Get more from Pixelmator

Get creative with your pictures using this excellent and affordable app

The Photos app on your iPad provides a handful of useful editing tools, enabling you to make basic tweaks to your images. You can crop and rotate an image, apply a selection of preset filters, dial in brightness and saturation… and that’s about it. If you want to get creative with your imagery, Pixelmator (£3.99) is an ideal next step. This fast, easy-to-use and affordable image editor provides a raft of tools, including brushes and layers, text and shapes, retouching, distortion and more. It’s great for taking your photos to another level – or even creating an image from scratch.

The app is simple to use, with all the tools accessible from a few menus. It plays nicely with the Photos app, loading images directly from your photo library and Camera Roll, and you can even link it to the Photos app, enabling you to make basic edits there, and then take your photo directly into Pixelmator. This workflow limits you to using Pixelmator’s Effects menu, although you still have plenty of creative freedom. Tapping Done sends you back into your iPad’s Photos app. Steve Jarratt