Apple yesterday released a support document to help users distinguish Apple Creator Studio versions of its professional creation apps from standalone editions sold as one-time purchases.
The confusion comes from Apple’s decision to offer two parallel variants of Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, MainStage, Motion, Compressor and Pixelmator Pro, one available through the Apple Creator Studio subscription and the other sold separately. Both editions share the same name and can be installed on the same Mac at the same time, making it difficult to tell them apart at a glance.
Apple’s solution is to give the Creator Studio versions redesigned icons with Liquid Glass. The new support document features side-by-side icon comparisons for each of the six apps so users can identify which edition they’re running or troubleshoot from the Dock or Applications folder.
Apple doesn’t typically issue a dedicated reference document to distinguish between two of its own apps, and this move suggests that the dual-version setup has produced enough real-world confusion to warrant public guidance.
Apple Creator Studio launched in January for $12.99 per month or $129 per year, bringing the company’s professional creative apps under one subscription. Apple said some new features in its creative apps will now only be available to subscribers. The inclusion of Pixelmator Pro was the first significant sign of how Apple is integrating the Pixelmator team, which it acquired in November 2024.
Popular stories
watchOS 27 will add these new features to your Apple Watch
Apple will unveil watchOS 27 during its WWDC 2026 keynote on Monday, June 8, and a handful of new features have already been rumored. The first developer beta of watchOS 27 should be available immediately after the keynote, and a public beta typically follows in July. The update is expected to be released to all users with a compatible Apple Watch model in September. Below we recap watchOS…
The iPhone 18 Pro will launch later this year with these 10 new features
While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max won’t launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors circulating about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have Face ID entirely under the display, with only a front-facing camera visible in the upper left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component will be moved under…
Apple prepares the “most significant redesign in the history of the iPhone”
Apple is reportedly planning to unveil its first foldable iPhone in September this year – it could be called “iPhone Ultra” – and expectations are high. In his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said the foldable iPhone would be “the most significant redesign in iPhone history.” “The iPhone 4, iPhone 6 and iPhone X were clearly a big deal, but this is a completely new design,” he said…
