Best Programmer's Image Editor for OSX

Question

I'm looking for recommendations for a programmer's image editor for OSX. I'm looking for something for preparing images for use in software and web applications - I'm not a graphic designer. On Windows I'd use Paint.NET. GIMP is not the answer (flakey and a disaster with Spaces)

Must haves

• crop, resize canvas etc
• resample, bicubic or better
• unsharp mask or similar sharpening
• levels
• colour balance
• layers and associated tools for assembling several images into a composite
• transparency
• RGBA.
• CMYK optional
• anti-aliased text
• editable paths for clear cutting would be nice
• payware ok]]
• reliable

Answer 1

Adobe Photoshop

It's simply the best there is.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/compare/

Answer 2

Even though Photoshop is the most powerful editor there is, if you want something simpler (and cheaper) you could try Acorn.

Answer 3

I'm more of a vector artist (so Inkscape/Illustrator) but I think Pixelmator should suit your needs. You get a lot of punch for your money.

Answer 4

As Gary suggested, Photoshop is "best", but it does cost quite a lot..

Pixelmator is about the closest application to Photoshop that isn't Photoshop, it has a decent UI on OS X (compared to GIMP), and should contain everything you mention. It costs $59USD

There is also Seashore (free) but it was pretty limited when I last used it.

It might be worth learning something like Inkscape - for designing UI elements, raster based applications aren't always ideal (as they don't scale up well).. Inkscape a purely vector based application, and is well suited to creating icons, layout mockups and so on..

Finally, you could always run Paint.NET in a Virtual Machine

Answer 5

You can always use PHP with GD. Or use image magick from the commandline.