NOTE: Many spelling and grammatical errors have been corrected. Thanks to the considerate and generous Adrian Nier and his awesome list. Thanks, Andy Baird for holding me to your reasonable and expectations. Some images blow-out the layout and I will be fixing these later this evening (Done 22:33PST -jw). – Your Host (17:40 PST 11 August 2009)

We’ve looked at alternatives to Photoshop such as Pixelmator, Acorn and (at the time) DrawIt; and we’ve had a good overview of drawing tool options with a huge head-to-head of Intaglio, Lineform, VectorDesigner, and ZeusDraw. Now it’s time to bring it all together with an overview of page layout tools, probably one of the most critical tools in a graphic designer’s arsenal.

You probably recognize this class of software I’m reviewing now as Desktop Publishing (DTP). Page layout tools allow a designer to arrange artwork, photography and type into a meaningful and attractive composition. Usually the features allow a designer to flow text across multiple pages and around artwork, exercise special control over type and other details, and make accurate and easy adjustments to anything in the publication. Better programs offer ways to make templates and master pages that can be used over and over, and for serious professional level work, they support different colour spaces (RGB for screen production and CMYK and spot colours for designing press ready materials).

In my professional life I use InDesign CS4 daily, and really like its features and tools. I have a very high regard for Adobe’s typesetting engine which has automatic optical kerning and a fantastic paragraph composer that sets text with real grace. I will be using this as my professional measure to compare and contrast the contenders in the review.

I am far less familiar with Quark XPress, although some of my peers continue to use this program. I have installed a trial copy for reference as I work through these comparisons, though I will not be including it as an option here.

So if you’re after a page-layout tool and don’t want to pony-up for InDesign and do the learning that it requires, but you know you need something more than simply a word processor, what are the options? How do they compare, and is one better than another?

Let’s find out.

Note

Even though I go into great detail in this comparison, there are still things that I won’t be able to cover. Readers who want to draw attention to some of these things are welcome to elaborate in the comments and I am happy to receive clarification from users and developers too.

I also have to tell you that this article took me a long long time to write. I have made every effort to modify things as they were updated, but if you spot any errors or omissions because of program updates, or any contradictions etc. please let me know. I will be happy to change them. Thank you.

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Selection Criteria
Testing
Focus + Stated Goals
Installation + Updating
Icons
User Interface
Overview
Workspace
Preferences
Toolset
Laying Out a Page
Typesetting
Unique Features
Performance
Scripting + Plug-ins
Help
Tonight’s Verdict
Final Thoughts
Linkage

Selection Criteria

I’m looking at alternatives to Adobe InDesign, and there are quite a few. The choices in this respect are somewhat more circumscribed than the sprawling field of 13 I had to winnow in Drawing Conclusions, and so my selection criteria are different.

I have chosen not to include Quark XPress because I think it competes in a different arena than the others do here. I am also going to stick to Mac OS X native applications, so Scribus fans won’t see their favourite reviewed in this article (I do have the app and will use it as a reference; and who knows – maybe I’ll do a free software review soon).

I have decided to leave out Apple’s Pages and Microsoft Word in spite of the fact that these apps have many page layout features, primarily because these are marketed as word processors and I want to preserve the opportunity to compare these two apps head-to-head at some future date.

Still, I learn from the past and this is too many to handle in any useful way. A brief spin through the possibilities convinces me I don’t want to spend any time on Page Layout Designer (improperly made icon, the file named Page Layout Designer.pdf hasn’t even been revised and the document begins with the title Desktop Publisher Pro, and although it seems to run okay on Mac OS X, none of the interface conventions are used and it feels distinctly OS 9. Doesn’t strike me as worth even the modest $39.95 price tag). I’m also going to remove DrawOutX from the running. While I don’t doubt that it could be an okay aletrnative to the others, I am not at all impressed by its website, or its UI (the website appears as an after-thought and the UI of the app which seems straightforward enough offends with is grey pages stacked one over the other). This leaves me with a these:

Create 14, by Stone Design

iCalamus, by Invers Software

iStudio Publisher, by c:four Limited

Swift Publisher, by BeLight Software

WorksWell, by DrawWell Technologies

Lets see if we can handle 5…

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Testing

For testing, I am going to be using my relatively new 20” iMac (2.4GHz Intel C2D) with 4GB of RAM. I’m running Leopard 10.5.7. You will note this is not the same machine I used for Image Is Everything (and those of you who care can assume that performance and launch times etc., of the apps reviewed in that previous item, are better much quicker overall), for which I do not apologize.

I will be running a handful of apps alongside those being tested, as before. Here they are:

Finder

Terminal

Mail

iCal

iChat

iTunes

Safari

Scrivener

Yojimbo

Linotype FontExplorer X

Address Book

Snapz Pro X running in the background

xScope

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Focus + Stated Goals

Without a shadow of doubt getting an idea of what the developers imagine their app should be in the market is a useful measure about what we can expect. Lets take a brief run through the websites for these contenders.

Create 14
“One low-cost application with all the features of professional page layout, illustration and web-authoring systems and Free Upgrades for Life – find out why people love Create®! Create combines the major features of applications like Illustrator®, InDesign®, Pages®, GoLive®, Canvas®, DreamWeaver®, QuarkExpress®, Streamline® in one easy-to-use, low-cost, completely OS X native application”

Create was one of the first graphics applications that was Mac OS X native. Over the years the feature set has been expanded and the offering has a lot of potential.

iCalamus
“iCalamus offers an easy approach to DTP, and an excellent choice for creating simple posters, to complex magazines, scientific works and book publishing. iCalamus is a multi-lingual, frame-oriented desktop publishing solution for Mac OS X.”

There’s a lot more here, in nice quirky English translated from German. I had to look up what a Calamus was to get the name of this program (the hollow shaft of a feather, also known as the quill) and it attendant icon. It has some neat features like live masking and frame level blending modes and more. Despite the language triggering a bit of congnitive dissonance, this looks promising.

iStudio Publisher
“Professional design tools needn’t cost you the earth. Built on industry standards, the new iStudio Publisher helps you create everything from simple letters to designing great-looking flyers with the confidence that your final output will be what you see on screen.”

Developed by designers, writers and developers dissatisfied with current solutions, this looks like a full featured app and I am looking forward to it. It also uses an original tesxt setting engine, like the Adobe apps, where the others are presumably relying on ATSUI (Apple Type Services for Unicode Imaging) so I am curious to see the results.

Swift Publisher
“Swift Publisher – easy page layout on your Mac

No doubt that staying in touch with your customers and group members is important for you. With Swift Publisher, publishing attractive and informative documents for business, social and home activities becomes a snap.

Swift Publisher is an excellent Macintosh page layout application for designing and printing colorful flyers, newsletters, brochures, letterheads, booklets, etc. A great selection of templates inspires your creativity and a variety of editing tools lets you quickly apply it.”

A good positioning statement that makes it clear that Swift Publisher is intended for use in focused small business publishing. It offers a tonne of graphic support and an interface that appeals to me.

WorksWell
“Broadly fitting in the categories of Drawing, DTP and Reporting software, WorksWell has features which place it firmly within its own unique niche.

WorksWell’s foundation is built on robust drawing tools set in a powerful environment which allows; layering, grouping, undo, 6,400% zoom and truly massive control of attributes. Text support is well integrated with graphic objects, text can be made to fit shapes or take on graphical attributes by using the artistic text tool.

It’s when we go beyond the powerful drawing capabilities of WorksWell that people really start to sit up and take notice. Multiple page support, Charts and PDF markup takes us well into DTP territory; advanced merging facilities takes us beyond. Merging is possible from a number of sources; iTunes and iPhoto may be used as content for documents of your own design opening up unlimited possibilities.”

This sounds good, but I don’t know what merging means in this context, or just what to expect. But hell, reviews are an adventure and I am always a sucker for unique functionality.

Websites: A Crucial Point
Before we get into the meat of the review, I feel bound to address this important topic.

Guys, we’re talking about GRAPHIC DESIGN here. And sites that look like these just don’t cut it. Really.

Stone Design has a new front door, but the rest of the site languishes in some sort of late 80s DTP hell. Why? The iCalamus site, is quirky and the calligraphic headings don’t help convince or sell. Thankfully, the iStudio site offers some relief, but the fact of the matter is that the Aqua look and reflections can only last so long. Maybe it’s time to be as original as you claim to be? Swift Publisher’s site is pretty good, in keeping with the rest of BeLight’s world, but it doesn’t feel as friendly as the company’s communication implies. Lastly, WorkWell’s site is clear and well structured but appears to have been built for the era of 800×600.

It’s 2009. You’re selling software online. I dropped a contender because the site was even more abysmal than these; but in truth, based on your primary communication here, I should have dropped all but iStudio, and Swift.

It’s worthwhile to get professional design help. I am not kidding.

If I am looking for an alternative to InDesign I want something competent, not cheesy. I’d like to be reassured that even if I’m not going pro, that I am making a sound decision and a great deal of that will be based on how this stuff comes across. It’s not folksie or friendly. It’s messy and disorganized. It’s inconsistent and doesn’t set a good example for amateurs or hobbyists at all.

Pull it together.

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Installation + Updating

Create, iCalamus, iStudio, and WorksWell, all install simply by dragging the application icon onto your preferred folder. iCalamus is unique in that it unzips to be an app, no disk image involved. I love these kinds of installs and am beginning to hate installers.

Swift Publisher ran an installer, and provides uninstall instructions in the download’s Read Me file.

Create has a Check For Updates… command in the application menu. From what I could suss out from the Stone website if there’s a newer version you need to download it, trash the old app and add the new one.

iCalamus ran a check and gave me a dialog box to advise me of a newer version. The box was something I had never seen before where the change log had actual screenshot in it. Clicking the Get It Now button takes you to the download page at the website. Simply replace the app in your folder.

iStudio was up-to-date but the info panel gave credit for Sparkle, so at least this app is with it and updating automatically. Also during my review period this app was updated to 1.0.5 and again on the final day I was writing this (the day of publication) to 1.1. I debated installing the updates, and in the end I went ahead and did as I don’t think the changes would materially affect the outcome of the practical tests I did here in the review.

There doesn’t seem to be a command to check for updates in WorksWell, so I am not sure about what the procedure will be. There is no mention about updating in the DrawWell or WorksWell manuals (WorksWell is the expanded version of DrawWell and the documentation for WorksWell simply covers the features that don’t exist in DrawWell.)

Swift takes you to the BeLight website where a nice message addresses you as friend and advises you on the software version status.

In all, installation and removal is straightforward but updating these apps is not a very modern. Hint to all contenders: Sparkle.

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Icons

And after the little website screed earlier I get to lay on another, but this time I am going to break it down app by app.

Icons are crucial features of an application and identify the app to the user. As a point of first contact, it’s crucial to have a decent icon. As time goes by, the icon comes to represent the app, the activity and the experience of the software. Generally I have found that apps with good icons are better than those with poor ones.

Create 14
Let me just say I am sure glad that this icon doesn’t retain any creepy human hands that characterized many icons from the NeXT effort. But that’s about all I can say. Stone has done a pretty admirable job of staying slavishly devoted to icons based on rocks. It’s time to get over it. Create’s icon is a crystal being carved or revealed from surrounding rock. The result is a darkly glowing blob, especially when the icon is small in a column view Finder window, or in a crowded dock. Not too attractive at all.

iCalamus
A bright red feather, stays pretty distinct in the dock, but the white tufts in the icon make it look a bit strange at smaller sizes. The shape is a bit slender for use in a Finder window set to Icon view at anything less than 64 pixels large. At least this means something and relates directly to the name and the purpose of the application.

iStudio Publisher
My comment about originality in the iStudio website applies here to the icon as well. A bright orange aqua disc, labelled with the iStudio moniker is neither attractive or original. It is however, nicely made, and distinguishable from other apps (although the glow and sheen as well as the label mean lost detail when it’s small. The icon speaks neither to purpose or to identity beyond its label.

Swift Publisher
Here’s a nice document icon with friendly green and a bit of text layout that is at least more attractive than what we’ve had so far. Text flows around a ladybug, and the quality of the rendering is excellent in firmly keeping with the rest of BeLight’s offerings. Maybe I don’t get the ladybug, but at least this one isn’t a travesty.

WorksWell
A pen and paper is understandable enough, but the sad fact is that the paper’s gear and pencil logo icon (not so great to begin with) gets obscured by a pen labelled with the web address of the company in precisely the wrong colour of indigo. I kid you not. This stuff is beyond me.

Summary
I’m throwing down the gauntlet here. Whether or not you are a seasoned veteran like Stone, or a new outfit like c:four, there’s no excuse for crappy icons. Get yourself on over to the Iconfactory, read this tutorial, see here, do some digging and get some nice things into our docks.

To be fair I don’t think too highly of the recent series of Adobe icons, although to their credit, they are at least distinctive and part of a whole visual program.

If I end up selecting any of these, I’m replacing the icon, and I know for sure I’ll even crack open the package and hunt down offenders to replace too.

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User Interface

This is the way the application is. It’s the thing that you get to use to make your ideas become a reality and the more the UI helps you get what you need without becoming the object of your attention, the better the app is. It will feel more natural and fluid and help you to be more efficient and expressive.

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Overview

Page layout programs have specific objectives that they need to support, and these cover a very wide range.

Typically the designer is arranging artwork and type together on a page or spread and usually for more than just a single page or two. Further, the designer needs to output a file that is useful for printing on an offset or even more serious paper press, and may be thinking about repurposing design elements in other media.

The introduction of special effects such as masking, transparency, blending and more, offer the designer opportunities for greater creative opportunity and visual impact, and modern imaging and layout applications support this impulse every step of the way.

Conceived to enable print workflows, page layout tools use the page as a primary metaphor and generally support layers or an analogue of layers. Measurement and positioning tools need to be strong and accurate and there should be grids (with optional snapping), guides, measurement tools, information about position and size for every object in a composition. Further, getting an accurate idea of how the document will look in its final state is a definite advantage and having some preview tools are crucial.

Depending on the nature of the work, you don’t want to run into trouble with artwork not being set to the right colourspace. For example you don’t want RGB images in your file if you’re going to print on a six colour press. Generally a designer can refer to “preflight” tools to ensure everything is ready for production.

Easily importing artwork into the publication, and manipulating it in place makes things more efficient and allows a more focused work style. Constantly going back and forth between different applications always takes too much time and breaks the flow of any good work.

