

Even if there not is a lot of visible changes there is a lot under the hood so as usual if you find anything wrong we are very happy if you just send us a mail och do a comment :)

Neeext!

Almost forgot .. we also added 3 new languages !! Greek, Turkish and Romanian :)

We are on a ROLL!

2009-01-08T00:08:00.003+01:00

So there it finally is .. Levels levels levels sweet levels .. For you a bit more advanced users the levels are here, did a mention that the levels is done .. *sight* lets go to sleep. Oh and yes I am also a bit disappointed at Apple, I wanted a new mac mini ..

First release of the year 2009!

2009-01-06T23:07:00.004+01:00

Oh yes it is 2009 and it is going to be a sweeeeeeet year, I can feel it can't you? The first update of the year contains a lot of fixes, we had some small bugs here and there due to the fast development pace in the fall.

We also added two user requested features; A Pencil tool and "new image from clipboard". New image from clipboard really speeds your work up when cutting from different images.

Oh and we also added a new filter called Pastel, it is a bit slow at the moment but still it makes cool looking images =). Also added constrain on the free transform by holding down shift.

Right now we are working on Levels (Ready very soon) and Curves in the long run.

Don't forget to download the Firefox plug-ins on the first page, they really makes getting images and screen grabs easy!

Did you know that the emirate of Dubai is using its own copy of pixlr editor ;)

Keep it real!

The LOGO! or almost :)

2008-12-24T22:03:00.002+01:00

So i have drilled down to just two logos to choose from. Vote on the one you like the most!

Logo logo logo ..

2008-12-19T13:30:00.003+01:00

I'm in logo hell, I'm totally confused in witch direction the pixlr logo should go .. Is anyone of the pixlr users some kind of logo wiz ?

Pixlr in the prints ..

2008-12-14T18:04:00.003+01:00

Found out that we where featured in a Swedish news paper today. It a may be a large paper in Sweden but pixlr has been mentioned in much more widespread contexts on the net before. It's just a bit more real when it is printed on paper. Even I who have worked with the internet for over 10 years feel that it is not real in some way, several thousands of visitors use the service each day but when i meet someone in real life who knows about the site i always get a bit suprised. Silly but true :)

Logo draft ..

2008-12-13T12:39:00.004+01:00

We are using a design burro to help us with new logo and eventually a new site. This is the latest draft i got from them. Pixlr is going to be a suite very soon so there will be a set of the same logo in different colors and different sub-text.

Click the image to see it in full size.

Please tell me what you think! =)

Tutorial: Intense portraits

2008-12-03T12:23:00.031+01:00

In the first ever pixlr tutorial I am going to show you a quick and easy way of creating portraits with a somewhat cold and intense feeling.

First off you need a nice photo to start with .. I borrowed this from flickr. Open the image in pixlr image editor.

The background layer is by default selected so just click "Layer -> Duplicate layer" in the menu. You now will have a copy of the background in the right hand layers box.

We now turn the layer copy into grey scale, to archive that you click "Adjustments -> Desaturate" in the menu.

With the grey scale layer selected change the blend mode in the Layers box to Hardlight. The blend mode is the drop down at the top of the layers box. The image should now have a deeper tone in it.

To add some extra focus on the mans face we add some vignette effect (for now we have to do it by hand). Add a new layer by clicking "Layer -> New Layer" in the menu or the add layer icon in the bottom of the layers box.

Select the Brush tool and choose a large shape and lower the opacity to 15-20%. Start painting the corners of the newly created layer. Do this step several times until you have a gradient effect in the borders of the image and you are satisfied.

Somehow the result should look something similar to mine ..

Whether you like the end result or not is obvious about personal taste but I like the rugged look.

16MPX and no need to upload!

2008-12-02T21:14:00.004+01:00

For all you who have made the switch to Flash 10 (http://adobe.com/getflash) there is now no need for the images you want to edit to be uploaded to our server and then downloaded again to the browser, instead the image pops up instant in the editor. That is what i call great news!

I made some very scientific experiments and it is now quicker to launch pixlr and resize an image than start your old desktop application and to do the same ;).

The new release of pixlr also gives you the ability to edit up to 16M pixel images.

Keep it real!

Marvelus feature ;)

2008-11-30T12:56:00.004+01:00

Finally it is there .. the free transform tool! oh what i have slaved to get this thingy to work and so late late this morning (or early if you did sleep) I got it to 95% and felt that it was time to release it. You find it in the menu Edit -> Free transform or Ctrl+T.

Hope it does the trick!

Wicked update!

2008-11-16T23:27:00.006+01:00

Just made a great update and added Layer styles, yes that means that you now can add Drop shadow, Inner shadow, Outer glow, Inner glow and Bevel on all your layers.

