Pastello vs PIXLpath

Transform photos into a fine art drawing with Pastel, Pencil, Chalk, Charcoal and Crayon Introducing Pastello, a brand-new companion app to JixiPix’s Impresso Pro. Pastello takes you back in time to the 15th century. Away from brushes and large strokes and into the realm of dry media with color that is both brilliant and subtle. The “Dry color method” made famous by Leonardo da Vinci is so powerful in its simplicity and beauty with its black and red chalk and yellow pastel highlights. Later, artists would paint charming portraits in a smooth heavily blended fashion. Move forward a few centuries later and pastel quickly became filled with brilliant color and crisp detail. Fast forward to today and a digital age has made it so you, the artist, can mix and match media that is difficult or impossible in a traditional setting. Pastello makes it simple and convenient to take an image and change it into Pastel, Chalk, Charcoal, Crayon, Colored Pencil and Graphite drawings. Use alone or combine these medias using powerful layers to produce interesting expressive sketch effects filled with colorful personality and passion. And the best part is Pastello does all the work. With Pastello, photographers and artists can now go beyond the camera to turn image files into creative works that resemble traditional handmade media using a professional workflow that is easy and comfortable to operate. Pastello has a pro workflow that automatically transforms a photo into a pastel drawing and places it on an art paper with options to customize. The Pastel can then be changed to Chalk, Charcoal, Colored Pencil, Graphite, Conte or Crayon using Layer styles. The medias start out delicate like traditional drawings do, then allows you to build them up using fills, shading and detail layers. The medias are beautiful as they are, or mix them for an expressive artwork. Pastello includes plenty of traditional sketch styles as well as a DaVinci effect using a mixed media of pencil, charcoal, crayon and old paper. It’s easy to use! We have mixed the media into one-click presets with all the freedom to customize, blend and fine-tune for your own unique artwork filled with age, depth and timeless beauty as if created by the renaissance artist himself. Pastel Styles: Colored Pencil, Graphite, Charcoal, and Chalk come with a fill and detail option that can be layered for infinite variation. Conte has a dynamic sketch feature that lets you fill in shadows, mid-tones and highlights with crosshatching or scumbling. All with the ability to change stroke direction, size, volume and variation. Pastel—(Soft) is a soft, buttery consistency and intense color. This effect is dense and filled with the grain of the paper. Chalk—(Hard Pastel) is a light dusty effect with little specks of preserved paper. This chalky pastel is known for it’s soft strokes and velvety texture. Charcoal—creates a velvety black charcoal effect with shades of grey. Use it for warming up the under painting of a composition, or to complete a finished charcoal piece. Colored Pencil—creates soft colorful strokes in the drawing that can be layered to build up color then burnished with a light Pencil Layer, or the Smudge tool. Pencil—creates pencil drawings with fluid outlines and soft, limpid tonal shadings for a drawing filled with warmth and charm. Conté—is a beautiful crayon media for enhancing highlights, midtones and shadows in drawings using classic colors. Crayon—creates a colorful waxy base to a drawing, then burnished it with a Conte White for highlights or Bistre for shading.

A Minimalist Asset Manager for Apple Creatives Created by a photographer for fellow visual artists, PIXLpath is a powerful, visually refined workspace built specifically for the Apple ecosystem. Rooted in a minimalist design philosophy, it offers a calm, focused environment that complements the beauty of the work it displays. Free from subscriptions and invasive tracking, PIXLpath helps you reconnect with what matters most—your art. Why PIXLpath? Seamless Organization Transform cluttered folders on your device or external drives into beautiful reference catalogs. With intuitive search and cataloging tools, navigating your work becomes fast, focused, and visually satisfying. Keep Your Projects Close Save your catalogs as .pixlpath documents with embedded previews and metadata. Even when you’re offline or away from your source files, a version of your work is always within reach—and with iCloud Drive, it’s easy to keep your projects in sync across all your Apple devices. Workflow Helpers Speed up your process with features like memory card importing, file copying, batch renaming — each designed to support your creative rhythm. Cross-Platform Harmony Enjoy a seamless experience across Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Vision Pro. Start a project on one device and continue effortlessly on another. One Purchase, All Platforms Buy once, use everywhere. A single purchase unlocks PIXLpath across all four Apple platforms—no subscriptions, no hidden tiers. Privacy First Your creativity stays yours. No tracking. No subscriptions. Just a focused space for your work—private, local, and yours alone. Comprehensive Support for Creative Formats Image Formats JPEG, PSD, TIFF, HEIC, PNG, GIF, DNG, SONY ARW, CANON CR2/CR3, NIKON NEF, FUJI RAF (uncompressed), PANASONIC RW2, OLYMPUS ORF, HASSELBLAD 3FR Video Formats QuickTime (MOV), MP4, M4V, Apple ProRes Audio Formats AIFF, AAC, WAV, M4A, MP3 Design Formats PDF, AI, SVG, ICO Preview-Only Formats AFPHOTO, AFDESIGN, AFPUB (thumbnail previews only) Say Hello! I’m Chris, the developer behind PIXLpath. Your feedback and questions help shape its future. Feel free to reach out at hello@pixlpath.com to share your thoughts or ask how PIXLpath can better support your creative workflow. And if you run into any bugs, just send me a note—I usually reply the same day.