Not all of these programs claim to be pro level, but Create and iCalamus both imply it, and iStudio definitely claims to be on that road. Swift Publisher has already set its focus and WorksWell claims a unique position beyond ‘DTP’.

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The workspace

Create 14
When Create opens, it opens a series of windows very quickly. A document window (which a drawer slides out from), an Info panel, A Library Resources panel, and a Window titled ‘Create® Release Notes – Easy Open and learning Resources. This last window combines the release notes for the latest release with a top panel of buttons including a pull down for opening files (default options are Open > Any doc, pdf, or image… [sic]) and buttons for Create Help, Library, Stone Forum, Online Tutorials, Create Art, and Tech Support. You can choose to skip this by selecting a check box at the bottom of the window, but it will always show after a new version is installed.

The info panel looks decidedly NeXTSTEP-ish and has 5 sections. The sections, which cannot be separated like panels in InDesign or OmniGraffle, handle the display of information and settings relating Objects, Effect, Size, Web, and View, and are not populated. I discovered a setting in the Preferences called ‘’use old style Info’ which ironically made the info panel a standard Mac OS X tabbed panel. Much more to my liking. The Library panel defaults to the Art tab of six in total, one of which is called Page. I clicked on that to see some pre-made layouts. That’s promising. The art library looks pretty funky as do most clip-art libraries and the pre-set effects, images, blends, and patterns, are mostly garish and feel kind of cheezy.

The document window opens with a toolbar set to Icon Only view and rulers usefully turned on. There is one icon in the tool bar that looks pretty funky called Image Drag Well and immediately next to it is a pull-down that sets the Image Drag well’s settings which we’ll look at later.

Overall it’s okay, but definitely has a Nineties feel.

Create 14 First Launch

iCalamus
When iCalamus starts it opens a series of inspectors and a New Document window which contains all the basic settings for setting up document size and more. Interestingly iCalamus offers a document type called ‘Photographerbook [sic]’ which is just an awesome compound word. It also is cool because it allows you to make a document that can be made into a book using the Photographer book service which is analogous to printing books from iPhoto.

A small tool palette opens on the left with 10 icons in it and an iCalamus label. The label is dumb as it looks goofy and doesn’t provide any functionality. After you setup your document a large window opens with your page and rulers turned on. The presentation feels like a nice cross between InDesign and OmniGraffle.

This feels very comfortable, calmer than Create but still typical.

iCalamus Workspace

iStudio Publisher
So far, iStudio is the only one to have a splash screen. It assures me that this tool is all about “Desktop Publishing. Simplified.”

Then I get a Welcome screen which is nice:

iStudio Publisher- Welcome

Then I get an Task Chooser:

iStudio Publisher- Task Chooser

Both of these can be disabled.

I say “Create New…”, a Document opens and sheet drop down:

iStudio New Document Sheet

It has extra options too, which remain enabled with the next “New Document…” command:

iStudio New Document with Options

I select a default letter size document, add a few pages and I’m in. The main window has a panel on the left for the Toolkit and the shape library and the main portion is dedicated to the page display with rulers on. On the right is an Inspector with 10 collapsible sections. The bottom of the inspector also has a couple helpful buttons labelled ‘Park’ ‘Expand All’, and ‘Collapse All’. If you ever find yourself clicking to close or collapse a panel in InDesign you can appreciate these would be handy. The top of the window has a toolbar with the view set to Icons & Text and Use Small Size. There are a lot of buttons here. The bottom of the window also carries a series of icons and buttons as well. On the left are controls for viewing the workspace. In the middle are controls for moving through a document and on the right there are Show/Hide buttons for Inspector, rulers, shapes tools and thumbnail view.

The overall effect is nice and organized and a little like Aperture and Apple’s other pro level programs.

iStudio Publisher Workspace

Swift Publisher
Swift also opens to a document setup panel. This one is much more Pages like and offers a series of templates categorized to help get you started. Some of them don’t even suck which is nice. Definitely aimed at the same market as Pages, and it also offers a New Blank Document button.

Swift is a lot like iStudio. It has a single window that contains a left-hand tabbed source art panel, a main canvas area, and a right-hand pages panel. Across the top is a tool bar containing various tools and controls and across the bottom are two tabs to control displaying foreground, background, the scrollbar, a zoom setting and a master pages pulldown. Does this imply there are no layers (or maybe just two layers) in this app?

The interface feels a little friendlier or more approachable than iStudio, probably because of button and control sizes. The inspector panel is also more Pages like than iStudio or other panel-covered applications.

Swift Publisher Workspace

WorksWell
WorksWell opens quickly and to a default page with guides and grids turned on. The default grid is too dense for my liking and the effect is to burden the way the interface presents. A Tool panel opens docked to the window, but strangely carries normal window controls even though only the close button is enabled. Kind of a curious choice that could have been solved better with a drawer à la Create, or a segmented window like the others. There is also a Document Inspector that opens with a series of tab icons which are beefy enoguh to cause the default width of the inspector (which is adjustable) to scroll. The icons in this inspector are distinctly mid-nineties and NeXT-ish in appearance.

The toolbox icons are relatively small and there are 3 columns of them and a total of 41 different tools. I supect this reflects WorksWell’s pedigree as a drawing and illustration (DrawsWell) tool as well as a page layout tool, much like Create. The main window’s toolbar defaults to Icons and Text and has 8 icons, which in keeping with the inspector kind of look NeXT-ish.

A simple interface that I hope supports design actions well, but feels very old-fashioned too.

WorksWell Workspace

Summary
The apps feel like page layout apps, and iCalamus feels the most familiar. Don’t know if that’s a good thing or not. The organization of iStudio and Swift are excellent and I like them very much. Create and WorksWell both feel like older apps, not fully brought up to date.

Preferences

A tour of application preferences is always useful to get some kind of idea about all the things the app does and the way it behaves that might not be shown in the workspace or menus. Let’s take a look to find out about these apps.

Create 14
I suspected that this app would have a pretty extensive Preferences panel due to its age and its purpose (Create also serves as a drawing and web authoring tool). It’s actually a lot better than I thought it would be with only 4 sections each with a fair number of settings. Some, like Levels of Undo, strike me as not too friendly (I hate this in Photoshop too), and others seem like real concessions to an earlier era of less powerful processors. The preferences seem comprehensive enough and some of them are nice conceptually like Enable snap to points and then drag a “gravity” setting in pixels to regulate how close things are before they snap.

Create 14 Preferences - Tools

Create 14 Preferences - Image

Create 14 Preferences - Document

Create 14 Preferences - Object

iCalamus
When you open the Preferences to iCalamus you get a startling presentation of all the window tabs repeated in the window, because it defaults to the Show All tab.

The tabs are clear and the settings few. I am curious about the Screen Resolution settings in the Measurements tab and wonder just how those affect the way the application behaves. Maybe they have to do with exporting artwork for print and press. The help file advises me otherwise though and says it’s so you “…can adjust the scaling of documents on screen.”

The Document tab allows you to set defaults for new documents. This doesn’t mean that the new document window won’t be displayed at launch or when you select File > New Document… It essentially provides the default values with which that window’s fields will be populated. I suspect that the rationale is that you should be able to override the defaults so this is simply a convenience preference.

iCalamus Preferences

iCalamus Preferences - General

iCalamus Preferences - Default Document

iCalamus Preferences - Measurement

iCalamus Preferences - Screen Resolution

iStudio Publisher
This app doesn’t have any Preferences. Maybe that’s a good thing. At least there’s no evasion about choices in the UI and fobbing the responsibility off onto users.

Swift Publisher

The preferences in this app are succinct and easily understood. Conveniences like US or metric measures, are available here. You can also set the app not to display the startup assistant window too. I like the fact that I can skip advanced settings in the print dialogue box but they didn’t have to include the word “Option to…” in the label. The preference panels also have help buttons which open help to the appropriate page which is unique to all of these apps.

Again, not too many choices here, but useful ones that would be a pain to integrate into the UI.

Swift Publisher Preferences - General

WorksWell

Disappointingly ugly, with crazy Windows-like tabs and a poorly sized and placed Factory Button which presumably resets all the preferences to their defaults. The actual content of the tabs makes sense for the most part, except for the General tab which has some pretty weird ones. Why wouldn’t I want to see control points while editing? Or page numbers. And If I can control the way the tool box is displayed then why not let me control both its width and height?

The Merge Tokens tab looks intimidating which either means power (which I like), or confusion (which I don’t), or both (which is worse). Until I get what Merge is in WorksWell I don’t know what I’m looking at here.

WorksWell Preferences - General

WorksWell Preferences - Application Launch

WorksWell Preferences - Documents

WorksWell Preferences - Graphics

WorksWell Preferences - Path Graphics

WorksWell Preferences - Merge Tokens

Summary
I quite like the fact that iStudio has no Preferences. Maybe they can keep it that way, it would be cool. iCalamus’ are clear but the redundant Show All is pretty weird. Maybe it should default to the General tab instead. Create’s aren’t bad but they’re not good either and maybe should be revisited as a general revision of the interface. I like Swift’s fine especially because of the Help integration which means these guys are paying attention. WorksWell has some ways to go before this is okay. Seriously get your tabs nice and rethink the options.

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Toolset

If you read Image is Everything and Drawing Conclusions you know two things about me: I hate a proliferation of palettes and I think a single tool well implemented is more useful than several tools poorly implemented. When I look at the tools here, I am not comparing a list of features, I am comparing how they support the objective of doing graphic design and layout work.

In page layout work you want to be able to arrange any number of things on a page or across a spread. You want to be able to do this with minimum fuss. An excellent example is InDesign’s Place command which allows you to collect a number of images and then place each one in series into your document. That kind of thing is thoughtful and makes you think “Why didn’t anybody do this before?”

Among the things that are crucial: arranging type areas and related graphics precisely. Running text across pages and around other objects. Setting the type so it looks beautiful, including the ability to maintain a consistent look by using text styles and page styles is also critical, especially when you are working a house graphic style where elements and colours can’t be strayed from.

Applying special effects to text and graphics in page is nice but not critical in a layout workflow, but shape and drawing tools come in surprisingly handy.

There are also requirements in professional level work such as support for Pantone Colour Libraries. These applications all fail in this respect, probably because licensing the Pantone colour libraries is costly and would add a considerable amount to the price tag. Also the focus of these applications is on the home or small business user who is unaware and probably doesn’t care about the subtle colour shifts that occur in printing and how it might impact a brand identity (though I do assert that small business owners should care).

All of these applications do support CMYK, RGB and greyscale colours as supported by Apple’s built-in colour system and provided by the systemwide Colour Panel. That’s important because if you intend to go to print any documents on a press, not just your inkjet or laser printer, the press may require CMYK. CMYK can also provide a workaround for using Pantone colours in print work floes as there are formulas for conversion, but if you are considering doing this make absolutely sure you have the correct values for the specified colours. You may want to steer clear of these altogether if you have strict colour management requirements.

Laying out a page (and more)

Getting your layout established is where we’ll start. Presumably you have some idea of the kind of document you want to make. Usually I have seen something or sketched a thumbnail, that I think will be appropriate for the message and content and I’ll want to set about adding elements that will be shared across pages. General positioning of elements, the size of margins, folios and more.

This means using a variety of tools and features such as guides, grids, page numbering and master pages or templates, so we’ll cover a lot of ground here in this section.

Create 14
Aside from the very convenient page layouts provided in the Library (applied simply by dragging them from the Library’s Page tab onto the page), Create has many of the expected tools for page layout that you world expect coming from InDesign or Xpress. Grids are here, and you can also add a background to a page as well. Backgrounds don’t have any bearing on objects and snapping, but this could be useful for setting up page layouts, and further each page can have its own separate background.

Guides work a little differently than what I’m used to. In Create you need to be sure that Rulers are turned on. To make a vertical guide on the page you click just above the top horizontal ruler, and by a little above, I mean one or two pixels, no more. You’ll get a guide marker above the ruler and a guide on the page. Dragging up further cancels the action. And dragging a marker upwards removes it. This applies to the vertical ruler where you can set horizontal guides. The markers have a tooltip with a position readout of two decimal places. I have to say, that not directly controlling the guide on the page feels a little abstract and I also found that clicking inside the rule and then dragging a little upwards (or to the left) was a bit easier than trying to hit the invisible two pixel band next to the rule. The advantage of this method is that you can plainly see the measure position of your guide and don’t risk snapping the guide to other objects or anything.

Create Guide Marker

Getting my basic guides in place didn’t take long. I added page numbers simply by selecting Object > New Objects > Page Numbers and a folio popped onto the page at the bottom centre. I changed its position by dragging and the text formatting with the standard test handling tools. Create exposes a number of options in a useful panel found in the Font menu. You use the standard Apple controls (Font and Color Panel as well as Characters and Typography) for most of your formatting needs.

I selected the text tool and dragged a text box and then another. The first box evaporated and I am not sure why. Usually I’d drag a series of boxes and then link them up and then add text to format. In Create you have to make a box and then place some text or the first one just disappears. That brought me to my next issue which was after I pasted some lorem ipsum the text box grew to accomodate the amount of text instead of staying at the size I dragged. I could resize the box using the handles on the sides of it, but not on the corners. I couldn’t find anything about resizing text boxes in the Help file and eventually worked out that I could use the Size tab in the Info panel to affect the vertical size of the box. Not only is this a pain, but making the box shorter does so from the top edge, and I can’t find a way to set a scale point like in InDesign or Illustrator. After I succeed in making the box too short for its content I can click the text overflow icon and drag another text box to accommodate the continued text. The last dragged box is selected with coloured handles and clicking on the original box reveals that both boxes are now resizable from all corner and edge handles.

Resize Text Box

I am spending a lot of time detailing this because I think it’s important. Dragging objects, scaling and resizing are crucial tasks as you get your parts roughed in and then detailed, and I can’t imagine how this will be efficient at all.

Selecting text or placing your cursor is either a double click inside a text box with the Selection Tool (which also selects the nearest word), or a single click inside a test box with the Text Tool.

Maybe I’m missing something.

Placing objects in Create is great, simply open the Library Resources panel (Cmd-Shift-R) and drag some artwork from the Art tab to the page. You can also select photos from your personal library by selecting Tools > Photo Browser. For me it loaded empty but I click the plus button and pointed it to my ~/Pictures folder and it loaded everything I had from that folder, including my iPhoto library. Just drag a picture from the photo browser onto the page. If it’s too large to fit on the page Create will offer to scale it and suggest a percentage scale. If you don’t you won’t be able to see the corners of the photo to scale it yourself. Create doesn’t have a work area that can display objects beyond the bounds of the page itself. Also a handy option is to drag favourite images from the Photo Browser to the Library Resources Images tab easily done.

