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From: mikec@epsl.umd.edu (Michael D. Callaghan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next
Subject: Re: TopDraw Anyone?
Message-ID: <1991Feb12.003548.15580@wam.umd.edu>
Date: 12 Feb 91 00:35:48 GMT
References: <7540@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU>
Sender: usenet@wam.umd.edu (USENET Posting)
Organization: University of Maryland at College Park
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In article <7540@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU> eboltz@jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU (Eric Scott Boltz) writes:
>Hey All,
>
>So, anyone used TopDraw? With the edu. pricing on Diagram! there's absolutely
>no doubt that I will buy a copy (the demo is slick), but I haven't seen
>any postings regarding TopDraw. It's definitely more expensive and I don't 
>know if there is an edu. discount. If someone has used it, I'm sure I'm
>not the only one who's curious.
>

I have been hoping to have a chance to sit down and type up an intelligent
overview of TopDraw. But since I haven't yet, I'll just type a few lines of
whatever I think.

I've been using TopDraw for about a month now. Before I sold my Mac II, I
used Aldus Freehand to do all my illustrations. 

First, I'll tell you what I don't like about TopDraw when compared to Freehand.
Keep in mind that a lack of a feature is not a shortcoming, just a lack of a
feature.

TopDraw lacks the Auto-trace tool that Freehand has. Now, Freehands auto-trace
is not the greatest thing in the world, but it DOES exist.

TopDraw cannot open Illustrator files, as can Freehand, and edit them. I find
this very annoying, since I have a pretty large eps collection in Illustrator 
format.

Now I'll mention some general problems I have with TopDraw.
It doesn't recognize any of my new fonts! Apparently it has the same problem
that FrameMaker 2.0 has! The fonts that were installed prior to my upgrade to
NS2.0 work fine. All other fonts don't even show up in the font panel. I 
got the FrameMaker Fix that someone posted here a few days ago, but haven't 
tried it yet. I hope it works.

Every now and then, seemingly at random, I will get the infamous Display
PostScript Error, and TopDraw will die completely. To their credit, though,
Media Logic has placed a catch for this error: You get a chance to save your
work before TopDraw dies.

Now on to some good stuff. I really like the way TopDraw handles text. It
actually does a better job in some respects than does Frame! Frame does not
allow for irregularly shaped columns. With TopDraw, you can paste text inside
any closed path, and it works fine!

I am also very pleased with TopDraw's handling of Rotation, Scaling, and
Skewing of Complex Art. I scanned in a photo last week, and it was crooked.
I imported the bitmap into TopDraw, and rotated -2.5 degrees. It printed
beautifully. I think that credit goes equally to TopDraw and PostScript, for
being able to do such things with bitmaps.

I can't think of anything else that bothers me, or jumps out at me about
TopDraw. I haven't yet played with Diagram. Perhaps I'll get it tonight.

If anyone has any specific questions about TopDraw, just ask. I don't work
for them. I work for myself.

MikeC

-- 
_________________________________________________________
Michael D. Callaghan, MDC Designs, University of Maryland
mikec@wam.umd.edu