I also added a new filter called Kaleidoscope, you can do lot of fun stuff with it :)

Have fun now kids :)

Small updates

2008-11-09T12:02:00.003+01:00

Fixed some annoying stuff .. added a confirm when you close the image if you want to save. I also added return and escape shortcuts to all of the dialogs for speeding the work flow up.

Added brush features

2008-11-09T01:57:00.003+01:00

Just added some brush setting to spice the painting result a bit :) Added setting for scatter, diffuse and noise.

Hope you all like it.. Cheers !

Updates

2008-11-08T21:56:00.004+01:00

Added some updates ..

Move layer up and down in the layer list (Or bring forward/backwards).
Possible to unlock the background so the image is treated as a transparent image.
Crop image from selection.

Also fixed some annoying bugs.

We made some enhancements on the API as well, it is now possible to post images directly to us and they will be opened in the editor.

Some nice articles

2008-11-06T13:56:00.004+01:00

Some of the nice stuff said about pixlr in the last few weeks ..

Cheers, it's something in the AIR .. aint it ?

Bad Karma

2008-11-05T19:50:00.003+01:00

I had some bad karma a couple of days and had a few technical issues .. well now the sun is shining and everything is back to normal and works :)

Technical problems

2008-11-03T18:32:00.002+01:00

Having some problems with my provider and for some reason i cant write to the system temp when the file is uploaded. 72 hours and i haven't got a response from them. So i decided to re-route the traffic to my Swedish hosting partner (pixlr.se) for now.

//Ola

API

2008-10-28T09:05:00.002+01:00

Made some updates to the API to get it to work smoother.

As a strategy to get pixlr out to a larger user base we recently desided to release the API for free even for the comercial use.

So then it's free for you to use it in almost any way you want.

Let me know what cool stuff you come up with!

Some sunday stuff ..

2008-10-19T21:36:00.005+02:00

Well it's pretty boring times in Sweden right now .. The weather is turning more and more winterish and I truly hate winter. Really don't know why a live here :).

Working on some neat stuff for you all to see soon, just made cut selection work and is getting my teeth into crop and free transform.

The service is still a big hit and visitors from all over the world is finding it useful. About 4-5000 images are uploaded and edited every single day, that doesn't include new document that's created inside the service.

I am so glad that flash 10 is released and hopping it spreads lightning fast, the best news is that you can open images direct from the computer without sending it to our servers first. That will make the application even more a desktop replacement.

If there is anything you like us to include into future releases of pixlr feel free to send us a mail, we love to hear from you and I promise you will get a answer.

Peace out!

Get Flash 10 NOW!

2008-10-16T13:56:00.003+02:00

To get some real improvments in pixlr (And the rest of the web) get the all new Flash 10 plugin asap!

http://www.adobe.com/go/getflash

Go on, it won't bite you :)

Pixlr blog

Pixlr Express ReUpdate!

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

The Amazing Pixlr Express Re-launch!

Packs, packs, auto crop and packs!

Share “Your World” with ABC News, Pixlr

Content packs for Pixlr-o-matic web!

Pixlr-o-matic for Android!

Say hello to some new friends!

Pixlr-o-matic for Windows and OSX

Three years anniversary and millions of reasons to be happy!

Pixlr-o-matic goes mobile!

Pixlr now a part of the Autodesk world.

Pixlr-o-matic!

Pencil tool renewed

Marquee sizing options

Night Vision!

Image sharing for everyone!

Color pod

Color management REDUX!

More language things ..

Picasa joins the connected club ..

Paste from Clipboard!!

More languages ..

Updating languages ..

Connection made!

What's next? - Take 4

Editor Update

Connected!

Pixlr Library

New release of pixlr editor!

New hosting

2 year anniversary! Big update!

imm.io - up again

High-res brushes

Color replace tool

Elliptical Marquee

Brush browser!

Crushed paper, doodles and circles ..

New brush packs

Custom brushes ..

Maximize windows

Whats next - Take 3

New release .. finaly!

Pixlr Grabber - now for Chrome!

New Pixlr Service - Imm.io!

New release!

New decade - major release!

Adding Christmas hat to your profile picture - 6 easy steps!

Copy & Paste Layer style, Drag & Drop Layers.

Grabber branding

Whats next - take 2

Drag and Drop support added in layers panel!

Pixlr Grabber for Windows now available!

A new take ..

New version of the editor is out!

Icons for the applications ..

One year anniversary! *hurray*

Help needed!

Release me!

Poking around with the brushes ..

Use pixlr with facebook

Whats next ..

Finaly .. our own format :)

Remember this day!

Translation help :)

White balance ..

Doing som updates

Photo Express fresh from the press

oh so long ago :)

日本の最高の写真を編集する

Curves ..

Just wanted to say thanx!

Can some of you help me?

Vignette filter

Tilt shift - More info

Tilt shift and Heat map Filters

Basic drawing tools

New filter Cross process

Gradient is up!

One year anniversary! hurray