Adding Art

Wrapping text around an object is simple: select the object you want to wrap text around and then select Object > Text Wrap… (Cmd-Opt-W) which opens a small panel that you can use to make wrap adjustments. I had to consult Help to find out how to wrap text in an irregular shape. Easy enough: Draw a Spline (use the Freehand tool for example) and then select the art and the spline. Then go Cmd-Shift-E (Object > Group > Mask Group), then with the object still selected Cmd-Opt-W and select Shape. The fineness of control when handling this depends on both the shape you’re wrapping to as well as the Standoff value (and I can’t figure out if that value is a measure or some arbitrary number and it’s limited to a -10 – +10 range) and ends up feeling coarse.

Wrapping custom Shape

Create has layers (accessed via Tools > Page Layers or Cmd-Opt-L), as well as a concept call Master Layers (File > Master Layers or Cmd-Shift-M) which are special layers that can be applied individually or in multiples on a per page basis. This is a very flexible way to handle master items that repeat throughout any multi-page document and offers a fine degree of control, even if my cursory inspection wasn’t too detailed.

Things like panel showing and hiding behaviour I found strange initially, but it felt okay after a bit of time.

So this is all merely ‘okay’. There is nothing ground breaking or deeply original here and a few quirky things like making guides and text box dragging seem like more of a pain than they should be.

iCalamus
Setting up your page in iCalamus feels a lot more like working in InDesign than did Create. Guides work as they do in InDesign simply drag from a ruler onto the page. I really missed the tooltip positioning read out that Create has but discovered that positions of any object, including guides, are displayed in the Geometry Panel (Cmd-1 – I really like the panels and the associated Command keys).

Creating text frames worked as I expected, and didn’t do the weird evaporation trick that Create did. iCalamus has some interesting features that relate to text boxes and frames. Every frame and object has a small triangle at its top left corner. When it’s pointing down, the frame is considered Unlocked and displays its features (control handles, bezier controls or other features) when clicked once it’s locked and pointing to the right and can’t be inadvertently edited. I thought this was going to be a pain, but it turned out to be a nice feature. The entry point and exit point for ‘piping’ text from frame to frame are surprisingly large, unmistakable and even a little horsey.

Select text by double clicking on an text box with the Selection tool or single clicking with the text tool.

Placing artwork onto a page is done using the File > Import > command which has sub-menus for accessing a TWAIN compliant device like a scanner, importing from a camera, or importing from your iPhoto library. Each of the photo options opened a dialog that was large and clear and gave ample previews and the useful selector of adjusting the photo or frame to fit the other on placement. You can also drag files directly from a Finder window. I was disappointed to find that images default to display at low resolution on placement. What this meant is that I had a blank frame. Entirely blank and no indicator that there was something there. I switched each import to Full Resolution in the Content Panel (Cmd-2) but never found a way to make it the default setting.

Text Wrap is easily applied. Select a frame or object and then select you desired settings in the Text Wrap panel (Cmd-5). The panel, like any panel that has measure inputs, allows very fine control and displays 4 decimal places of measure. I applaud this because in computerized production there is absolutely no excuse for not being precise and the days of rounding up numbers to one or two decimal places to save precious processing cycles are safely behind us.

That said, I discovered a wicked weakness in the text wrap, much to my dismay. Wrapping text around objects might be easy but around anything other than quadrangle makes some pretty scary typesetting. It appears that though the typesetter is calculating the wrap including the control triangle or something and when there is a significant intrusion of an object into the text frame it just suddenly gaps gaping huge gaps. I experimented a little and then hit help for what I thought should be a pretty straightforward thing. No help there, but eventually I was able to narrow it down to the font I was using. Changing the font helped a great deal.

I have to say I am pretty disappointed. I really love Locator and use it in my portfolio. I know that Eric Olson of Process Type Foundry is a very good typographer too, so I am wondering just what is up in the iCalamus text setting engine that makes it fail in this way. This isn’t just a personal disappointment, it’s also very unfortunate because you never know what font you might be required to use or choose to use on a project and you have to be able to rely on the fact that if a font is well made and the tool that’s using it is too, you will at least get satisfactory results.

Frames in iCalamus, regardless of content, handle the content as a separate object. This means that text, images or graphics can be moved and altered independently of one another, make masking very easy and flexible. Further, any object, frame or shape can accept a graphic so you really have a lot of flexibility in making a layout.

iCalamus makes use of layers and Master Pages in ways familiar to InDesign users, and it’s worth noting that layers as well as content in frames all inherit the use of blending modes. Layers can also be labelled like folders in the Finder as well as named locked rearranged etc. These may not be as flexible as Master Layers in Create, but they feel familiar enough and work as expected.

Overall this was a nice app to use and I really liked the organization of the palettes. If only it didn’t have the type issue.

iStudio Publisher
This application is new, initially released at MacWorld January 2009. The developers identify themselves as designers who were dissatisfied with the current design and writing options available on the market. From what I can tell, iStudio Publisher is just an initial step towards the developers’ attempts to make a perfect design application referred to as iStudio Pro. And in pursuit of this goal they have developed a brand new XML based, Unicode supporting, ‘design engine’ capable of creating anything on screen or in print. A development which is comprehensive and licensable (for any developers out there).

This all sounds like a promising start. Let’s see what happens next.

Well, there aren’t any draggable guides. Really? Am I too stupid to find them? Nope. They’re not here. Planned for a future release according to the Roadmap. Version 1.4. We’re at Version 1.0.4 now. No problem, I’ll just use the Object Inspector’s Size and Location tab which allows me to type values into the fields for precise two decimal place control. Except that the zero point of the rulers is bottom left instead of top left and the snap point for the text frames I am trying to size and position is bottom left too. Fine if I was just building a document from scratch, but I wanted to imitate the stupid example layout to make comparisons easier. The answer is Select View > Mouse X-Hair and then use the mouse position to align with the ruler. And make sure Snap to Grid is turned off in the View menu as well.

Okay I have dragged two text boxes (Cmd-Drag with the text tool) and I paste some formatted lorem ipsum into the big frame. It comes in unformatted and there’s no option to Paste and Match Style or equivalent. Too bad. I formatted it with the Character panel tools, which are kind of strange. A pull down, a slider, and a text field input with a spinner? Really? Notably no Kerning, just tracking. I make the box smaller so text overflows (indicated by a red plus sign in the bottom right corner of the container and then select the Text Flow Tool. Hovering over the big container highlights it and a simple click and drag to the small one with a final click connects them.

You use Insert > Image… to place an image (or PDF, EPS or AI file) into your document. Dragging from the Finder doesn’t work (see the Roadmap for when this will happen) and copy and pasting worked with the clipart from Create (but not the Finder. I didn’t test other options). When you insert an image it gets a default frame. Alternatively you can select an object and then insert an image effectively masking the image. You can also select more than one object or frame and insert an image which will be place in each object. Interesting, but the only adjustments I can seem to make to the position of the image inside the frame are pretty coarse. It should also be noted that in this second instance, the frames will be loaded with two separate instances of the image, they will not be combined into a single masking frame. Finer image positioning controls are promised for release 1.1.

Text Wrap is in the Object Inspector in the Text Wrap tab. You can adjust the offset here but not on a per side basis like Create and iCalamus. Wrapping worked beautifully, even with Locator as the font wrapping around an irregular shape. Text wrapped and reformatted instantly when dragging the shape around over the text.

The interface is neat and well organized, but there are plenty of things that get in the way or make it not ready for prime-time in terms of reasonably serious production and design work.

Swift Publisher
After selecting New Blank from the Swift assistant the app’s window the document opens behind my dock. I keep my dock on the left edge of the screen, and I can see that Swift is set to respect the dock at the bottom. Clicking the Zoom window control fixes this instantly. Not a big deal but kind of dumb.

Setting up my document is easy. Guides work as I expect just drag from the vertical or horizontal ruler and show a live position read-out with 2 decimal places. You can also use the Insert > Layout Guides… sheet to set guides in the document. Dragging text boxes was easy, but I had to figure out that after I dragged one box I needed to select it , click on it’s outflow indicator then drag a second. Text boxes are not automatically threaded. This is in fact a little easier if you drag one box, then fill it with text and then click the outflow indicator and drag a second thread box. Either way, the results were fine.

Placing artwork on the page is simply a matter of dragging it from the Clipart Panel. You can also drag files from the finder onto your page. You can also use the Insert menu selections too. Text wrapping is found under the Text Tab in the inspector panel simply click it on and adjust the values. Again the interaction between irregular shapes (in this case Swift’s Smart Shapes) and my typeface was ugly and gappy. Rectangular wraps worked fine. I also noticed that if you clicked and held the spin wheel in Inspector, it didn’t update until you released the mouse, leaving you guessing at how much space you might have applied. I also note that when resizing an object you need to hold down the Control key to maintain proportions. A bit of a trick, because Control also invokes the contextual menu, so you have to concentrate and click and hold a handle, press control, then drag. I don’t like this at all but I can’t find a choice to make this functionality be the Shift key instead.

You can crop an image by selecting it and clicking the Crop button at the bottom of the Image tab in the Inspector. The selection handles on the image turn red and you can crop the image by moving them. This is non-destructive. Alternatively you can double-click on an image or symbol and enter the Edit Image dialog which exposes Crop, and a plethora of effects (which are Core Image filters provided by the free Image Tricks software also from BeLight). You can apply masks to artwork in the Image tab of the Inspector as well.

There is a page panel too, that usefully displays thumbnails and allows drag and drop rearrangement of pages in your document. Swift doesn’t have multiple layers, simply a foreground and background for each document. This reduces management but could hamstring complex layouts. Helpfully in this regard, and surprisingly, Swift offers Master Pages just as InDesign, iCalamus and iStudio.

WorksWell
I won’t beat around the bush, WorksWell rubs me the wrong way already, but I am interested in seeing how this tool works to enable some page layout.

Initially disappointed by the lack of guides and the fact that the default grid which was enabled didn’t match my rulers after I changed the default measurement from cm to inches, dragging out and adjusting the text boxes proved to be a simple affair. Except that there’s no way to thread boxes together. It gets worse because evidently I can’t wrap text around objects.

On the other hand, I can place text inside objects (but with no way to handle any overset), I can insert images with ease both by dragging from the Finder and using the Image Inspector. Images can be masked by their frames and even copied into the document without actually deploying them onto the page. Shapes work nicely and offer nice touches with control handles replete with tool tips to adjust their features. You can morph shapes from one to another with simple clicks and despite the plethora of tools in the toolbox, once you identify a useful one they are easy to handle and work as expected. I can attach text to vectors and even apply special effects to it.

Further, I feel comfortable in the app, despite it’s horsey iconography and weird inspector panel. There are a lot of controls, but they’re logical and well organize and facilitate a pretty high degree of refined control (although I will say there will be a fair bit of clicking and scrolling in the inspector panel).

Am I missing something? Please WorksWell team embarrass me and tell me I am.

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Typesetting

Core to every page layout task is typesetting and styling. When doing any document of length or designing a magazine or periodical, the grace of the set text as well as the tools to make it that way are critical to the designer.

I am absolutely blown away by Adobe’s paragraph composer, and optical kerning which I use all the time in InDesign. Whatever other faults Adobe apps exhibit (and there are many), InDesign’s typesetting is truly awesome.

As far as I can tell, these apps, with the exception of iStudio Publisher, all use Apple’s ATSUI typesetting engine. This doesn’t mean poor text setting, despite the poor wrapping results we’ve seen so far. (I am thinking that whatever is going on in my chosen font and in the ASTUI typesetter is to blame for these strange results as there aren’t any troubles with other font selections and iStudio which uses its own typesetting engine don’t exhibit the same trouble).

C’est la vie.

What I am going to do first is set the same text in each application with all the same settings. I will also set it using InDesign for a benchmark. You can download the small PDF (~ 6 MB) or the big one (~ 38 MB) to review the comparison text settings. In doing these I made every effort to keep all the settings identical, but in some cases my ignorance of the application may have prevented me from using a critical tool or a refined setting. These tests should be regarded as good general measures, NOT demonstrations of the AWESOMENESS of a particular tool.

Create 14
Sets satisfactorily for the most part but can’t keep the word ‘time’ (last word in the second paragraph) from being orphaned. Adjustments are relatively rough and kerning is more like tracking. The worst thing I found is that an object containing text exhibits an internal offset for the text block, which I could not control at all. This means that I would have to adjust my layouts to compensate for this. In this case the text box starts at x=0.5 in. and y =0.5 in. (where 0,0 is top left of page), but the text itself starts at x=0.57 in. and y =0.57 in. I searched the tabs and margins in the text ruler, the objects parameters and attributes, and even in the application’s preferences, all to no avail. I would love for this not to be the case. Maybe somebody knows something I don’t.

iCalamus
Again, a good showing. iCalamus does pretty well, but orphans “time” just as Create does. The text runs a line less than Create in the first column, and is a little uneconomical in the second column, fourth paragraph. The text reads nicely and I am sure with some adjustments we could solve the orphan.

iStudio Publisher
One of the things I was curious about was what text would set like because this app has its own layout engine and doesn’t rely on Apple’s ATSUI. In this regard it is most like InDesign than the other competitors. The first column runs a line longer than InDesign, and the “time” orphan is still a problem here. The second column is revealing in that the column length is the same as InDesign’s but the word wrapping choices are distinctly different from the others. Look at the ends of the lines, especially in paragraphs two and four. The text is nice and even overall.

Swift Publisher
I have to admit to being kind of mystified here, as the lines start to diverge and apparent leading is lost. Even so, the word or letter spacing (or both in combination) means that Swift is almost, if not equally, economical in text setting as InDesign. When looking at the page by itself, not compared to InDesign, I like what I see just fine. The weird leading thing bugs me, and in interest of actually finishing this article, I am going to leave it. If any of you have made it this far, and have some idea about what’s going on here, let me know.

WorksWell
I constructed this by setting two separate blocks of text, and yes this is irritating enough for me to just say the hell with it and drop WorksWell from the review. But we’re over halfway now, and although I should have done it long ago, I’m am going to see it through. This app also orphans “time” in column one, paragraph two, but performs well enough overall. The second column is a lot closer to InDesign than I thought it would be.

