davidl@inteloc.intel.com (David Levine) (01/28/88)
Canvas, Illustrator, Cricket Draw, MacDraw II, Freehand, Draw It Again Sam...
so many new products, so many changes, everything new or in new versions...
how's a person supposed to keep track?
My department needs a drawing program for its Mac II. It must be able to
read MacDraw documents and/or accept MacDraw drawings via the Clipboard.
Currently, we just need it to turn some MacDraw drawings into PostScript
for inclusion in non-Mac documents. However, it may be used for technical
illustration in the future, so it must be a very capable illustration
program. In fact, it had better have more features than we think we need
today, because it's probably the only one we can buy for the forseeable
future. (However, color is not necessary.)
Therefore, if you have used any of the current crop of object-oriented
graphics programs, please drop me a line with your opinions. Pointers to
comparison reviews of these products in recent magazines would also be
appreciated.
-- David D. Levine, Technical Writer, Intel (boo hiss) Corporation
...{decvax,ihnp4,hplabs}!tektronix!ogcvax!inteloa!inteloe!davidlbayes@hpfcdc.HP.COM (Scott Bayes) (01/30/88)
>Canvas, Illustrator, Cricket Draw, MacDraw II, Freehand, Draw It Again Sam... >so many new products, so many changes, everything new or in new versions... >how's a person supposed to keep track? MacUser has a couple of columns that seem to run regularly: What's M ss ng (What's Missing), and another one that tries (succeeds?) to specify the most current rev of most major packages. If I remember, What's M ss ng is topically oriented, so you may have to shuffle through some back issues in order to look at, say, Graphics packages. >program. In fact, it had better have more features than we think we need >today, because it's probably the only one we can buy for the forseeable Ain't that the sorry truth for most of us!! >future. (However, color is not necessary.) > >Therefore, if you have used any of the current crop of object-oriented >graphics programs, please drop me a line with your opinions. Pointers to >comparison reviews of these products in recent magazines would also be >appreciated. Try MacUser reviews. Carry a LARGE grain of salt, as your mileage may vary. They also have a MiniFinder section near the end, 1 para reviews of hundreds of packages. The mouse-dropping ratings they use there may be rather misleading. > >-- David D. Levine, Technical Writer, Intel (boo hiss) Corporation > ...{decvax,ihnp4,hplabs}!tektronix!ogcvax!inteloa!inteloe!davidl Scott Bayes bayes@hpfclw
Lou@cup.portal.com (01/30/88)
You're looking for the best drawing program for the Mac. Ability to read PICT files is a must, and so is Postscript. My recommendation is Illustrator 88 from Adobe. The new version has som some nice features the original was lacking. Iw will read MacDraw-type files, and acheive other nice effects. A runner up is Cricket Draw, but I believe this is still too slow and PICT file/postscript file handling is a little quirkish. I vote Illustrator 88 the most powerful drawing program, and Canvas the most versatile. In fact, Canvas comes with a desk accessory version that you can pull up in any program that needs graphics. It's like adding a rotated text and bezier curve module to your favorite desktop publishjing program. There's my two cents.