Acorn is an image editor for MacOS 10.11 and later, including MacOS 10.15 Catalina. Read the full release notes. Also available on the App Store One of a kind, no subscriptions, no hassle. Acorn is a new image editor built with one goal in mind – simplicity. Fast, easy, and fluid, Acorn provides the options you’ll need without any overhead.
(Redirected from Acorn Image Editor)
Acorn
Developer(s)
Flying Meat Inc.
Initial release
September 10, 2007; 13 years ago
Stable release
6.5.3 (November 20, 2019; 10 months ago[1]) [±]
Operating system
macOS
Type
Raster graphics editor
License
Proprietary
Website
flyingmeat.com/acorn/
Acorn is a raster graphic editor for macOS developed by August Mueller of Flying Meat Inc, based out of Mukilteo, Washington, United States. Acorn was first released on September 10, 2007[2] and was built upon the framework of a previous image editing application of Flying Meat Inc., FlySketch.[3]
Acorn makes extensive use of Apple's Core Image framework for its image processing,.[4][5] The native file format of Acorn is .acorn. Acorn combines vector drawing with bitmap editing,[6] and has been described as an alternative to Photoshop.[7] Key features of Acorn include image filters, a custom color picker, a brush designer, and image editing tools such as crop, erase, paint, select, pan, zoom, move, clone, smudge, dodge, and burn.[8]
Major Features[edit]
Layers based editing
Layer masks and blending modes
Multi-layer screenshots [9]
Nondestructive stackable filters[10]
Curves and levels
Multi-stop live gradients
Scriptable [11]
Automator support [11]
Built in brush designer to create custom brushes
Photoshop brush import
Vector shapes, Bézier pen tool, and text tools
Shape processor
Circle text tool
RAW image import
Multiple selection tools including quick mask and magic wand
Smart layer export
Web export
Guides, grids, rulers, and snapping
Native support for Apple’s retina displays
Color profile management
Deep color image support
Documentation online and in ePub format
Runs on Metal 2[12]
Version history[edit]
Version
Initial Release Date
OS Compatibility
Notable Features
1.0 - 1.5.5[13][14]
September 10, 2007
10.4 - 10.10[15]
Initial release;[16] brush designer,[14] fancy crop, open and save JPEG 2000 images
2.0 - 2.6.5[13]
September 13, 2009
10.6 - 10.10 [15]
Layered screenshots, rulers, RAW image support, 64 bit support, touchup tools, JSTalk scripting support, AppleScript support, layer groups, guides and snapping, layer masks, WebP
3.0 - 3.5.2[13]
April 12, 2011
10.6 - 10.10 [15]
Layer styles,[17] quick mask, instant alpha,[9] live multi-stop gradients, new filters, add/subtract points on Bézier curves, full screen support, autosave and versions, retina canvas support,[18] smart layer export, web export scaling, new blending modes [19]
4.0 - 4.5.7[13]
May 2, 2013
10.8 - 10.12 [15]
Nondestructive stackable filters,[7] curves adjustment,[11] vector line join style, multi-layer selection,[10] save selection with file, CMYK support when saving as JPEG and TIFF, editable image depth, sharing support, soft eraser, live font updates, live blending updates, share extension for Photos
5.0 - 5.6[13]
August 20, 2015
10.10+ [15]
Shape processor, nondestructive curves and levels, improved PDF import, Photoshop brush import, image metadata editing, basic SVG support, deep color image support, circle text tool, new color picker, improved color management[20]
6.0 - 6.3.3[13]
July 10, 2017
10.11+ [15]
Text on a path, clone tool works across layers and images, new Web Export features, smart layer export settings palette, new Bézier tools, color profiles, make shape from selection [21]
Reviews and awards[edit]
Houston Chronicle Acorn 4 review[22]
The 25 Best Alternatives to Photoshop[23]
Macworld Editor's Choice Award 2009[24]
Mac App Store Best Apps of 2013[25]
Mac App Store Best Apps of 2015
50 Mac Essentials #46 [6]
Acorn 5: Tom's Mac Software Pick [26]
Clash of the Image Editors: Acorn vs Pixelmator[27]
Acorn 4 Macworld Review [7]
Acorn 4 The Verge Review [11]
16 Essential Photo Editor Apps [28]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
^'Acorn Release Notes'. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
^Kim, Arnold (September 10, 2007). 'New Mac Image Editor Acorn'. MacRumors. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
^Lee, Mike; Meyers, Scott (2009). Learn Mac OS X Snow Leopard. New York, NY: Apress. p. 572. ISBN978-1-4302-1947-7.
