macOS Monterey and Pixelmator Pro

 Version 12.0.1 (Monterey) of the macOS provides the infrastructure for many of the powerful features available in the newest version of Pixelmator Pro. To use some of them, you don't have to be running Pixelmator Pro. They can be accessed from Finder utilizing macOS Shortcuts.

One of my Pixelmator favorites is Remove Background with Quick Actions in Finder. Here's a free image taken by photographer Alessia Chinazzo and made available on Unsplash.


To remove the background using the magic of Pixelmator Pro, in Finder navigate to the folder with the photo and select it. Right-click and scroll down to Quick Actions, then Left-click on Remove Background. 

The machine learning tool in Pixelmator Pro begins working its magic. The time this operation takes depends on the speed of your system and the size and complexity of the photo selected. On my iMac, removal of the background of this JPEG took just a few seconds.


And there it is -- a transparent image of the subject with the background removed. A PNG is automatically saved to the original folder. Pretty impressive! The Shortcuts function allows the assembling of multiple actions from Pixelmator Pro and other apps with macOS actions to create batch operations on multiple images. 

Thanks for use of the photo, Alessia.

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