Apple Creator Studio is coming

[Cmaier]

iOS 26.2 hints new ‘Apple Creator Studio’ could be coming - 9to5Mac

iOS 26.2 beta 1 arrived yesterday, and hidden in the release’s code, there’s reference to a new ‘Apple Creator Studio’ in the works.

9to5mac.com

Nobody knows what this is, but apparently it’s coming.

 

[tomO2013]

Please.... let it be something that enables severing the Adobe ties...

Apple has most of the ingredients needed for individual content creators - Logic, FCP, Photomator....

I'm willing this to be Apple's big push back into professional creative content creation again (similar to the early days of FCP 7, Shake, Motion etc...)

I was only able to like your post @Cmaier .... we need a pray emoji icon for posts like this

 

[Citysnaps]

Please.... let it be something that enables severing the Adobe ties...

Apple has most of the ingredients needed for individual content creators - Logic, FCP, Photomator....

I'm willing this to be Apple's big push back into professional creative content creation again (similar to the early days of FCP 7, Shake, Motion etc...)

I was only able to like your post @Cmaier .... we need a pray emoji icon for posts like this

I would also like to see Apple developing a suite of creative apps that are at least on par (or possibly even better) than what Adobe offers.

But... Having been using Adobe Lightroom since its beginning (around 2007) processing my image files, any similar image editor offered by Apple would need to be able to read and edit/modify all of the non-destructive edits I've made over the years to my existing Lightroom-edited image files. I haven't counted the number of them, but that would likely be in the tens of thousands of images.

Twenty years ago I do remember starting with Apple's "professional" image editing software, Aperture. Although it worked OK, using it was a very frustrating experience. Moving to Lightroom was truly a breath of fresh air. Adobe got it right - both in non-destructive image editing and color science. Another thing Adobe got right was consulting with active photographers in the San Francisco Bay Area (I was one) to test new pre-released Lightroom features at their facility before updates were released to the public.

 

[Cmaier]

I noticed that my Mac wasn’t dimming the screen after non-use, and that the new clipboard history feature wasn’t working in Tahoe. I started going through my startup items, and it turns out I had to disable a bunch of adobe crap and everything started working again. (For now on i will have to manually check for creative cloud updates, I guess).

Would love for Apple to compete with Adobe for real this time.

 

[Chew Toy McCoy]

It's Image Playground with....wait for it....animation! The company and republic are saved!

 

[Vincent Hannah]

It’s probably just a discounted subscription bundle of the existing FCP, Logic and Pixelmator.

 

[Cmaier]

It’s probably just a discounted subscription bundle of the existing FCP, Logic and Pixelmator.

Probably, but here’s hoping that having a name for the thing means they are interested in this space again. I was crushed when they EOL’d Aperture - though not as powerful as lightroom it did everything I needed and was way cheaper, and also was a better ecosystem citizen.

 

[Cmaier]

This is now available. If you install, say, pixelmator pro, it prompts you to subscribe (there’s a trial period), and if you do that it then prompts you to download and/or update a bunch of other apps included in the bundle.

 

[Eric]

Would be fun to try but I'm all in with Adobe on a subscription plan.

 

[tomO2013]

Do you know if it can be installed alongside the old version of Pixelmator on Mac ?

I'm reluctant to install and not have a way to roll back if I don't like the subscription!!

 

[Cmaier]

Do you know if it can be installed alongside the old version of Pixelmator on Mac ?

I'm reluctant to install and not have a way to roll back if I don't like the subscription!!

When you say “old version of pixelmator,” do you meant the non-pro pixelmator? If so, I will try it right now, though I’m pretty sure it will work.

 

[Cmaier]

Do you know if it can be installed alongside the old version of Pixelmator on Mac ?

I'm reluctant to install and not have a way to roll back if I don't like the subscription!!

Confirmed. My mac now has the Creator Studio version of pixelmator pro installed at the same time as the original pixelmator. Both work.