Summary
It’s interesting to me that the ATSUI based apps did as well as they did. iStudio did well too but the “manmade/en-dash/therefore” combination in column two paragraph two, sure caused an unsightly gap in the paragraph’s first line. Swift was nice, but I’d hesitate to do a big project of typesetting (or even an article of a few pages or in a complex layout) without getting to the bottom of the leading strangeness.

Also, the different tools expose different features and fineness of control depending on their target markets. Create 14 felt like is was split across NeXT and OS X conventions, even though I appreciate the rigour with which it adopts ATSUI features like the Text Styles system. Its schism made it feel crude and awkward. iCalamus exhibited the finest amount of control, but sometimes I found the settings weren’t where I expected. iStudio had a fine combination of control and simplicity. Swift was Pages-like in its approach and I enjoyed using it. WorksWell didn’t expose any text formatting controls other than that strictly necessary to get by.

I think that you could set some seriously lengthy or complex text with iCalamus. I would steer clear of doing so with Create because of the inset mystery, Swift until I figured out what is happening with the leading and I would not use WorksWell for any more than a single page. I think iStudio could be useful too, but it wouldn’t be my first choice.

Unique Feature Focus

Applications competing against juggernauts in the same space, or in really competitive markets (see drawing Conclusions), need to find ways of distinguishing themselves and at the same time they need to improve materially on what may be available.

Create 14
Create 14 is ambitious in scope and serves illustration functions, page layout functions and even web design functions. Much like Canvas from ACDSee or other suites, it’s an approach that always promises more than it delivers. Create does have nice features though one of which is the Image Well which can be used to convert “…graphics from one format to another and to create thumbnail images of your graphics or pages.” Creates tools for making patterns are great. Matrix and rose repeat objects in grid patterns or rotated around a point respectively and offer some great flexibility to explore and do repetitious layout chores like setting up cards for printing.

iCalamus
iCalamus takes an interesting turn and offers the ability to publish books just like iPhoto does. The service is through Photographerbook in the UK. iCalamus will also import iPhoto books from iPhoto and thus allow you some extra control over the layout and details therein (it should be noted that doing this means printing will have to go through Photographerbook and I did not test any round-trip scenario from iPhoto to iCalamus and back again).

iStudio Publisher
Here’s where I’m not so sure. Other than new stuff under the hood, iStudio’s approach doesn’t seem to offer anything new in terms of special features. I think this is a great thing because it means these guys are starting out focused on getting the fundamentals right from the start. So really the unique thing here is an original and difficult approach to app development. The UI is nice, and obviously carefully considered. It shares the same traits as other apps like Iris (the photo imaging software from Nolobe) and Swift Publisher too, where the app windows for the most part contain the palettes or settings and tool panels.

Swift Publisher
This app reminds me of T-Maker, probably because of the clip art. It implements Core Image filters for handling bitmaps as well as integrating with BeLight’s Art Text software. It also offers iPhoto integration, in case you’re heading down this path instead of iWork’s.

WorksWell
This whacky application has some pretty powerful tools for business users including presentation tools, PDF markup tools, charts and Merge Tokens. WorksWell documents can collect information from reports or data sources and by using the tools, you can transform it into more useful visual expression. WorksWell towers above the others in these cases.

Summary
In all, there’s nothing really explosive here, but the apps do tend to make sound choices to appeal to different segments of the same general market. I like iCalamus best for its iPhoto book handling because I have often wished I could tweak some of the iPhoto layouts even if just a little. The others don’t really feel like they offer a lot and Create’s Kitchen Sink philosophy doesn’t do it for me at all.

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Performance

If you’re considering doing page layout and design work,you’ll want to be sure that the work you’re doing is displayed as you do it and that the app your using isn’t hogging all your Mac’s resources. This isn’t about benchmarking, it’s about how the apps feel and behave when we’re doing layout tasks, as we keep an eye on the memory. Time prevents me from doing any real test with a large and complex document, but this should give you some measure of these tools.

Without exception, these apps were snappy and responsive. They opened quickly (in some cases blindingly fast like in a single dock bounce for Create and Swift), didn’t take crazy amounts of RAM (iStudio used the most at 122MB with both the work documents opened, but most were in the 30s). Even when I placed stupidly huge photos in the layout, these apps all took it in stride.

One take-away here is for Adobe: make your stuff faster guys. This saves designers money so they can afford your upgrade path.

The other note is for users like you, who want something that doesn’t suck. Well in terms of performance, these apps don’t suck and their requirements are relatively modest considering the amounts of power available to us.

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Scripting + Plugins

As you work with any app and integrate it into you workflow, it’s nice to know there’s some automation available or extra capabilities that you can get in some simple fashion. Scripting and plug-in architecture offer this. Let’s find out what these apps offer in extensibility.

Create 14
Opening this app’s Applescript library (though the Apple’s Script Editor) reveals the basics that one might expect as well as the CreateOSXsuite which includes commands for almost all of Create’s functionality. This is a good showing and speaks volumes about the developer’s thorough design approach and the application’s usefulness as an automated production tool. Create files can be saved as Applescripts which can be run on other Macs with Create to share the file. I was disappointed in my testing that whenever the file called for a piece of clip art the Applescript would fail.

Create doesn’t offer a plug-in architecture or API.

iCalamus
iCalamus takes the opposite approach of Create and instead of offering an extensive Applescript suite it offers a plug-in architecture. Currently there’s an offering of 5 “Add-ons” that enable LinkBack technology and the use of a barcode application, equation typesetting in LaTex. The inclusion of Linkback as an Add-on in this list is strange since it is part of the app ( it allows you to include to other resources made by other applications or residing in other application files). Photographerbook Add-on is also included in iCalamus, but it neatly demonstrates the extensive functionality that plug-in architecture that iCalamus features.

iStudio Publisher
This app doesn’t have any Applescript and no indication was made about future Applescript support or any plug-in architecture in the Development roadmap.

Swift Publisher
I was surprised that Swift not only had Applescript support, but also added a few commands in its own Applescript suite. This library is not nearly as extensive as Create 14’s offering, but in such an inexpensive application was a nice touch. Swift doesn’t have a plug-in architecture, but the clipart library can be extended greatly.

WorksWell
This app offers basic Applescript functionality and what can only be described as an incomplete application unique suite which includes only the app’s principal classes. WorksWell offers no plug-in architecture.

Summary

Swift was a refreshing surprise in that it had any scripting at all. Create offers the deepest support for Applescript so if you need Applescript automation for producing newsletters or other basic layout chores it’s the best. iCalamus has a long road ahead as it tries to develop interest in its Add-on architecture to increase its utility. iStudio is still in undergoing a lot of development so in the future it may sport some useful features in this arena but currently is the least useful in these aspects.

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Help

Apple provides hooks for developers to integrate Help and user manuals into an application. It’s a useful thing especially now that Mac’s are so quick and powerful, and hypertext is such a natural medium for users to work with.

Create 14
Create offers extensive and thorough help, and although it lacks polish it sure makes up for it in terms of usefulness and completeness. This is supplemented by Tutorial files which are Create files that step you through using Create’s many features with live in document sample. An excellent combination of guidance and hands-on. There are also online forums and support available in the Help menu.

iCalamus
Offers Help and it is thorough and well written. I have to say I am always impressed by the English of speakers of other languages as I have only English a smattering of poorly pronounced pidgin Sprench (Spanish and French). The documentation is clear and precise and explains concepts well with complete screenshots of the topic. This is supplemented by a list of Keyboard Shortcuts, an online FAQ, forums and support contact information. Videos are also available.

iStudio Publisher
This Help file is nicely structured and will be familiar to you if you access Help in any of Apple’s applications. It features a Rapid Start Guide and useful topic in the featured Topics section as well as a logically grouped list of all the tools and functions the program offers. Tutorial videos are offered from the help menu as well as Keyboard Shortcuts and other information like the development roadmap and support online.

Swift Publisher
Concise and useful, though lacking in polish and example screenshots, Swift’s help is good. It also provides links to online resources as well as sister apps (Art Text and Image Tricks).

WorksWell
The most disappointing, WorksWell’s Help command opens the Help window but points you to the PDF which you have to download and use in Preview or Acrobat Reader. It’s made worse by the fact you need to use DrawWell help PDF for many of the basic functions as the WorksWell help covers only the additions to the core technology. This is a weak showing especially considering that cheaper more capabale apps offer a lot more.

Summary

I like iStudio Publisher’s help the best because it was nicely structured in sections as well as featured (read of interest and useful) items. Create’s and iCalamus’ help were excellent, and Swift’s was very good. PDFs for help don’t cut it any more and WorksWell fails again.

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Today’s Verdict

Well, it’s taken a long time to get to this point and I’ve done a lot of thinking considering and tested as much as time allows. This was really hard but I think if I was going to lay money down I would choose iCalamus. If I needed to save even more money it would go to Swift Publisher no question. I think that my feeling was that iCalamus felt more familiar to me and offered a degree of control that was superior to the others in a way that made sense. Swift was its equal in almost all respects except extensibility and the scope of help.

I liked Create and wanted to like it more, but I couldn’t get past the fact that it felt old fashioned because of its clip art, and was painful like when I was trying to zero the text frame margin inset. Also I don’t like its icon.

From where I stand, iStudio Publisher shows great promise and the fact that it was updated twice while this review was being written shows the developer is dead serious about bringing this and other tools to market.

WorksWell gets a big F. I don’t think it’s just me. Even if my focus was creating useful, intelligible business documents, the Token processing engine isn’t awesome enough to overcome its lack of threaded text frames, and clumsy help PDFs.

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Final Thoughts

First I need to return to my earlier point and suggest that the developers of these apps seriously consider redesigning their websites. The people you’re going after are people who care about the finish and polish of the things they make, even if they’re amateurs. Show them what great graphic design really is. This also assures design professionals that what you are offering is of the calibre they expect.

StoneDesign I am looking at you. Your front door is merely adequate, and everything behind it is generally ugly and garish. Your application icons are lurid and and verge on creepy.

Invers/iCalamus you guys could do so much better. Lose the script font and adopt some carefully considered modular layout. Your German origin gives you a halo of technical competence and precise Teutonic vision. Here in North America BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Miele and others all carry positive connotation in our minds. Why not set yourself at that level? And yes, that means reconsidering the name of the application too.

iStudio, the days of glowing lozenges are passing. Reflections and other effects are nice, but we’ve seen them before. Maybe you could offer something more original? You are crafting a new suite of original software after all.

BeLight, of the websites here I’d have to say that yours is the most thoughtful and nicest. And my only real suggestion is to expand each of your product offerings into it’s own microsite, and perhaps consider working out some in depth movies and tutorials showing just how powerful your modestly priced software can be.

DrawWell Technologies, I don’t know where to begin. The chosen typeface for your products? The crazy webpage scrunched up into the top left corner of my browser? Did I miss something here guys? Maybe you can set me straight, but overall I’m ending up warning people away. Not ideal, and I’d really rather not. Pull up your socks and let us see some real tools.

It’s been a real education for me trying these various design tools out. I am fascinated by the fact that many conventions are so useful and enduring (content frames) and how Mac OS X technologies can be leveraged by developers so readily, offering functionality that reaches into the professional arena at dramatically reduced prices from the Adobe apps that so many are familiar with or aware of.

I am impressed by the fact that there are truly viable alternatives to Adobe’s InDesign.

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Linkage

Create 14 (Stone Design)

iCalamus (Invers Software)

iStudio Publisher (c:four Limited)

Swift Publisher (BeLight Software)

WorksWell (DrawWell Technologies)

InDesign (Adobe Systems Incorporated)

Well I wish I wasn’t some sort of moron. If I had been smart and able to see into the future, I would have taken a photo of my boots before. But I didn’t. You’re going to have to trust me about all the stuff I am going to tell you now.

My boots (pictured above) are very nice and I love them.

I also tend to walk pretty hard on my heel and so I’d worn though the rubber on one boot and had actually just started to grind on the wood of the heel. The other boot was about to hit the same state when I took my boots in for repair.

When I worked in downtown Vancouver, I’d take my boots to the place near the library on Robson, but in the four months since my departure from the library, he’d closed up shop because rents were skyrocketing with all the building around him. Even though the neighbourhood could use a shoe repair shop. So I couldn’t take them there.

I had a note on the fridge, and the poor design notwithstanding, the new shop that opened in my neighborhood was ready for business.

I took my boots to Hugo’s Shoes[sic] Repair.

Hugo eagerly accepted my request and suggested he replace the half sole too and told me a little bit about himself and his work.

I paid him in advance. And just less than a week later I got a call that my boots were ready.

My boots were ready, but I wasn’t.

What happened, you see, is that a man who is nothing more than a dedicated genius got a hold of my footwear and committed nothing less than pure shoemaker professionalism on them.

Yes the half sole is there, and the new heel. Very well done. The new rubber sole integrates beautifully with the leather and is sealed nicely. The seam is barely tangible. The heels are new Vibrams and seem to be well set. But that’s not even the start of it.

All of that is nice, but is just the result according to Hugo. What matters is all of this:

Care
Hugo always remembers that people wear the shoes he works on, and so every move he makes and all the work he does will affect a real person, You.

Quality
There is no substitute for real quality, and real quality is real economy because if you spend a little bit more now, the longevity of your footwear will pay time and time again. Shoes made in factories and not by craftmen last at most 6 months. Well-built and maintained shoes can last for years.

Technical Prowess
The only way to deliver the care and quality that Hugo wants you to have is to be a master and to commit to doing all the work from broad strokes to small detail.

Which is why he repaired and made good the wood of the heel. Then he planed the bottom of the boot so the boots stand truly flat and the sole and heel engage the ground with maximum coverage. He added a rubber riser. And only then he attached the half sole and the heel.

And technical prowess is why he wants to build his business so he can get to what he really loves which is handcrafting bespoke shoes and boots.

The Long Run
As important as the previous three things are, this one is crucial to Hugo’s professional outlook as well as his life.

Time and ongoing relationships matter. Over time you will be successful. Over time he will come to know you. Over time you will discover that repairing your shoes and maintaining them is far more inexpensive than buying new cheap and crappy shoes all the time. Over time we can improve but only if we pay attention and care about the things we do and the people they affect.

How often do we hear anything like this these days?

Oh like maybe never.

So here’s the deal.

You are too poor to buy cheap and crappy things. Take care of the things you have as best you can. If you have shoes and boots that need repair or some maintenance then take them to Hugo. If you need other things like jackets or purses repaired, then take them to Hugo. If you live in Vancouver then get on over here to Collingwood and bring your boots to Hugo. Don’t live in Vancouver? Send them to Hugo. Really. I am so not kidding.