^Mueller, August (August 21, 2015). 'Acorn, OS 10.11 El Capitan and You'. FlyingMeatBlog. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
^ abTurbell, Giles (February 21, 2012). 'Acorn is a Fine Image Editor for Everyone'. CultofMac. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^ abcFriedman, Lex (May 1, 2013). 'Review: Acorn 4 adds impressive features and a smart new look'. MacWorld. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^'Best Mac Photo Editing Software'. TopTenReviews. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
^ abGirard, David (October 30, 2011). 'The seed of something great: Acorn 3.1 reviewed'. ArsTechnica. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^ abSumra, Husain (May 2, 2013). 'Acorn 4 image editor adds improved speed, enhanced user interface, and more'. MacRumors. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^ abcdBlagdon, Jeff (May 2, 2013). 'Review: Acorn 4 flies through image editing with new filter UI, improved speed, and curves'. TheVerge. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^'Acorn Feature List'. Flying Meat Inc. Retrieved June 21, 2020.
^ abcdef'Acorn Release Notes'. Flying Meat Inc. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
^ abBerka, Justin (January 5, 2009). 'Mac-based image editor Acorn bumped to version 1.5'. ArsTechnica. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^ abcdef'Acorn FAQ'. Flying Meat Inc. Retrieved September 29, 2016.
^Chartier, David (September 10, 2007). 'Acorn? The OS X image editor we've been waiting for'. ArsTechnica. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^Turnbull, Giles (April 20, 2011). 'Acorn image editor updated with new features, special price'. CultofMac. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^Sorrel, Charlie (June 22, 2012). 'Acorn 3.3 to get awesome 'retina canvas''. CultofMac. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^Smith, Barrie. 'Acorn Version 3.5.1 Image Editing Software'. DigitalPhotographySchool. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^Keller, Joseph (August 20, 2015). 'Acorn 5 for Mac arrives to let you take control of shapes'. iMore. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
^'Acorn 6'. July 10, 2015. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
^'Acorn image editor worth scooping up'. The Houston Chronicle. February 19, 2015. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
^Gibbs, Samuel (May 6, 2013). 'The 25 Best Alternatives to Photoshop'. The Guardian. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
^'25th Annual Editor's Choice'. MacWorld. December 10, 2009. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
^Viticci, Frederico (December 17, 2013). 'Apple Posts 'Best of 2013' iTunes Lists'. MacStories. Retrieved September 28, 2016.
^Nelson, Tom (August 29, 2016). 'Acorn 5: Tom's Mac Software Pick'. LifeWire. Retrieved January 23, 2017.
^Lobo, Pedro (July 5, 2013). 'Clash of the Image Editors: Acorn vs Pixelmator'. MacAppstorm. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Acorn_(software)&oldid=963633399'
Acorn 6.6.1
Acorn is a new image editor built with one goal in mind – simplicity. Fast, easy, and fluid, Acorn provides the options you’ll need without any overhead. Acorn feels right, and won’t drain your bank account.
Take screenshots using Acorn and edit them right away.
Chain together image filters to create stunning effects.
Layer based image editing, an industry standard.
Make new images and layers using your built-in iSight.
Easy image and canvas resizing, just by changing the size of your window.
Take advantage of every pixel of your monitor with full screen image editing.
Tablet sensitive for pressure strokes and using the tablet’s eraser.
Vector shape and text layers.
Freeform, elliptical, rectangular, and magic wand selections.