 

[Citysnaps]

Would be fun to try but I'm all in with Adobe on a subscription plan.

Same here. I switched to Lightroom (from Aperture) when it was released almost 20 years ago. With 100K+ non-destructive edits there's no way I could go back. IMO, Adobe has been doing a great job releasing new and interesting features over time.

 

[Cmaier]

Same here. I switched to Lightroom (from Aperture) when it was released almost 20 years ago. With 100K+ non-destructive edits there's no way I could go back. IMO, Adobe has been doing a great job releasing new features over time.

I just wish Adobe were a better citizen; they break things on the Mac and I had to disable some adobe startup actions to resolve.

 

[tomO2013]

Sorry - really what I was trying to ask for greater elaboration on what Apple wrote here...

Does this imply that files created with the new Pixelmator Pro subscription will remain compatible with the standalone version? Also, are there any potential conflicts if both versions are installed simultaneously?

I genuinely hope this move signals Apple’s long-term commitment to building a creative product stack that is as capable and powerful as the competition. It would be fantastic to see an updated Photomator, a native alternative to Adobe Bridge, and - top of my personal list, most importantly - more frequent updates to Apple RAW!

For photographer-centric workflows, the biggest hurdle to switching from Adobe is the pace of Apple’s RAW engine updates for new cameras and the quality of the processing itself. As I’ve mentioned before, I currently have to use DxO PhotoLab to pre-process my files because the detail rendering is significantly better than Apple RAW. I have high hopes that this acquisition of Pixelmator/Photomator evidences a push to acquire a slice of the professional photographer workflow market and that the announcement of Apple Creator Studio changes this.

 

[tomO2013]

Confirmed. My mac now has the Creator Studio version of pixelmator pro installed at the same time as the original pixelmator. Both work.

Thank you so much for checking for me.

 

[Cmaier]

Sorry - really what I was trying to ask for greater elaboration on what Apple wrote here...
View attachment 37929


Does this imply that files created with the new Pixelmator Pro subscription will remain compatible with the standalone version? Also, are there any potential conflicts if both versions are installed simultaneously?

I genuinely hope this move signals Apple’s long-term commitment to building a creative product stack that is as capable and powerful as the competition. It would be fantastic to see an updated Photomator, a native alternative to Adobe Bridge, and - top of my personal list, most importantly - more frequent updates to Apple RAW!

For photographer-centric workflows, the biggest hurdle to switching from Adobe is the pace of Apple’s RAW engine updates for new cameras and the quality of the processing itself. As I’ve mentioned before, I currently have to use DxO PhotoLab to pre-process my files because the detail rendering is significantly better than Apple RAW. I have high hopes that this acquisition of Pixelmator/Photomator evidences a push to acquire a slice of the professional photographer workflow market and that the announcement of Apple Creator Studio changes this.

Oh, I can’t test this, but I believe the files are identical as the code is identical other than an icon, certain AI features, and the payment model.

 

[Eric]

Same here. I switched to Lightroom (from Aperture) when it was released almost 20 years ago. With 100K+ non-destructive edits there's no way I could go back. IMO, Adobe has been doing a great job releasing new and interesting features over time.

Agreed, and it's not to say the others (Apple, Davinci Resolve) are bad it's just a new learning curve that I don't want to deal with.

 

[Katbel]

Confirmed. My mac now has the Creator Studio version of pixelmator pro installed at the same time as the original pixelmator. Both work.

Do you mean you have the original Pixelmator, not the Pixelmator Pro before the Creator Studio?
I bought both, I hope it will not destroy my Pixelmator Pro

 

[Cmaier]

Do you mean you have the original Pixelmator, not the Pixelmator Pro before the Creator Studio?
I bought both, I hope it will not destroy my Pixelmator Pro

It might remove your pixelmator pro binary (not sure) but any such change should be reversible. When I installed it, it goes into the Applications folder as Pixelmator Pro, so not sure what happens if you already have a file in there with the same name.