Pixelmator versus Acorn

This morning Pixelmator was released as 1.0 and I had to check it out. Certainly, it looks more like Photoshop, but with a decidedly Mac-like twist - very nice. There are a lot of things to like about Pixelmator - the number of file formats is impressive - able to read/write Photoshop files is a big plus. Also, the toolbar is a lot more familiar, not necessarily better - just more familiar. There are little things like the color changing, the brushes, etc. They aren't in Acorn - yet.

And there's the problem, for me.

Do I stick with Acorn or go to Pixelmator. Both are "1.0" products, but there's no need to get both, one should do what I need an image editor to do, it's just a question of which one has the same end game that I want. Since they are both young, and both small groups, it's not clear that there's a definitive answer to that question for either application.

I want to like Acorn due to VoodooPad, but the professional look of Pixelmator makes it so darn compelling. It's certainly going to be an interesting year to see which one gets the larger audience, and which one goes for the larger toolset even at the risk of a little complexity. I'm willing to have a little complexity for tools that I would use, it's the other stuff that I'd never use that is really unnecessary for me.

Well... it'll be interesting to watch these products develop.