Gradients.
Create and apply custom text styles.
Control opacity and blending modes for each layer.
Write plugins using the Python scripting language, as well as in Objective-C.
GPU powered. The same graphics card that makes your gaming experience smooth, helps Acorn fly through the toughest of graphics operations.
What’s New:
Version 6.6.1: New
Pressing the ‘c’ key while the canvas color loupe is up will copy the current color as a HTML hex color to the clipboard. To bring up the loupe, press Control-C, or hold down the option key while using a brushing tool.
Cleaned up a problem where the wrong move cursor was showing up on the canvas.
Version 6.6.1: New Shape Processor Filters
Hue Shift. Shift the hue of your shapes by a configurable amount. (Available for MacOS 10.13 or later).
Flip. You can flip your shapes vertical or horizontal, using the flip axis of either the canvas, processed shapes, or the shape itself.
Fill, which lets you change the color a shape fills with (and if it fills at all).
Stroke, which lets you change if a shape draws a stroke, how wide it is, and the color.
Blend Mode, which will change the blend / compositing mode for all processed shapes.
And finally, if you double click on the canvas when Shape Processors are active, it will now bring up the Shape Processor palette.
Other New Things
The Mask to Alpha filter has a new invert invert colors option. Normally mask to alpha will convert the black areas of your image to transparent, and the white to opaque (with gray somewhere in-between). With the new Invert Colors option, Mask to Alpha will now convert the white areas of your image to transparent, and keep the black opaque. This is great if you are scanning line line drawings from your own artwork, and want to make the backgrounds transparent.
Minor Stuff
Acorn does a bit of database cleanup now by default when saving in the Acorn image format, which will result in smaller files in some cases.
Color profiles are now included with PSD exports (thanks to the folks at The Iconfactory for the patch!)
When resizing your image to something rather larger than normal, Acorn will ask to make sure that’s what you wanted to do. (Acorn already did this for new documents, but it’s super handy when resizing or changing your canvas size as well).
Improvements to PSD export.
Pasting an image into the New Image window will create a new image with the contents of the paste. This has always been the case. The new thing is that any open New Image windows will now close.
The Save Panel brought some old tricks back! If you Save a new image, or Save As… an existing image and enter the file name and type out a changed extension, Acorn will notice and auto-select the right file type from the format popup. This had been broken on 10.15 and sandboxed versions of Acorn previously. But no more! (Hat tip to Rich Siegel for the workaround).
The Edit ▸ Fill… command now picks the right fill color to use (instead of possibly the stroke) from the tool palette color well. (Also- in case you didn’t already know, pressing Option-Delete will automatically fill a bitmap layer with the current fill color. It’s a nice shortcut to have around).
Minor and mysterious QOL fixes involving fonts, color profile sheets, pixel tool drawing, and redrawing on 10.15.
Bezier shapes now draw their outlines and handles when manipulating anchor points and their associated handles.
Fixed a problem where the File ▸ Revert command might not set the canvas dimensions to the correct dimensions.
Fixed a problem where the text selection drawing would be pretty wonky if you had changed the line height of a text box.
Fixed a crasher where the OS would tell about non-existent color profiles, and then Acorn tried to use these ghost profiles.
Fixed some issues where applying a font to text where there are no valid glyphs would leave the font popup button in an interesting state.
Fixed a problem where the eraser tool might not restrict itself to selections.
Fixed a couple of little brushing issues with the tablet and blend modes.
Fixed a bunch of issues where SVG parsing would fail with complex paths. Also added support for the line-cap attribute when importing SVG files.
Fixed a problem when exporting all layers as SVG.
Fixed a problem where dragging SVG files onto the canvas wouldn’t import the images correctly.
Fixed an issue with web export windows not displaying correctly for 16bpc images on 10.15.
Fixed an issue with the color picker not syncing up correctly on secondary displays.
Acorn now clamps the edges of a selection when a feather is being applied. This helps for when you take a selection with a feather and invert it, causing the edges to be feathered when that wasn’t exactly expected.
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