Hugo is from Columbia, and speaks very accented English, so if you don’t speak Spanish give him a little room and time. If you don’t speak English or Spanish, just trust him.

Here’s his info:

He’s opened from 0900 – 1800 Monday through Saturday. Sundays are closed.

Tell him Jon Whipple sent you.

Adobe Illustrator was the first advanced program I learned to use. Coming from an architectural drafting experience, I found that Illustrator was a far better match for my brain, skill and disposition than image editors like Photoshop.

Illustrator’s age and feature set, as well as it’s integration with graphic Adobe’s Creative Suite have made it the de facto gold standard of drawing applications at the present time. You may think (as I do) that it could be better, or that Freehand (which you are still using and will never stop using until they pry the mouse from your cold dead fingers) was always a better choice (one word: bezigon), but as vector apps go, Illustrator is considered by many to be the epitome of drawing and illustration apps.

So are there alternatives? And if there are, how do they stack up?

Well, being the obsessive software aficionado that I am, I set about finding out. There are alternatives. Fully 13 of them. And as to how they stack up, I am afraid I can only report on a handful of them, because well, there are only so many hours in a day, and I have already used more than my fair share. In fact I may have used yours too, for which I apologize.

Here’s a review and comparison of some modern vector drawing tools on Mac OS X, which I have done my best to analyse and render an opinion.

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Selection Criteria
Testing
Focus + Stated Goals
Installation + Updating
Icons
User Interface
Overview
Workspace
Preferences
Toolset
Comparing Pens
Comparing Shape Tools
Text Tools
Gradient Tools
Unique Features
Comparing Effects
Effects, CoreImage, and design applications
Using Effects
Memory + Performance
Exporting + Importing
Scripting + Plug-ins
Tonight’s Verdict
Final Thoughts
Linkage

Selection Criteria

In order to get the long list of candidates into a short list of contenders, I decided that the applications I would review would be native Mac OS X applications and exist only on Mac OS X. That decision took Canvas 11, Sketsa, Cenon, and Inkscape off the list. Priced under US$100. That eliminated design veteran Create 14. Primarily focused on drawing and illustration work. Well, sorry OmniGraffle. Two of the apps have really crappy websites. They’re out.

Five.

Out of these, I know that two are staying, they’re award winners. One took an Apple Design Award in 2006 and the other Best of Show Macworld 2008. But I’m gonna need to get this down to four or three.

So it’s back to the websites, and I am looking for a reason to eliminate one of the contenders. Maybe two if it’s obvious.

But it isn’t.

So after a lot of website reading and screwing around with some apps I decide to take WouldjaDraw off the table and keep Intaglio in the running. The deciding factor was the fact that Intaglio could read and write SVG and EPS as well as vector based PDF.

So here’s the breakdown:

In

• Intaglio
• Lineform
• VectorDesigner
• ZeusDraw

Out

• Canvas 11 – too expensive (also Windows only. I was recalling Canvas X whcih the last time I used was $349US. Apparently there is no current Mac version of Canvas. Thanks to my readers who pointed this out.)
• Cenon – Linux/GNUStep
• Create 14 – too expensive
• DoodleCAD – the website and the wood grain title bars
• EazyDraw – the website is a disaster (and so it the palette frenzy you can see in the screenshots)
• Inkscape – Linux/Unix/Windows
• OmniGraffle – Primarily for diagramming
• Sketsa – Linux/Unix/Windows
• WouldjaDraw – Not quite enough export, but boy it was close.

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Testing

For testing, I am going to be using my brand-new 20” iMac (2.4GHz Intel C2D) with 4GB of RAM. I’m running Leopard 10.5.1. You will note this is not the same machine I used for Image Is Everything for which I do not apologize. And those of you who do care, can assume that performance and launch times of the apps reviewed in that article, are better and much quicker overall.

I will be running a handful of apps alongside those being tested, as before. Here they are:

• Finder
• Terminal
• Mail
• iCal
• iChat
• iTunes
• Safari
• Scrivener
• Yojimbo
• Linotype FontExplorer X
• Address Book
• Version Cue CS3 running in the background
• Snapz Pro X running in the background
• xScope

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Focus + Stated Goals

When I am looking around at software and trying to get an idea of what it’s about, I always find that the developers try their best to clue you in about their offering. These guys are no different, so let’s take a look at their web pages and find out what they’re about.

Intaglio

“Intaglio is traditional Mac drawing with the power of Mac OS X.

Since the early days of MacDraw, Macintosh has always had powerful and easy to use drawing software. With the introduction of Mac OS X, the graphics capabilities of the Mac expanded considerably. Intaglio carries the legacy of MacDraw into the modern Macintosh world by combining ease of use with the power of Mac OS X graphics. Intaglio retains the feel of MacDraw while harnessing the full capabilities of Quartz and CoreImage. Old timers soon feel right at home and those new to Mac drawing pick it up quickly. Don’t take our word for it.”

So Intaglio is picking up where MacDraw left off. Not surprising. Years ago when Mac OS X first shipped, Intaglio was the second vector drawing program (Create was the first) I found that was Mac OS X native.

Lineform

Easy and affordable vector drawing!

Winner of a 2006 Apple Design Award, Lineform is the ideal Mac app for vector-based diagrams and illustrations. Useful features combine with a simple interface to create a wonderfully intuitive artistic process. Lineform has all of the most popular tools, including everything from freeform gradients to compositing effects, enabling you to create the designs you want without getting in your way with “features” you don’t need.

Lineform is the clear modern Mac alternative to Illustrator, FreeHand, and other more costly or bloated vector drawing apps. But don’t take our word for it, just read the reviews!

Lineform. Because serious tools shouldn’t put a serious strain on your credit rating!”

That’s pretty compelling. A modern seriously professional app that’s not going to cost a huge amount of money. But really? I mean I spend thousands on the tools I use for my professional work and Illustrator is my home. Can this $80 app really compete?

VectorDesigner

This came to my attention shortly before Macworld and then it won Best of Show at the expo which is a pretty fair accomplishment.

Their website says (in part):

“VectorDesigner is a new vector drawing application designed to be simple, intuitive and powerful to use.It has everything you need to create fancy vector graphics such as posters, brochures, stickers, logos, web design, t-shirt and more. “

The copy goes on to highlight some of the features of the app and there are some movies, but that’s about it. Oh and the proudly displayed Best In Show Badge. Which I think will help convince a lot of people.

ZeusDraw

“ZeusDraw is a new vector drawing program with a fluid, graceful interface, great brushes and a host of other features. To learn more, take a tour of ZeusDraw and watch the movies. When you’re finished, download a copy and try it yourself. Your copy of ZeusDraw may be used for 30 days without a license.”

So we’ll be on the lookout for fluid and graceful. Which is something I like because I am a palette hater and a dialogue box hater, and fluid and graceful imply that there will be very few palettes and dialogue boxes.

So, over all, these apps present themselves as the descendants of MacDraw, and Lineform actually steps up and claim to be of professional quality.

Let’s see what happens next.

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Installation + Updating

I downloaded and installed the software from the respective websites and all of them install by dragging the app to your preferred (Applications) folder. I much prefer this to installers, so that’s good. VectorDesigner had an update when I ran it. It’s using Sparkle, as do Lineform and ZeusDraw. I went looking at Frameworks in the application packages.

I used Intaglio’s and Check for updates… command to be sure all was taken care of.

Just as I just passed the halfway mark (the very end of comparing the Text Tools), ZeusDraw updated from 1.2.1 to 1.3 and introduced some new features. I reviewed all that I had accomplished to this point and nothing had changed, so I updated and carried on.

I started the special effects section when vector Designer updated during the review as well. That was Saturday 16 February. It included some fixes for EPS handling, Tiger Performance and small improvements.

By the time I finished this article, two of the apps had been updated again. ZeusDraw to 1.3.1, and VectorDesigner to 1.2.1. The automatic update using Sparkle was just the way it should be. Every developer should be using this or something that is identical but better. Intaglio didn’t get an update during this time and remains at 2.9.7 as of this writing and Lineform is at version 1.5.

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Icons

Let’s take a look at the icons. Icons need to sell the app and make it identifiable to the user. I am not ashamed to admit that I have made purchase choices based on icons.

My reasoning is simple: If you care enough about the icon, you probably care enough about the program. If not, well, not so much. And when it comes to design applications, or art applications I think they should reflect good design and a feel for good artistic judgement.

Intaglio

The Intaglio icon is a squarish blueprint-like document of Vitruvian Man (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitruvian_Man), a nice green plastic French curve and a technical pen. The colours are very nice. It looks good in my dock too.

Lineform

This icon has the distinction of being the only one in my entire toolkit of being primarily composed of text. CS3 icons come close, but they’re doing that whacky 2 letter periodic table abbreviation thing. Lineform doesn’t goof around though, and goes for the whole word. Across 2 lines. The first part line is reversed out, and the second form is black with a slight halo or shadow both superimposed over black scribble.

In the dock, form virtually disappears if the desktop is dark. Line stands out though, like a beacon. So from the point of view of standing out in my dock it’s working. Well, at least the top half. And although I like the look of the Futura reversed out like that, I am not convinced that this is the best icon I have seen. Works okay, but I’d rather not have to read only half of the name.

VectorDesigner

This is an attractive icon from the same school as the Intaglio one. A nice green document, artwork of a screwdriver on it, a metal straight edge rule, a green pencil, and a screwdriver. Okay usually I associate tools like wrenches, hammers and screwdrivers with utility applications like disk tools or development applications. It turns out that Tweakersoft, this app’s developer, use the Screwdriver as a signifier in all their product icons. So okay, I’ll roll with it, but I would have thought the screwdriver artwork would be enough.

ZeusDraw

A sketchbook opened, a large Zed filled with a blue and violet gradient atop which sits a paintbrush. It reads well in my dock, and from my earlier reading of the website, I know that ZeusDraw has some painting/brush tools in it that Chomaticbytes are particularly proud of. Not so bad and works in my dock okay.

Summary

So the developers have spent some time on these and for the most part they work okay. I think that Intaglio has the best followed by VectorDesigner. If Lineform makes it into my toolkit I am seriously going to give it some CandyBar. I’m not even joking.

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User Interface

The workspace that these present, coupled with the toolset and the particular way the tools work, create the user experience of the app. When you’re spending any significant time using an app like this, you’re trying to convert ideas into drawings. You may be working from actual paper and pencil drawings, or not, but what matters is how easily you can make your idea into a reproducible piece of artwork.

Overview

Generally, these programs approach vector drawing in much the same way as one another. You have a canvas and some kit of tools in a palette or inspector. The canvas or art board may be on a pasteboard that can hold objects beyond the page that you’re working on. None of these apps offer multiple pages.

Usually, there are layers, as drawing programs create objects stacked on on top of the other in a long progression. Layers and document trees expose this behaviour and make drawing much easier and help the designer create useful well described artwork that can be readily used by others.

Tools behave differently from app to app, but for the most part a bezier tool will draw bezier curves in a reasonably typical fashion.

Coming from Illustrator, I have some definite and strong expectations from this primary tool, but I’m secretly hoping that there’s something better.

Vector applications draw a series of shapes and fill them and stroke them directly. That means that a circle is a single object and the colour, texture or gradient that fills it as well as any the colour, thickness and pattern of any line that describe it are attributes of the circle itself. Every point, line, and plane exist as discrete objects until they’re combined into one new object or are used to split each other apart into smaller objects.

Handling text, converting text into drawings, placing it inside objects and along lines are all things that are expected and required in my design environment.

Special effects, like Core Image filters and the like, I regard as being extra, especially since they require that the vector objects be rasterized in order to take on the effect, or they require the final output file to be a raster format like PNG. In my books this kind of defeats the purpose of using a vector application where I want the final file to be infinitely scalable with no loss in quality, something which you lose as soon as you apply raster effects to a drawing.

Many illustrators and artists will disagree with me on this, and I am sure that in their worlds, the provision of this capability, especially if it’s easily understood and applied to their work is much appreciated.

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The Workspace

Intaglio

Intaglio opens almost immediately, presenting a normal OS X window with toolbar, and a single toolbox just 1 icon wide for tools. It’s simple and nice, and when I drag the window larger than its default, the artboard is centered in the window. It’s showing its grid by default, which is okay, I can always turn it off.

In the lower left of the window is a little box with a pink line in it. You can click and drag on this to drag a guide into the work area. It has a mate above the vertical scroll bar. Next to it is a document zoom control that has zoom in and out buttons, a pop-up selector and a numeric input combined quite handily.

Well that’s pretty nice. The menus reveal that there are other palettes and things, but I’m not going to go there just yet.

Lineform

A single bounce and I’ve got my document window. Nice standard window with a white horizontal rectangle holding some tool icons in it and a couple of other icons in the toolbar. If you click on one, hints for its use are displayed immediately under the toolbar in a kind of info area called the Status Bar. This part of things is kind of ugly, but it is clear and utilitarian.

There’s a group of inspectors on the window’s left. They’re all nicely docked and can be rolled up or expanded with a click of the triangle. Nice and tidy.

There’s a zoom menu in the lower right of the window, and that rounds out the UI for Lineform.

I feel like it’s factually presented, with a little bit of grace.

VectorDesigner

VectorDesigner has a standard OS X window with a toolbar fully populated with tools including interesting looking ones like flickr, iSight, Effects, and Media. To the right is an inspector panel with 4 tabs, like a Pages inspector. The lower left of the window, below the scroll bar, is a zoom pop-up that doesn’t take numeric input. Next to that is an information bar that displays hints depending on the tool you have selected.

A nice presentation. The toolbar icons are good looking.

ZeusDraw

When I launch this app, it’s prompt and it opens a small window that contains its logo, with two small palettes behind.

I am not sure what’s happening here. I surmise that ZeusDraw needs to have some kind of content window or document window open on launch, perhaps to enable tools or keep them loaded into memory. The effect doesn’t detract from the experience, but it is kind of strange.

Creating a new document forces the palettes to dock into the window, and the icon window disappears. The palettes (View and Tools) can be dragged back to floating positions if you want, but dock only to the top of the window. The window doesn’t use the Toolbar like the other apps and along its bottom border provides a series of buttons called the Bottom Strip which are controls that affect general application behaviour and display.

So ZeusDraw is a little bit quirkier than the others, but it’s good and clear.

