fang@dukempd.phy.duke.edu (Fang Zhong) (12/16/88)
I have used MacDraw II. I like two of its many features a lot. It can zoom
in and out 10 times. It allows me to put a drawing over 25 pages. It has an
option for decimal pen size.
I am open to suggestions. Which other drawing softwares have those features
and use PICT format? Where can I get a good deal for the one you would
recommend?
Thanks in advance.drew@cat7.CS.WISC.EDU (Shawn Drew) (12/17/88)
In article <756@dukempd.phy.duke.edu> fang@dukempd.phy.duke.edu (Fang Zhong) writes: > > I have used MacDraw II. I like two of its many features a lot. It can zoom >in and out 10 times. It allows me to put a drawing over 25 pages. It has an >option for decimal pen size. > I am open to suggestions. Which other drawing softwares have those features >and use PICT format? Where can I get a good deal for the one you would >recommend? > Thanks in advance. Canvas 2.0 has (I believe) all of these features and more. Yes, Canvas 2.0 is a truly amazing program. You can have a drawing of 81 square feet, using up 154 (maybe a few more) pages. Of course you would need a lot of memory to do this, unless it were really simple. Secondly, Deneba Software (the makers of Canvas) have an excellent upgrade policy. Buy any version of Canvas and get any and all upgrades for free. This way, you might be able to buy a copy of Canvas 1.0 for real cheap (I paid around $115) from a dealer and get a free upgrade. Of course you will have to wait some time for the upgrade, but what do you expect from a cheap workaround? If you have any more questions about Canvas 2.0, just email me. Note: I am not really that much affiliated with Deneba Software, although I am a satisfied customer. Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article do not represent those of my employer. They're for sale, if you want them. drew@cat18.cs.wisc.edu Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
frank@mnetor.UUCP (Frank Kolnick) (12/17/88)
In article <756@dukempd.phy.duke.edu> fang@dukempd.phy.duke.edu (Fang Zhong) writes: > > I have used MacDraw II. I like two of its many features a lot. It can zoom >in and out 10 times. It allows me to put a drawing over 25 pages. It has an >option for decimal pen size. > I am open to suggestions. Which other drawing softwares have those features >and use PICT format? Where can I get a good deal for the one you would >recommend? > Thanks in advance. I just received my upgrade to Canvas 2.0. It does what you want and is all round a pretty nifty program (I'll finally be able to give up Cricket Draw, well, almost. Canvas doesn't bind text or do logarithmic 'fountains'.) Cricket, by the way is a very sophisticated package but only lets you draw one page and is somewhat sluggish. Canvas also comes with a DA that is almost as powerful as the application. If you're looking for a relatively cheap but feature-laden DA, try DeskDraw (and DeskPaint, if you want bitmaps). It has zoom, large drawing size and numerous other things typically found in more expensive tools. -- Frank Kolnick, consulting for, and therefore expressing opinions independent of, Computer X UUCP: {allegra, linus}!utzoo!mnetor!frank
kehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (12/19/88)
In article <756@dukempd.phy.duke.edu> fang@dukempd.phy.duke.edu (Fang Zhong) writes:
< I have used MacDraw II. I like two of its many features a lot. It can zoom
<in and out 10 times. It allows me to put a drawing over 25 pages. It has an
<option for decimal pen size.
< I am open to suggestions. Which other drawing softwares have those features
<and use PICT format? Where can I get a good deal for the one you would
<recommend?
< Thanks in advance.
I tried out MacDraw II last week also. It has two tutorial disks and an
additional tutorial in the manual. These give you a pretty good feel for
the program. I like it a lot, but I already own Canvas.
I worked with the Canvas 2.0 upgrade only a few hours before I found that
it would not put white text on black boxes, which is a requirement for the
work I do. I called Tech Support and they had me try lots of combinations
using the XOR stuff that I had never paid any attention to.
What I did in the past (Canvas 1) was put bold outline fonts on top of a
black box. This no longer works in either Canvas or MacDraw II. In MacDraw
II, you can use bold text painted white (see color in the manual). This is
something I didn't try with Canvas. (By the way, after consultation with
Canvas support, they told me to ship my disks back to them, which I did
about a week ago.)
Comparing features between Canvas II and MacDraw II, you get the idea that
they each added essentially the same features in many areas. Each has a
view that you can set, layers, multiple ways to arrange objects on one
layer, better curve handling, autoscrolling, move objects by arrow keys, etc.
Canvas 1 had the ability to move objects a pixel at a time with the arrow
keys, but in version II, you can hold down keys to move 10 or 50 pixels at
a time.
Comparing the features, Canvas II wins by far and it is much cheaper ($169
vs $329 mail order). And of course, Canvas has the paint capibility too.
Claris did a fantastic job on documentation. The manual is wire ring but
hard back. Thanks to their tutorials, I know more about how to use Canvas.
Canvas has improved their documentation (the index is usable now). The
only thing I wonder is what you get if you buy Canvas II outright.
Original owners got something called an upgrade manual. There is no tutorial
although there are tutorial documents. For those of us who are learning to
draw for the first time, the more help we can get with drawing techniques,
the better. I've used words all my life but am just starting to use art in
documents. My boss wants us to do it all; he does not want to hire an
illustrator and page layout person. Personally I like that, but I wish
there were some courses in drawing on a Macintosh.
Back to your original questions, Canvas has always made it easy to zoom to
other sizes. You can go directly to any level you want. I presume that the
magnification/reduction capability can be set in a View just as you can do
with MacDraw II.
Both programs are great to me, though I am hoping to stay with Canvas if
they get "my copy" (:-) working properly. When I sent back the disks, I
included samples of text that had been formatted as bold, but it displayed
and printed as outline. Text formatted as outline displayed as outline but
printed as bold. I don't know if I got the program mixed up, but that just
shouldn't have happened under any circumstance.
Shirley Kehrosmigo@ut-emx.UUCP (12/21/88)
[users laud Canvas 2.0] Canvas 2.0 is indeed a fine program. However, it may suffer from an attempted "do everything" role a la FullWrite Professional. You can only cram so many features into one program before you start cutting corners somewhere. Personally, I find it more useful to have a variety of graphic programs on hand, instead of saying "this one is the best." For object-oriented drawing, PowerDraw is very, very hard to beat. Even Canvas can't come close. Cricket Draw also has some unique capabilities I use from time to time. For bit-map work, SuperPaint 2.01 fills the bill, although I like the way Canvas lets you draw with "paint tools" such as the spray can, then select and manipulate the segment as an object. Wonderful. Sometimes, however, I just want something quick-and-dirty, such as a simple data form with rows and columns of squares. In that case, the aforementioned applications are gross overkill, and I whip it out with "Old Reliable," MacDraw 1.9.5. For touching up digitized images, of course, there are Digital Darkroom and Image Studio. At any rate, each of these fine programs has at least a few unique capabilities worthy of note that the others don't have. Having all these on hand could be an expensive proposition, I'll admit, but you can save a substantial amount of money by buying mail order. If you pirate, they are all readily available for free via dialup, although this route precludes access to perks such as documentation and tech support. Ron =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ > Ron Morgan {ames, utah-cs, uunet, gatech}!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!osmigo < > Univ. of Texas {harvard, pyramid, sequent}!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!osmigo < > Austin, Texas osmigo@ut-emx.UUCP osmigo@emx.utexas.edu < =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+