Draw Programs?

[ffutures]

For the big boat picture I used a vector graphics drawing program called Micrografx Draw, which is basically abandonware - it's a nice easy to use program, but it's many years since it was supported, and it has some flaws that make some projects difficult. The big one, as far as the spaceship thing is concerned, is that occasionally things change size as the file reloads. This is a total pain if you are trying to do things to a consistent scale. It wasn't quite so important with the boat, but if the modular design idea I had is to work it will need to be scaled accurately.

Its big advantage, which is lacking from a lot of other programs, is that it's easy to work with banners and other projects that span several pages. That was very important for the boat, and will be vital for the spaceship thing.

Can anyone suggest something a little more reliable that has this capability, is fairly easy to use (e.g. not a fully featured CAD program) and hopefully isn't ridiculously expensive. So far I've tried Serif Draw and Open Office Draw, but neither seems to know about continuous multiple page documents. I suppose I could try setting up a custom page size or something, but it'd be easier to start out with a program that already has the capability built in.

How about Corel? It's ridiculously pricy but I may qualify for an educational deal or something. Anyone know?

Comments

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, Pages (part of iWork) is a pretty decent drawing program—better than MacDraw!

You get lines and shapes, with teh ability to differently colour and pattern the lines and fills. Fills can be colours, gradients, images, and tinted images (which lets you do textures). Elements can be masked to make parts invisible. Elements can be rotated, flipped, and mirrored, as well as grouped. Drop shadows are simple.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's a possibility, but I wasn't really looking for something for the mac - my Windows PC has a 22" screen, my iBoook has a 14" screen, and with my eyesight I really don't want to mess around trying to do accurate cad on something that small. And I don't own iWork though it does seem to be reasonably cheap.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

If you like, I'll send you my old copy when I get back from holiday. I bought the latest version, so don't need the older one anymore.

Maybe this parcel will get through ;-)

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I seriously can't see working at that sort of detail level on the iBook - but thanks for the offer.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

OK. I was thinking more as a decent DTP program (and you'd get Keynote too, which beats Powerpoint—not that that is difficult!).

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

The thing is that I really don't do much creative work on the iBook other than typing - it's basically my "take to conventions" computer for rolling demos etc., at home I use it for web browsing when I'm not at my desk (e.g. I'm eating breakfast in the kitchen right now) and when the main PC is busy with something else.

[technoir.livejournal.com]

Paint.net is pretty good and easy to use. It also has the advantage of being free.

Gimp is also very good and free.

I think both may have the capability you are looking for. You can certainly set a page size.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Sorry, paint.net at least is a bitmap editing program, not vector graphics, I think that Gimp is too. I'm basically looking for something that does the same sort of thing that CAD programs do, but with more shading etc. capabilities.

[ci5rod.livejournal.com]

The Gimp is indeed a bitmap editor.

Would Scribus (http://www.scribus.net/) be more the sort of thing you're looking for?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Site seems to be down, I'll take a look in the morning.

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

I use CorelDraw 12.0 and like it quite a lot. It's comparable to Adobe Illustrator in a lot of ways and -- to the minimal extent I remember how it worked -- Micrografx Draw too. To answer your specific question, it does do multipage documents and you can run text continuously from one frame to another across pages.

One thing to check out is that until recently (and possibly even up 'til now) Corel has often kept several versions of the program out with older versions getting progressively cheaper. I remember that if you were willing to drop back three version numbers, it could be bought for CDN$99 retail and less if you were willing to shop around. Used copies are also widely available, since Corel saturated North America with copies of versions 6.0 through about 11.0.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

That's something I was considering too.

Corel Draw

[nojay.livejournal.com]

I got an OEM copy of Corel Draw Suite 7 for 5 quid at a computer fair a few years ago. I think it was meant to be a version bundled with a scanner or such. I don't use Draw much but Corel PhotoPaint (included in the package) is my preferred bitmap editor. Transferring stuff between the two programs is easy.

As for my impressions of Corel Draw, it's very technical with a GUI laid over what used to be a numerical front-end (a bit like AutoCAD). The version I'm using is a few years old and its prepress toolset is limited (colour gamuts, no Pantone etc.) but given the range of stuff you're interested in doing that's not necessarily a problem. I'd rate the learning curve on Draw as moderate to severe though, and the help files and tutorials aren't particularly good. Your local library could well have books on how to use Corel products, especially the earlier versions.

Re: Corel Draw

[nojay.livejournal.com]

On Ebay at the moment -- 200241957436

Corel Draw 8, original disc and key for a fiver (current bid) inc P&P.

There are also boxed copies of CorelDraw Suite version 12 from the US for about 35 quid BIN, which is a pretty good deal -- 260268142098

Re: Corel Draw

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Just had a look a few minutes ago - and Corel's web site says that they can read Micrografx Draw's files, which I think is the clincher, it'll save having to redo some things from scratch.

Re: Corel Draw

[nojay.livejournal.com]

Just to check on that, email me a Micrografx file, I'll open it in my copy of Draw. I'll create a bitmap image and email that back to you. That way you can be sure that the conversion Corel say they can achieve will actually work.

Re: Corel Draw

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Good idea! Will do.

[pengshui-master.livejournal.com]

I think inkscape is available on windows.

Yup from here:- http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en

It's what I use, but since use linux almost exclusively these days I have slightly less choice. OTOH, it doesn;'t cost anything to try.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Thanks - but I've just realised that Corel can read Micrografx files, which I think is the clincher.

[raygungothic.livejournal.com]

I have Corel 9 and like it, although it feels a little dated these days in some ways (can't import the most recent PDFs, not as stable as it was when new due to OS changes). On the other hand, I have used Corel 11 at other people's workplaces and didn't really feel that the program was advancing (as opposed to bloating), so I never bought the upgrade.

I have a pretty high opinion of Inkscape, which has the great advantage of being free, but unfortunately it lacks multiple-page facilities.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I've used Corel a couple of times at work, but unfortunately they let the site license lapse or something a couple of years ago, and I never really got familiar with it - most of what I used it for was things like instrument panel labels, which wasn't exactly demanding work.

Corel odds and evens

[nojay.livejournal.com]

Corel's release process for the Draw suite was to innovate on odd-numbered releases (3, 5, 7, 9 etc.) to add functionality and new GUI capabilities. The even-numbered releases that followed fixed the inevitable bugs and made the program run more stably on existing hardware and OS combinations.

Lots of RAM was (and still is) a good idea, but that's true of any graphics and drawing package pretty much.