Sharpen an image

Use the Sharpen adjustment to make the finer details in an image clearer. When you apply this adjustment, Pixelmator Pro finds any edges (touching light and dark pixels) in your image and locally increases the contrast to make those edges clearer.

You can sharpen a single layer or, using a color adjustments layer, multiple layers in a composition.

Sharpen the currently selected layer

  • Choose Format > Color Adjustments > Sharpen from the Format menu at the top of your screen.

  • Press A on your keyboard and turn on the Sharpen adjustment.

Sharpen multiple layers in a composition

  • Choose Insert > Color Adjustments from the Insert menu at the top of your screen and turn on the Sharpen adjustment in the Tool Options pane.

  • Press Shift ⇧ + Command ⌘ + A on your keyboard, and turn on the Sharpen adjustment.

📘 Note: If the adjustment isn't visible, you can turn it on from the Customize menu at the bottom of the Color Adjustments pane.

Customize the Sharpen adjustment

  1. Drag the Radius slider to control how much of an area around an edge should be sharpened. You can also manually enter a value from 0 to 10 pixels. Press and hold the Option ⌥ key before dragging if you’d like to extend the range of the slider beyond 10 pixels. You can also enter a percentage value from 0 to 100 pixels.

  2. Drag the Intensity slider to control how much the edges in the image should be sharpened. You can also manually enter a value from 0% to 100%.

The Sharpen adjustment nondestructively sharpens entire layers and selections. To sharpen a specific area in an image by drawing over it, check out sharpen under the Retouch tools.

Show before and after or reset adjustments

Show Original: Click the Show Original button or press Control ⌃ + M on your keyboard to see what the image looks like without any color adjustments.

Show Split Comparison: Option ⌥ – click the Show Original button, press Control ⌃ + C on your keyboard, or force-click the canvas.

To reset all Color Adjustments, click Reset at the bottom of the Color Adjustments pane.

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