Summary

I like the feel of these apps, and overall they fell far less cluttered than Illustrator. In overall look and feel I like VectorDesigner and Lineform. Except for the weird window thing, ZeusDraw was all right. Intaglio feels the most “traditional” or Illustrator like.

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Preferences

It’s always useful to cruise through an apps preferences to see what general things might be available and to discover what kinds of arrangements the developer has made to handle aspects of the program’s features and behaviours.

Intaglio

When the Preferences panel opens, it defaults to the Documents tab, second in the list. You can set the Colour Space for documents (Automatic, RGB, CMYK or Gray). You can set the Author, Company and a Copyright claim. Then there are settings for showing the page margin, the visibility of the toolbar in new windows, appending the file name extension and adding image previews on Save.

The Tools tab reveals six general tool settings. The colour of control points on shapes (called Tool Color), and the opacity of those interaction points. You can set a delay before a global drag, but I don’t know what that means, and you can choose to have the tool box vertical or horizontal. Set a double-click to open a palette or to edit text in an object and define angles clockwise or counterclockwise.

The clipboard tab contains settings for how Intaglio should handle a bunch of different filetypes.

The Conversions tab allows you to choose global defaults for handling PDF, PICT and Text Elements.

A pretty extensive list, though heavy on the text labels which means you have to read carefully or don’t touch. I elected not to touch.

Lineform

This is a surprisingly simple Preference panel. The first option is a pull-down to select the type of measure (inches, centimetres, millimetres, Points / Pixels, and Picas.

You can have the document Auto-center, choose a key to use for scaling strokes (the default is z ) and set Soft-proof color space using a pull down list of printer colour profiles. The last option set whether a bitmap should be copied with an opaque background which apparently Microsoft Word requires.

And that’s it. There are no more preferences. I tried Option-selecting the Preferences just in case there are some hidden, but there don’t appear to be.

I hope I don’t find myself wishing for control that isn’t there, but we’ll have to see after I get drawing.

VectorDesigner

Maybe because it’s so brand-new, VectorDesigner, has all of three preferences. Check for updates on start-up, default units (Centimetres, Millimetres, Inches, Picas, Points/Pixels), and the default color space: RGB, CMYK or Gray.

Can you get simpler than this?

ZeusDraw

This app’s preferences resemble Intaglio’s a little more than the others. There are 4 tabs, the last and simplest of which is a selector to choose you preferred email application.

Undo allows you to set the maximum number of undos for Viewing and for Drawing. The defaults are set to ten, so I set them to 40. It strikes me as archaic though because it’s 2008 and I’d expect my app to just keep track. Making this change requires an application restart so I do.

The Colors tab allows me to set 4 colour options: New Document Background Color, Temporary Graphics Color, Attention Color, and Guideline Color. There is a note that the New Document background Color must be opaque and any transparent color will be converted to opaque.

The General tab allows me to set measurement units (Inches, Cm[sic], Mm[sic], Points). I can vary the degree of transparency of an object as it’s moved. I can choose to have objects displayed using Anti-Aliased Rendering, and Check for Updates on Startup.

There is a width field and a height field to set the size, but not position, of a New Window.

Lastly is a display resolution factor called Display Pixels Per inch set at 100.0. If you change this you have to restart ZeusDraw to use the setting. I don’t know what this is so I don’t change it but I am curious. Maybe I’ll look it up in Help a little later.

Summary

After the pages of preferences that Illustrator has, these are pretty simple and clear. I am eager to find out if the minimal settings in Lineform and VectorDesigner leave me wanting more, and I also am curious about some of the settings that I’m just not familiar with, like Display Pixels Per Inch factor, Temporary Graphics Color, and how scaling strokes might use the z key.

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Toolset

I am working on a design software postulate that goes something like this:

A single tool well implemented is probably more advantageous to me as a designer than many tools poorly implemented.

My starting point is somewhat modest. I hold that Illustrator doesn’t need both a Rectangle Tool and a Rounded Rectangle Tool, and that this poor situation is made work by the existence of Filter > Stylize > Round corners… and Effect > Stylize > Round Corners… (the only difference between these two being the presence of a Preview checkbox).

And I further maintain that a well designed polygon tool should address most of the needs of a designer.

I mention this because I am about to compare toolsets and then specific tools, and you should know that my thinking has led me to this conclusion. That is, I can assure you this section will not be a comparison of a shopping list of features.

Instead it will focus on how the tools work and are used. How do they feel? How much do I have to think about using them and how much can I just use them to think?

I am also assuming that the developers have done their homework and know roughly what their markets might expect in terms of capabilities, so I think it’s a safe bet that these apps will do most of the things you expect.

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Comparing Pens

In vector drawing, the pen tool is about the most important tool in the kit. It is responsible for describing the parts of a bezier object that compose the curve you draw.

It sets points and handles, their relationship on a Cartesian plane, and the extent to which the line arcs.

For the longest time, Illustrator’s pen has been the gold standard, with a smaller but vocal minority advocating Freehand’s Bezigon tool. Freehand no longer exists and these new contenders all implement pens that need to demonstrate their utility as being as good or better than Illustrator in order to be widely accepted. Let’s see what we have.

Intaglio

This tool is called the Path tool, and works almost exactly as you’d expect. Select it, click to get a point, click to get another and a line segment is drawn between. If you click and drag you’ll get a control handle and any number of straight and curved line segments can be drawn to create any shape you want.

To close an object with the Path Tool you need to Hold down the Option key and click from a point to the starting point of the object.

You can convert a point into a smooth curve by option-click-dragging it with the Point Selection Tool. The path must be selected first. You can convert a smooth point in a curve to an angled point by selecting it with the Point Selection Tool and then option-clicking a control handle and pulling it in the opposite direction.

Holding shift while using the tool will constrain the direction of the line as well as the snap of the control handles. And holding the command key snaps the handles to the grid.

You can continue a path by clicking with the Pen Tool on a path’s end point and drawing new segments. The you need to select the points where you want them to join with the Point Selection Tool and use the Object > Paths > Join command.

A pretty traditional showing, and other than having to hold the option key to close a shape, not really that much different to the Illustrator Pen.

Lineform

Yes, it’s the Pen tool and hitting the P key selects it. This tool performs almost identically to Illustrator’s tool.

As you draw a path in Lineform, the visual feedback is nice. The last point drawn is highlighted magenta, previous ones are shiny blue, paths take on a violet tint as you work. When you return to you starting point and hover over the point it changes from blue to magenta and the hint in the information bar changes to indicate clicking will close the shape and option-clicking will not close the shape.

When you are done with the path, double-click for your last point or hit Return.

The last point drawn is highlighted shiny blue and the entire shape is outlined in green.

Anchors with no curves are square, anchors that are parts of a curve are round.

You can hit Escape to cancel drawing the path entirely.

The visual feedback makes using this tool a nice experience, and the hints in the Status Bar are useful even if I have to pause to read them.

The option key can be used to break a smooth point into an angled point during the drawing operation or after it. And it’s when I tried adjusting a point in this way after I drew the path, that I ran into the unexpected.

I drew a few curves and then selected the path. I used the edit selection tool to see the points. You need to select the point to see the handles. Option dragging the handle broke the curve as expected. Then I wanted to fine-tune it. So I grabbed the handle that I just moved and suddenly the entire control point reverted to being a smooth curve.

Not what I thought would happen at all. I figured I would be controlling the newly made curve. I could get my desired result by holding the option key before I made the adjustment.

You can add nodes to a path with a command-click, and removing them is as simple as selecting it and pressing the delete key. You can add points to an open path by clicking on the point where you like to begin then adding points.

Further to all of this, if you control-click on an anchor, you get a 5 item menu for commands related to nodes. This is a nice touch, as it the fact that when you select an object path with the Selection arrow, double clicking will select the path and highlight the nodes, automatically switching you to the Edit arrow.

So pretty good except for having to remember to use the option key on corner nodes.

VectorDesigner

VectorDesigner has a distinctly iWork kind of feel because the toolbar icons and menus. The Pen tool is in the Sketch button, or in Insert > Path (Command-8).

Click to make a point. Click again to get a line segment. Click and drag to get a curve. Press the return key to finish drawing. To create a closed shape approach the first point with the pen it will “snap-to” and a final click will complete the shape.

After you create a path you can edit it by selecting it and pressing Command-E or clicking the Edit Path button in the toolbar.

You can select any point and move it. Double-click a point to convert it into the opposite type of point. This is handy because you don’t need a special tool to select the point. A selected point can be deleted with the Delete key. Not the Backspace key.

You can add a point to a path by hovering over the path and double clicking. Delete a segment by holding option and clicking the segment while the path is in Edit Path mode.

I can’t find any way to alter a path as I draw it, but the easy editability after the fact makes this issue moot.

What I can’t figure out, if it’s doable at all, is joining two paths at a point, or continuing an open path. I did discover while looking for ways that Command-E will not work on paths that are grouped or allow edit mode when more than one path is selected.

I’ll admit that I’m a little disappointed at these final details.

ZeusDraw

Get the Pen tool and get a load of this. You click to get your first point, then click to get your first control handle. Move your mouse and click for your second control handle then click one last time below that for you next path point. You’ve got a simple curve.

This sounds nutty, but it’s actually pretty freaking awesome. Even though it’s more mouse clicks, the curve that is described, is far more in keeping with what you imagine it should be. This is a an interesting minority case where more clicks are better.

When you’re drawing, all the points in the path show persistent handles. This is nice because you can go and make adjustments without changing tools or anything, just go to the point or handle you want and drag it.

Now I’ve gotten ahead of myself, because I wrote ‘get the pen tool’ and what is actually correct is to choose the Path Tools by selecting it in the tools palette. The default path tool is the Pen tool and you can select other path tools when this is selected by pressing a shortcut key or selecting it in the Tool Controls Palette.

The behaviour is much like Illustrator in this regard: The P key give you the pen, pressing the plus or minus key will make the pen add or subtract points on the path. Shift-C will change or create corners, and X will allow you to move points around. C will cut a path.

Now the thing I need to get used to with ZeusDraw is that you want to set your tools in the Tool Control palette before you use it. Not after. This is important because in ZeusDraw if you want your path to close you need to set it before you start or you’re going to be going back and selecting Close path a bunch.

You also want to set the tool behaviour before you start drawing because there’s no option-click to create corner points or anything while you’re describing the path.

This is kind of a pain and is going to take some practice to get used to. It does seem consistent with some of the design ideas in the program though. Things like an open object cannot be filled, so don’t even think about it.

Also, like VectorDesigner, returning to a path after it has been deselected doesn’t automatically allow you to continue the path. To do this you need to be sure that View > Snap to Point is turned on then draw a path from the end point of the previous path. Then select both paths and do a Join command. Not the end of the world and better than not being able to figure it out with VectorDesigner.

Summary

VectorDesigner sometimes takes a fraction of a second to draw the path after the click and the inability to continue paths in all the pass but Lineform was a surprise to me.

I like Lineform’s feedback, and I like VectorDesigner’s tool too, but I am completely blown away by ZeusDraw’s pen. The accuracy of it to describe the path that I am imagining makes its shortcomings pale. I encourage you to try it out.

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Comparing Shape Tools

After the Pen tool, shape tools are where the action is for object creation. I am going to lump line and arc tools in here as we take in an overview of the rest of the drawing tools, but leave Text tools for the next section.

Intaglio

The toolset for Intaglio is filled out with a Freehand Tool, Line tool, a Rectangle, a Round Rectangle, a Polygon, a ‘Bezier Curve Polygon Tool, an Oval tool and a Dimension tool.

The tools work pretty much the same way, you can click and drag the shape onto your artboard and holding Shift constrains the aspect ratio. Hold down Option to make the drawing happen from the polygon’s centre.

The Line tool and Dimension tool work this way as well: you need to drag out a line, not click for points. The Dimension tool automatically adds a dimension label to the line which could be handy if you’re headed down the architectural or engineering drawing road.

A few of the tools have settable values and double clicking their toolbox icon pops open a dialogue box so you can change them. They are: Polygon Tool (set the number of sides – you can’t do this as you draw), Round Rectangle Tool (set the type of corner curve -convex or concave- and adjust the radius with an imprecise ‘small to large’ slider), and the Freehand tool (set the Tolerance and smoothness of the freehand trace).

The arc tool is nice. Drag to see a circle and its radius. Then when you stop just click and begin to rotate. If you select it with the Point Selection tool you can adjust it’s three points and Option-dgragging the centre point will adjust the radius.

The freehand tool works as expected and creates as smooth a vector path as you think you might want, but of course the truer the line, the more anchors it has and the more lumpy it is.

Lineform

Here’s where we get really simple. After the Pen Tool there’s a Brush, a Rectangle and an Oval. And that’s it.

I like these primitives because when you drag an oval or a rectangle out, then select it with the Edit arrow, you get modification controls.

On a rectangle there’s a blue handle on the sides for control height and width with a simple drag, and there’s a red dot in the upper-left corner that if dragged towards the center of the object, defines a radius for rounded corners. Nice! I like this a lot. On the circle the red handle opens the arc making a pie chart-like thing.

Again, the Status bar gives you clues as to what you can do.

What this also means is that complex shapes are yours to create so polygons and stars need to be drawn with the pen tool, or made using shapes and following with boolean operations like subtracting the front shape from the back shape or combining to shapes into one. Not a problem, but definitely not an advantage and if I was in a tight spot for time, I would appreciate some more complex shapes.

The brush tool works as expected, although there’s no way to set smoothness and tolerance that I could find. Holding the option key while drawing with it disabled the smoothing a little.

Well, Lineform has obviously traded away some more complex capability in favour a a simple, easily learned toolset.

VectorDesigner

The iWork approach is in full force here with a Shape menu and options for rectangle, Oval, Rounded Rectangle, Polygon and Star.

Dragging a shape can be constrained by holding Shift and can be drawn from the centre with Option. Both at the same time? Nope.

After the shapes are drawn they can be edited with Command-E which gives you their Bezier handles.

But the real cool shapes are Rounded Rectangle, Polygon and Star. Dragging these shapes is just like the others, but as soon as you mouse-up you get a special panel that allows you to change the settings of the object. Deselect the object and it goes away , then come back and select it you have it again.

Exactly the kind of thing you can do to add utility to the tool in a clear and obvious way, but not junk up the interface with even more persistent palettes and gizmos.

If you select Make Editable in the special panel, you lose the ability to change its attributes, but you gain the ability to edit it in true Bezier style with a Command-E. A trade-off that you don’t have to make until you’re ready, if ever.

