Path: utzoo!utgpu!mnetor!frank
From: frank@mnetor.UUCP (Frank Kolnick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Canvas 2.0 Review
Message-ID: <4799@mnetor.UUCP>
Date: 20 Dec 88 16:16:12 GMT
References: <598452939.0.ELLIOT@STAR3.STANFORD.EDU>
Reply-To: frank@mnetor.UUCP (Frank Kolnick)
Organization: Computer X (CANADA) Ltd., Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Lines: 47

In article <598452939.0.ELLIOT@STAR3.STANFORD.EDU> ELLIOT@STAR3.STANFORD.EDU (Elliot Bennett) writes:
> (a glowing review of Canvas 2.0)

I generally agree with this review, having had my 2.0 upgrade for a week
and being a heavy user of Illustrator and Cricket Draw (and having tried and
given up on most other drawing packages). However, I haven't thrown
Illustrator out yet, and still use Cricket Draw, too. So, since you asked,
a contrasting viewpoint...

>o  Unlimited point Bezier curves.  Well done (as in Illustrator).

You may attribute this to my relative inexperience with 2.0, but I wouldn't
say Beziers are as well done as in Illustrator. I tried redrawing a relatively
simple closed curve that I'd done in Ill. and gave up. Canvas would probably
be suitable for most people but it doesn't have the general finesse of Ill.
(I'm getting tired of typing Illustrator) and lacks several key tools for
editing them. (It also doesn't seem to print them as smoothly, i.e., I
sometimes get 'bumps' where the curve changes direction. Don't know if this
is my fault.)

>o  4 standard types of editable arrow heads.

This is one of my favourite features now. Unfortunately, you can't put
arrow heads on Bezier curves (one reason I still use Cricket).

A couple of other things still unique to Cricket Draw (Ill. is a world
unto itself and only has FreeHand as real competition):
1. logarithmic and radial gradients (Canvas will do linear shading, using
   a method similar to Ill.'s, by duplicating an object).
2. binding text to a curve; not to be fancy, just to make labels look like
   they really belong with a curved arrow, etc.
3. better wysiwyg, i.e., I only have to test-print a drawing ten times with
   Cricket instead of 20 with Canvas; lining up text with lines seems to
   cause me a lot of problems
4. I have hundreds of Cricket drawings and can't figure out how to convert
   them to Canvas (saving as PICT doesn't work; Canvas imports this as 
   a general 'picture' object which is not editable -- it just sits there)

So, if I had only one program, it would be Illustrator. Of all the rest,
I'd still choose Cricket (*for the kinds of diagrams I do*). Specific
features of Canvas are much better done, but Cricket has more all-round
flexibility and, in my opinion, a slightly cleaner interface.

-- 
Frank Kolnick,
consulting for, and therefore expressing opinions independent of, Computer X
UUCP: {allegra, linus}!utzoo!mnetor!frank