Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!STAR3.STANFORD.EDU!ELLIOT
From: ELLIOT@STAR3.STANFORD.EDU (Elliot Bennett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Canvas 2.0 Review
Message-ID: <598452939.0.ELLIOT@STAR3.STANFORD.EDU>
Date: 18 Dec 88 12:55:39 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Lines: 106


A number of people have been curious about Canvas 2.0 (or at least what graphics
packages are "out there") and I thought I would help out with my impressions of 
Canvas 2.0 now that I've had some time to play with it.

Very simply, Canvas is (in my opinion) the BEST (non-CAD) graphics 
package in ANY software market.  In fact, read this review, and if anyone knows 
of something better ON ANY MACHINE, I'd like to know.

A "short" list of Canvas' features include:

GENERAL
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o  ABSOLUTELY the BEST user-interface I have ever seen on the Mac (and I	
	studied user-interface design at Stanford [I could talk a LOT about 
	this if anyone's interested]).
o  supports 16 mill. colors (using the color wheel and/or saved sets of color	
	tables to set the current color palete).  It uses a great pop-up color 
	palate to access the colors.  You can set fore- and background	colors.
o  unlimited layers (memory permitting).  Different layers can be saved to a 
	separate file or printed (e.g., print layers 3,8, and 23).  Layers are
	easily reordered, hidden, or greyed (for tracing bitmaps, for example).
	Easy transfer of objects between layers.
o  Tons of well placed and useful pop-up menus (as alternates to the pull-down/ 
	heirarchical menus under the menu bar)
o  Zoom in/out by up to 64 times using a brilliat pop-up menu, a magnifying 
	glass, or the keyboard.
o  Custom editable fill/pen patterns (patterned sets can be saved to disk.	
	"Only" 60 or so patterns can be seen/used at once).
o  Fill/Pen patterns can be a postscript gray scale (from 1-100% @1 deg. incr.).
o  Tear-off rulers let you measure anything anywhere.
o  Ruler zero-point reset
o  Ruler guides
o  Pen Modes (COPY, OR, BIC, XOR, and their compliments Not XOR, etc.)
o  Pen sizes from 1 to 9 adjustible in both height and width
o  Custom pen sizes of anything you like down to 1/8 of a PIXEL width for 
	hairlines
o  Macros (of complicated objects savable into sets)
o  New Textedit (allows letters to be INDIVIDUALLY sized, colored, styled, or 
	'font'ed.
o  9 Feet x 9 Feet drawing space (and pages can be set to print with overlap
	for easy cutting and pasting).  Not only that, but you can set the 
	DIRECTION of printing the pages (i.e. horizontally or vertically).  
	Ever wonder in MacDraw which page it considered #2 when you had 2 down
	and 2 across?  Well, YOU set it in Canvas.
o  Exports/Imports all the standards, including PICT (except it only imports	
	MacDraw).
o  On-line Hypercard-like help that tells you most of what you need to know.

OBJECT MODE
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o  Unlimited point Bezier curves.  Well done (as in Illustrator).
o  4 standard types of editable arrow heads.
o  Auto-dimensioning (height, width, perimeter, and area) of objects
o  Splitting and gluing of polygons.  Points are easily added or subtracted.
o  Open ovals (for pie charts, etc).
o  Scaling of objects
o  Duplicate feature lets you set # of copies, angle of rotation, start/stop
	pattern fill and/or color, x/y offsets, % inc/decrease in size, and more
o  Easily changed curvature of round-rectangles (ala MacDraft).
o  Rotations at 1 degree increments

BITMAP MODE
-----------
o  Autotrace of bitmaps to polygons (this, like most autotracing, works so-so)
o  Bitmaps up to 2540 dpi (I use 300 dpi for LW perfection).
o  Full MacPaint tools that really are at least as good as Superpaint
o  Flow rate control on Spraycan.

PLUS
----
o  A LOT more (cropping, grids, multiple ruler scaling units...)

I could probably go on and on.  To be fair, it does have a couple of 
shortcomings.  Like when you save a file, the icon is moved to a grid location 
in the finder (if it's not at one already) and the color of the icon (on a Mac 
ii [obviously]) is lost.  Text is only single spaced (no double or 1.5- don't 
ask me why).  And I would prefer floating palates to having one in each window. 
But, hey, I can live with it...

So, if you're not using Canvas you've got to ask yourself why?  (I've seen it 
for as little as $150 mail order).  You can get a demo version from them for 
about $10 (I think).  My FREE upgrade from 1.0 also came with a desk accessory 
version that they claim has about 70% of the program's capability (though on my 
5 meg Mac ii under MF, I have little need of it :-).

I'd really enjoy hearing why people wouldn't use this package.  Please note that
my enthusiasm for this program comes from more than an impressive and long list 
of features.  It's not just WHAT they put in the program, but HOW they 
implemented it.  I, for one, am ready to go out and buy stock in Deneba...

Elliot Bennett
elliot@star.stanford.edu

Disclaimer:
Unfortunately I have absolutely no connections, relations, or am otherwise
involved with Deneba Software**.  I'm just an incredibly satisfied customer... 

(**despite the fact that this sounds more like an ad than a review ;-)

Oh yea, for your information:
Deneba Software
3305 N.W. 74th Ave
Miami, FL 33122
(305) 594-6965
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