The smooth path tool works like the brush tools in the other apps we’ve looked at, and like Lineform, there doesn’t seem to be any way to adjust its attributes.

I really love the special polygon tools. It sure is nice adding and deleting points of a star in such an easy and obvious fashion.

ZeusDraw

If I pay attention, which I am learning to do, and remember: select tool, adjust settings, then draw, I’m going to be just fine.

ZeusDraw gives me a Line Tool, Arc Tool, Rectangle Tool, Oval Tool, Polygon/Star Tool, a Freehand Tool and a Brush Tool. We’ll talk about the Brush Tool in a bit.

Selecting, setting and dragging, give you the shape you’re after, and shift will constrain the aspect ratio and Option will allow you to draw from the centre. But I just set those in the settings panel so I don’t even need to remember this.

Once you get the kinetic pattern down it’s pretty fun.

Select set and draw. Think of the thing you need, get the tool to do it, set it so it will and then do it.

It’s a subtle difference but crucial. It’s a lot more like the way you might draw with a pen or pencil set where you select a colour or thickness to get you as close to a finished object as possible. When you finish an object it’s deselected leaving you free to drag a new one or change your settings and drag a new one. Feels very natural.

I am liking this a lot.

The Round Corners setting in the Rectangle Tool Options is a precise slide that also accepts typed values. The smoothness setting for the Freehand Tool works exactly like I expect and performs great. The secret I think is that ZeusDraw is designed with a silent recognition of Tablet users, though if I was a tablet guy I think I’d be pretty pleased.

I was curious and just went back through the other apps. Only Lineform mentions using a tablet.

Summary

The ZeusDraw approach is impressing me. I felt happy and comfortable with it and it’s funny but the other tools make less sense to me now. Next, I like the VectorDesigner tools especially the special attribute panels at the end of a drag. Lineform is fine but limited and could be time consuming for drawing complex shapes, and Intaglio is fine, though it doesn’t really offer a lot in the way of a better approach.

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Text Tools

Working in graphic design requires handling text at some point and for anything less than a multi-page document, many designers will turn to their vector tools.

Intaglio

You drag the tool to establish the width of the text object then begin typing. Words fill it up until you’re done. When you click away you can see the text object is a box and dragging the handles scales the whole thing. There’s a small arrow on the right edge and dragging it changes the width of the text area. There doesn’t appear to be a way to link text boxes, but that’s not fatal. Double-clicking the text tool opens the System Font Panel, and double-clicking the text object with the selection tool opens the Text panel so you can adjust Kerning, Baseline and Leading.

With the object selected you can handle the text’s fill and stroke without having to select the text itself with the text tool.

In a neat approach, Intaglio treats the entire box and text as an object which means you can rotate and skew it for example, but it also keeps track of the text within as text which means you can edit it even if it’s rotated with fills and strokes applied.

That’s pretty fun.

If you select the object and go Object > Convert > Text To Path it will convert all the text to paths, maintaining the current arrangement. Word of warning at this juncture. If you separate the paths using the Object > Paths > Separate they will separate and the counters of many shapes will reverse their path direction and fill in. Ugh. Use the point selection tool and zoom in close to edit just the one you want instead, and probably don’t do this if you have a bunch of text (until you need to ship the file).

You can add text to a path by selecting a text block and a path and going Text > Path Binding > Bind Text To Path. You can release the text from the path by selecting the opposing command: Text > Path Binding >Release Text From Path. This will separate the two elements but it won’t return them to their original positions.

Lineform

In Lineform you select the text tool and drag a text box. The text box acts as a normal rectangle, and dragging its handles will scale and skew it and the contained text as well.

If you double click the text box it will straighten it out and place your cursor in the text in edit mode. When you’re done click away and the object reverts to its former state.

Intaglio doesn’t do this, preferring to allow you to adjust the text in situ. Lineform favours making editing a separate cognitive task, which is fine.

You can convert text into editable shapes with Objects > Convert > To Outline then selecting the Edit arrow.

When I went to figure out text on a path I was a bit baffled but it soon became clear: The Text Tool is actually a combined operation that creates a rectangular box with a fill type of ‘Text’. This is evident in the Fill Inspector. When you select a Fill of ‘Text’ you can punch a button labelled Edit… and it starts your cursor in the rectangle.

Well in the same vein, path or object can have a stroke type of ‘Text’ as well. Very clever. The pain is that for the stroke you have to type or paste the words in a small text field in the inspector. Okay whatever, but setting the font size is based on setting the thickness slider and I checked the text inspector when I did this and it doesn’t change. So you’re going to be totally visual here and just go for looking good and not know what the size of text is. With your text path selected, you can use the text inspector’s gear menu to select Spacing… which pops a sheet in the inspector with sliders and fields for setting linespacing and such and going Format > Font > Kern you can roughly adjust letterspacing.

While exploring all of this I discover that Lineform has a Table Inspector for making tables, as well as a List maker and a Link maker. These are under Format > Text.

You can also set up text styles like in TextEdit using the Format > Font Styles… command. Someday I might get that but for now, I am going to move on.

VectorDesigner

In VectorDesigner, when I use the Type tool, I can click once I get a text box that expands as I type, or click and drag a box that stays the size I make it. If the text overruns it I can drag it out to accommodate it all.

I can colour the text by selecting the box and then selecting a new colour in the text Inspector’s colour well or I can double click to select the text directly and select a new colour.

A text box can be edited using Command-E, this makes it so you can reshape the box and the text reflows within it. The text is not transformed. If you rotate the box and then edit the text it will flip to normal horizontal mode for editing and then back its position when you’re done like Lineform does.

Selecting Format > Convert Text To Path separates the text from its bounding box and draws another box around it all as a fine blue line. Then you go Arrange > Ungroup to get the individual letters which are then selected objects. To edit the actual vector handles you need to select a character and go Command-E. Now usually unless you’re designing your own typeface or a logotype, you don’t need to get this far in, because outlined type will print without the font files, but I am always interested in this kind of thing. Plus I have been known to draw letters.

Other font features are typical Mac OS X: the Font panel and its associates (Characters, Typography, Manage fonts….), and the Kern Ligature Baseline options in the Format menu.

Placing text on a path is easy and pleasant. Select the Text tool, mouse over the path you want to place your text on and click when the cursor changes to an I-Beam. Vector designer places a dummy “Lorem Ipsum” on the line, and selects it for you so you can just start typing. This is great. Click away when you’re done. To adjust the text you can select the path and a Text property HUD appears offering sliders for adjusting Spacing, Baseline, and Position of the text’s starting point. There’s a button that removes the text from the path completely. To continue or edit the text hover over the path and click when you get the I-beam cursor and you’re editing.

ZeusDraw

When I select the text tools, the Tool Controls updates with text handling features. Remembering the “select tool, select options then use tool” workflow, this is petty okay. This is also not the Mac OS X Font panel.

Which to me seems a good thing.

I understand the advantages of having the system-wide panel and what it does for developers (less code, easier developing) and users (predictable behaviour and met expectation), but sometimes if you rethink the task, you can get to something better.

ZeusDraw has rethought the task flow and has made the text tool match instead of copping out and just accepting the default. Kudos to you guys at Chromatic Bytes for staying true to the design approach and doing the extra work.

The Text Tools panel is great. Starting at the to and going down: there’s a preview of the settings, typeface pulldown, type style pulldown, a Font Collection pull down, a pair of buttons for bold and italic which are gigantic, a font size input field/pulldown combo with a size slider too. But wait there’s more: a set of alignment buttons,a color well and a toggle for selecting the stroke or fill of the type. Then there are more parts that are closed by default because they’re not used as often: Effects with Blend Modes (like in Photoshop) and Shadows (which expands into a palette containing a colour well, angle, offset and blur controls); and then a set of controls that expose the Character Spacing (Kerning), Baseline, Linespacing, and ligature controls.

What this means is that the system Font panel and the other typographic controls usually exposed to the user in Format menus are nicely consolidated in a very useful and well thought-out panel focusing activity into a single place.

Converting text to paths is simple. Select the text box and go Tools > Convert Text to Paths (Command-Option-Shift-T). To control the vectors just select the Pen tool then the Move control points tool (or press X).

Currently there is no way to place text on a path in ZeusDraw. You have to convert the text to outlines and then ungrorup it, and place it along the path.

Summary

A pretty okay showing. I think I like text to stay oriented a placed when I am editing it, even if it’s sideways. I doubt this is easier cognitively, but I like to see things develop in place. For this reason I like Intaglio and ZeusDraw.

ZeusDraw also impressed me with the consolidation of the Typographic controls. No, it’s not Mac-like in the way using the defaults are, but it’s a well designed departure. A true improvement.

VectorDesigner’s text on path tools are great, and I like doing this every so often, though I wish its convert text to path had fewer steps, like 1 or two instead of three.

I am going to say VectorDesigner has the edge here, because of the text on a path experience, But ZeusDraw so close, it was hard to write this sentence. A nod to Lineform for its use of styles, something I appreciated when Illustrator’s text handling was brought more in line with InDesign’s over on the Adobe planet.

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Gradient Tools

I was surprised and gratified that I found such a range of approaches to this tool.

Gradients can be hugely useful to illustrators and designers and sometimes you’d like to get a gradient aligned right or goof off and create visual effects with more than a couple of colours.

Well, a long time has passed since Illustrator was little and gradient fills were new. They’re fills are pretty commonplace these days. Let’s see how these apps approach the problem.

Intaglio

The gradient tool has it’s own tool button and a double click opens the corresponding Gradient Palette.

Select the object you want to fill and click the tool once to fill it. If you have the palette opened (double-click the tool as mentioned or go Window > Solid Colour > Gradient) you can make any changes to the gradient that you want.

The gradient editor is a nice straight forward dialog arranged in two rows. The top row is a colour well, a colour space pull-down (RGB,CMYK, or Grayscale), a gradient type selector (linear or radial) and a reverse switch that allows you to switch the order of the colours in the bar.

Clicking in the bar crates a new colour point and opens the system colour picker. Clicking the colour well of any point opens the system colour picker too. You can drag colour points back and forth with their corresponding triangle control and drag the diamond points between colours to adjust the ‘ramp’ or transition between colours.

If you have a colour point selected and you create a new one, the one that was already selected stays selected. Makes me crazy. And another crazy-maker is that the opacity slider has moved from the system colour picker to Intaglio’s Solid Colour palette. So you can pick a colour and adjust its opacity and have it as a colour point in your gradient. I like this a lot better than Illustrator’s transparency mask thing to get these effects, but it’s crazy about where the opacity tool is.

If you had an object selected while goofing around here it will take on the gradient directly. You can also drag a gradient onto an object, but only if it’s selected.

You can remove colour points dragging their controls upward. If you try to directly manipulate a colour point you will get a ‘Can’t complete this command. -1875’ error. Every time.

Adjusting the gradient inside the object is a matter of clicking and dragging across the selected object with the tool.

Overall, it’s a pretty good analogue to Illustrator’s gradient tool.

Lineform

To apply a gradient to an object select the object and then select Gradient from the Fill palette pull-down. There isn’t a separate tool for gradient which means that the gradient editor as well as its use controls reside in the palette.

There’s a mysterious and unexplained non-zero checkbox that didn’t seem to do anything when selected or deselected, and a colour bar for working on the gradient. Below that there’s a Position… button and a linear/radial pull-down.

To edit your gradient you can add colours by clicking immediately below the colour bar. You’ll get a colour stop which is indicated by a colour pointer below the bar and a little diamond control above. To remove a colour, drag the diamond control up from the bar.

Click a colour stop to get the system colour picker and adjust its opacity. You can move the points with the triangle controls. You can move colour between points just by dragging a colour from one point to another.

To adjust the gradient’s position and extent you click the Position… button. There’s an arrow control on your object which you can reposition with a click and drag or by dragging its end points. A radial gradient offers two perpendicular arrows. The black arrow controls the extent and the white one controls the ellipse. The corner point controls the position of the origin. Option clicking a point allows independent control giving you a high degree of precision with the tool.

I like the fact that the control is on the object directly, and this feels pretty good.

VectorDesigner

Gradients here are also controlled from the Fill palette. Select Gradient from the pull-down and you get a few parts for your controls. There’s a proxy gradient tile, two colour wells, a double arrow switch to swap the colour positions and 3 radio buttons to choose gradient type: Linear, Radial and Gaussian. Gaussian is a radial gradient with a smooth Gaussian blur applied and looks very nice.

Clicking the colour wells bring the system picker up and you can select colours and opacity in the usual way. Nice for gradient masks.

Controlling the gradient position is done by adjusting a rubber band thingy in the proxy gradient tile in the palette. The effect is live and updates in the object as you do it. I really don’t like this. It requires a lot of back and forth eye movement and concentration , and fine motor control which is a drag. Direct 1:1 manipulation like Lineform has with its arrows, or even dragging an invisible line like in Intaglio is better than this.

Too bad this doesn’t match the persistent local controls local on an object like the polygon tool.

ZeusDraw

Select the gradient tool (Press the G key) and go to the Tool Controls The options are a toggle switch between Linear and Radial. A dial and a input thumb for angle and two colour wells for setting the colour. The usual system colour picker and opacity apply.

I like the little thumb dial less than the proxy picture thing in VectorDesigner. Ugh. But here I am, happily following my new taskflow, select tool change settings then I select a rectangle and lose my settings.

Huh? I was following the ZeusDraw paradigm. Well sort of.

The gradient tool here is kind of a new thing. In this one you need to deploy the Color > Gradient Builder and the Color > Swatches palettes. Then using the tools in the Gradient Builder, develop the gradient you want and drag it into the swatches palette. Now you have a swatch that you can drag onto any object on the canvas (selected or not).

The Gradient Builder is pretty nifty. Working from the top down there’s a large proxy tile, the Linear/Radial switch and the orientation dial controls. Then instead of a couple of colour wells there’s a vertical gradient colour bar. Inside that there’s an arrow the bottom of which is an origin colour and the top of which is the gradient destination colour. Each of these locations has a corresponding rectangular colour well for select a colour and adjusting its opacity. In the centre of the arrow is a small circle and this drags to control the gradient ramp.

To add a colour, click in the colour bar or on the arrow. A new colour stop is added and a new gradient edit point is inserted. Colour stops are squares on the arrow and you can drag them to any position. Remove them by dragging the square controls on the arrow to outside the colour bar.

So far this is okay. At least there’s enough size in the tool to make this comfortable enough.

