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How to Convert Presets to LUTs in Photomator & Pixelmator

April 4, 2025
Converting presets to LUTs in Photomator and Pixelmator

Table of Contents

Why Convert Presets to LUTs?

You might love the look you achieve with a specific preset in Photomator or Pixelmator Pro and wish you could apply that exact same color grading to your videos. That's where LUTs come in!

A LUT (Look-Up Table) is a standardized file format (.cube being a common extension) that contains instructions on how to transform colors. Think of it as a color grading recipe that can be understood by various applications.

By converting your favorite presets into LUTs, you gain several benefits:

  • Consistent Look Across Media: Apply the same signature color style to both your photos (edited in Photomator/Pixelmator) and your videos (edited in software like Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere Pro, or even mobile apps like CapCut).
  • Cross-Application Compatibility: LUTs are widely supported across different photo and video editing software, making your color grades portable.
  • Share Your Styles: You can share the exported .cube LUT files with collaborators or use them across different projects and devices.

Essentially, converting presets to LUTs bridges the gap between your photo editing workflow and your video editing workflow, ensuring visual consistency.

How to Convert Presets to LUTs

The process for exporting adjustments as a LUT is identical in both Photomator and Pixelmator Pro on macOS. Here's how to do it:

  1. Apply the desired preset or make the color adjustments you want to export to your image.
  2. Open the Color Adjustments panel. You can usually find its icon in the toolbar (often looks like sliders or levels) or simply press the A key on your keyboard.
  3. Scroll down within the Color Adjustments panel until you find the LUT section.
  4. If the LUT section isn't already active, click the toggle switch to turn it ON. (Don't worry, this is just to access the export option, you don't need to actually apply a LUT here).
  5. Click the small circle icon with three dots (...) located within the LUT section.
  6. From the dropdown menu that appears, select Export Adjustments as LUT....
  7. A save dialog will appear. Choose a name for your LUT file (it will have a .cube extension) and select the folder where you want to save it.
  8. Click Export.

That's it! You now have a .cube file containing the color adjustments from your preset. You can import this file into compatible video editing software to apply the same look to your footage.