The real magic begins when you drag a gradient onto an object then select the object and then the gradient tool. Now you get the exact same arrow that you had in the Gradient Builder applied directly to your object. You can adjust it on the object and dragging the origin adjust it’s position and the arrowhead its angle. You can remove colours from the gradient by dragging the colour stops outside the bounds of the object and you can add colour stops by clicking the line or dragging a colour from the color picker or swatches palette directly. You can convert from a radial to a linear gradient using the Tool Controls palette.

The only down side to all of this is that you have to make a gradient and make a swatch from it to apply it to objects. Well maybe that’s okay, but it seems to me that the tool could be a little easier to use. Maybe add the Gradient builder tool to the fill controls. I know it makes it longer or more complex, but it would only be revealed when Gradient was selected as a fill type and then you could also have it set to apply for the next shape.

Summary

After I got it, ZeusDraw had me. Vector draw was disappointing and Lineform’s was okay. Intaglio’s was useful and powerful, but doesn’t offer the kind of control and fun that ZeusDraw does, and really doesn’t bring new things to the table.

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Unique Features

Every program on offer here has unique features which are aimed at doing something better, or enticing you the designer/illustrator with a promise of flexibility and power.

I have touched on only a few of the tools so far, the ones I think typify the basic approach that the apps employ. And comparing things that are unique is extremely time consuming.

What I am going to do here is highlight some of the things that struck me as outstanding in each application.

Intaglio

Intaglio is a solid offering and its most unique feature is its quiet concentration in addressing so many of the expectations that designers might have of an illustration program.

While it doesn’t wow me with brand new approaches, it also offers nice things like the ability to import and make editable artwork from PDF, EPS, SVG, and even PICT files.

Having this kind of flexibility in file type makes sharing and deploying artwork easier than say just PDF, especially if the PDF output is strictly raster based, not vector based.

Intaglio appeals to traditional Mac users who might have legacy artwork from MacDraw and ClarisDraw that they might want to recover and update or use.

Intaglio also has a pattern tool which I haven’t yet used.

Lineform

What’s really cool about Lineform is its lack of dialogue boxes. Man it’s amazing to me how many dialogue boxes we see all day. In Photoshop, it’s just brutal now, but in other apps it’s pretty bad too. Lineform is just there and getting what you mean. The ‘dialogue’ with this app is easy and pleasant.

Lineform also has Linkback to enable image editing after you lineform drawing is placed inside another Linkback supporting application like OmniGraffle. Nice touch. Lineform also offers a soft-proof of CMYK which can be useful if you’re going to press with your work.

VectorDesigner

This app really shines in showing a neat and useful deployment of HUD interface elements. The trace tool looks wicked, and I like the integration of having iSight input and Flickr input and output for illustrations. I mean, come on, Flickr is your media library? That’s great!

ZeusDraw

Well beyond its risky re-thinking of how to draw, the cool tools in this app are the Gradient tool and the Brush tool.

I am not a brush kind of guy, because I am not really an illustrator or a freehand artist. If you are, you want to check this out. You can build a brush by drawing a bunch of elements and the adding them to the brush builder. Now you have a brush. Paint a line with it. Paint several. Select all of those and add them to the brush builder. Now you have a brush that paints brush lines. It’s crazy. And it supports tablets.

Also ZeusDraw has some potent copying tools and stencils.

A pretty nice showing actually with the basics covered of solidly all the way thorough to using modern technology to create original tools and experiences.

And speaking of modern tool, these programs cross the line and enter bitmap territory, implementing CoreImage in some fashion or another.

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Comparing Effects

Special Effects are expected by users and for the most part these are delivered in modern Mac apps by taking advantage of the CoreImage framework and Image Units.

Applying effects and working with them in these programs is something that a lot of people would do, given the prevalence of drop shadow effects and blur effects that are part of the present visual culture.

Effects, CoreImage and design applications

It’s interesting to me to see the use of CoreImage in these applications. When Illustrator was young I think Illustrator 88 allowed you to place a scanned image into a document so you could trace it. Tracing is a time honoured techniques of all artists and designers and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise.

As time went by, Illustrator gained more image editing functions as the Adobe teams worked to make the Photoshop filters apply directly in Illustrator.

The current iteration is a dismal failure where I have a Filter menu and a companion Effect menu with fair overlap between the two but enough difference to be dumb. So far what I have figured out is that Illustrator CS3 Effects menu items usually provide the option to see a live preview in the object in the artwork. And there are fewer options in the Filter menu.

Anyway, this convergence can be a good and handy thing in a design and production environment where I may need to assemble different files into a final piece or where I can utilize a raster effect for a particular look, without a trip to Photoshop.

The hidden downsides (as opposed to the glaringly evident Filter/Effect fiasco), is that to a young workforce and a generally un-illuminated public, the conflation of Photoshop with any and all visual creation is reinforced.

Challenging when you need to get some RGB 72ppi file to print in CMYK on a nice press.

It happens more than I care to admit and I want it to stop.

The reverse is also in play though, as many bitmap editors take on more and more vector tools. DrawIt, which I reviewed in Image is Everything is an excellent example of this, where the tools are primarily vector based even though you’re working in a raster environment.

Photoshop has this too, and I think that what we’re seeing in CS3 is another step in the convergence of art programs where little or no distinction will be made when using these distinct elements.

The challenge in this will be twofold. Printing technology requires certain technical criteria be met (like CMYK colour and a certain resolution dependent on printing method), and if it’s not met, it becomes a crap-shoot. This is a big deal, because print is not dead and if I can use a convergent tool to make a file, I need to be able to get it right so I don’t waste time and money. And on the other hand I’d like to be able to use raster effects and the like without weird limitations in terms of resolution (check out Scribbles for an example of infinite resolution) and RGB colour.

Original thinking embodied in DrawIt, Acorn, and in this review, VectorDesigner and ZeusDraw, will make this convergence exciting rather than painful. But it’s going to be awhile.

I think DrawIt is a pretty great indicator of how the convergence could work. The image creation tools are vector based, but the attendant operations for effects and filters are raster based.

The output of DrawIt is limited to a handful of raster formats for now, but the vector basis holds promise for implementing an SVG exporter. That would enable the export of a vector format that supports some filter effects (maybe there’s some overlap with CoreImage, and can embed data that it doesn’t directly support as part of a CDATA element).

Implementing this wouldn’t be trivial though, so I suspect we’ll have to wait awhile to see it.

I also noticed that here in these tests there’s varying support for vector based PDFs and EPS files. These would be very handy and facilitate printing and file sharing in a creative workflow.

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Using Effects + Filters

Accessing the special effects in these apps and applying them is an interesting exercise.

Intaglio

With an object selected on the canvas, go Window > Effects to get the Effects inspector. The inspector is a sparse palette with a pane on the left, a blank area on the right, an Add button-menu gizmo, a Minus button (initially disabled) and a Gear or Actions button-menu gizmo.

Select an effect from the Add button-menu and it’s placed in the left pane and its options are displayed in the right panel allowing you to alter and adjust them. The effects are cumulative and can be re-ordered in the left mane by dragging up and down.

The effects are applied on a per object basis and persist across saving and closing the document. This is a nice feature.

Initially the available Effects are limited to a set of Standard Effects that work on Mac OS X 10.3 and modest video cards, and can be expanded to include Advanced Effects using the gear button-menu. The Advanced Effects are CoreImage options for OS 10.4 and compatible video cards.

Standard effects are happily ones that people want most often: drop and interior shadows, glows, blur and Gaussian blur, sharpen and 3D lighting.

The gear button-menu also gives you options to add effects to your Add button-menu list and to set Intaglio to respect Color effects and ignore resolution issues.

Importantly, effects are applied to vector objects as well as bitmap objects on the canvas but everything with an effect is converted to a raster object on export to another file format.

Lineform

In Lineform, Effects and Filters are two different things but the distinction is a lot clearer than in Illustrator. Effects in Lineform are found in the Effects Inspector and are settings for Opacity, Blend Mode and Shadow.

CoreImage tools are available in the Filters inspector (Inspectors > Filter or Command-7). This is an neat inspector. You can enable filters on a per object basis and set the raster effects level on a per object basis too. Then you can use the Add button-menu to select a filter. The Filter is applied to the list and if it has options they will be displayed immediately below the filter name with a disclosure triangle so after making the settings you can roll it up. Each entry Has an x button to delete it from the list.

The filters are applied in order cumulatively from top to bottom. You can re-arrange the order by clicking and dragging. The filters persist after the file is saved and closed allowing subsequent manipulation.

VectorDesigner

VectorDesigner is the most Mac-like so far. With an object selected on the canvas, Open the Inspector and click the third tab. Click the Add Filter… button at the bottom to select a filter from the filter sheet, which is conveniently divided into categories and filters list.

You can’t preview the filter effect until you select the item, but that minor inconvenience is more than compensated for by the controls once the filter is added to the inspector. The first control is an enable checkbox which toggles the filter state.

Available controls are displayed below and a default button is provided to return the filter to it’s normal state. There is a disclosure triangle next to the filter title so you can collapse its display. At the bottom of the inspector there is an Apply To: pull down and you can select None, Fill, Stroke, Fill & Stroke, giving you fine control over how any filter is applied to the object and its component parts.

Again the filters are applied in sequence top to bottom and dragging them up and down allows you to reorder them The visual cue for this is very nice. The filter bar becomes a translucent lozenge so you can drag and see the target position line very clearly. The filter states are preserved with the document through saving and reopening.

ZeusDraw

Marching to the beat of its own drummer, ZeusDraw doesn’t implement CoreImage filters.

Effects are found in the Object Inspector when an object is selected, and like Lineform, limit themselves. The options under the Effects panel are Soft Edges (applies only to vector objects), Opacity, Blend Mode and Shadows.

ZeusDraw does handle bitmap graphics and they can be added to you work via copy/paste, Import or rasterizing a vector object. You can manipulate the raster object in scale size and mask (Cookie Cutter) as well as define a raster as a Stencil Object. Stencils Objects can contain a single colour so you can do some neat effects on a bitmap graphic in your artwork and use it multiple times after that.

Summary

My favourite filter implementation was VectorDesigner. It felt nice and Mac-like although it would be nicer still to see the filter applied when the sheet was down to enable an even better guess about the outcome. I really like the fineness of control offered by the per object enabling, and the application of the filter to the parts of an object. Lineform was nice although the Effects and Filters difference perpetuates the problem that Illustrator demonstrates, even if it’s correct in a formal Cocoa Application sense. Intaglio’s implementation was fine, and I’m surprised that I was disappointed about ZeusDraw’s exclusion of CoreImage technology, given my ambivalence about bitmap operations in vector tools.

Also I should point out that CoreImage filters impose resolution restrictions on output as well as file type restrictions, so if you need to output for print you’ll want to understand these apps fully before you rely on them.

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Memory + Performance

Generally speaking, vector art is a little easier on RAM requirements and doesn’t have scratch disk requirements that bitmap editors may have. That doesn’t mean that vector files are always small as complex drawing with many layers and objects can really make some Mac killing files.

Lineform used the least real memory, about 21MB, ZeusDraw about 28 MB, Intaglio just a little more than 28MB and VectorDesigner 43MB. Their use of virtual memory tended to be up around a 1GB: Intaglio 971MB, Lineform 967MB, VectorDesigner 1GB, and ZeusDraw 971MB. It looks like VectorDesigner’s memory footprint is roughly analogous to the iWork apps in terms of real and virtual memory use. This makes sense because it feels like it come with the same architecture and would therefore use the same frameworks in roughly the same ways.

Performance-wise, the applications all felt snappy and responsive. I found that VectorDesigner probably had the most crashes as I worked on this article, and ZeusDraw gave up inexplicably on a few occasions. I regret that I don’t have a record of these events but will be paying closer attention in time and report the crashes to the developers.

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Exporting + Importing

When it comes time to getting your artwork out into the world, these programs provide some good options. Depending on what your workflow is like and what tools you use, you’ll want to pay close attention to these features.

Here I am going to focus on PDF Export and Import because this should be the most flexible way to hand off graphics to others for output or to different applications for further manipulation.

Intaglio

This app is the oldest of the bunch and sports well chosen file formats and export controls. The Save As… sheet offers 14 file types including the native Intaglio file.

I saved out a PDF file and opened it using Illustrator CS3. The shapes were editable but the objets had been drawn in their component parts (a fill object no stroke and a stroke object no fill). Not a problem, unless you don’t expect it. These objects were not grouped either. The size, placement, strokes etc., were all completely accurate.

When I opened a PDF made from Illustrator (Preserve Illustrator Editing Capabilities enabled), Intaglio treated the objects as one big object. I went Object > Convert > PDF For Editing and the shapes were available to edit as vector objects. Nice.

I will also mention that Intaglio’s information about sharing files with other applications is useful and clear. A nice little primer.

Lineform

In Lineform you use File > Export… to create different file types. Lineform offers 7 types and you set the export resolution for files containing bitmaps (or file types that are bitmaps) here on export.

Importing into Illustrator revealed the same outcome as Intaglio. The objects were decomposed into separate stroke objects and fills though fidelity was perfectly true.

Opening the PDF created by Illustrator meant having a document already opened and doing a File > Import… where the PDF objects were placed on the canvas a single object. Selecting that and then going Objects > Parse PDF gave me editable object. Sort of. One of the objects proved to be grouped with an invisible page frame but when ungrouped and the page frame deleted, the objects were fully editable vectors.

VectorDesigner

Like Lineform, exporting happens through the File > Export sheet and provides options for 14 different file types not including VectorDesigner’s native format. I selected PDF and then opened it in Illustrator, concluding definitely it must be the way the files are saved that make Illustrator parse the fill and stroke as separate objects. Fidelity was true and the parts fully editable.

I opened the Illustrator made PDF directly with the open command in VectorDesigner and then ungrouped the shapes. Interestingly, VectorDesigner parsed the parts of the shapes making separate elements of fill and stroke. I enabled edit path for them and they were editable in the normal VectorDesigner way.

I also tried importing a PDF to an already open document, making sure Parse file contents was enabled. The result was identical to the Open operation.

ZeusDraw

Export is the Command for creating files other than ZeusDraw native files. ZeusDraw exports 7 file types (5 bitmap and two vector types).

In Illustrator, the objects were true to the originals, but handling them meant going carefully as the parts were grouped as well as made with clipping masks. A pain for the unwary and kind of a hassle for me. I would hate to have to decompose a complex illustration or drawing in this way.

Then came a real disappointment. The objects were rasterized and could only be treated as such in Illustrator.

It wasn’t until I looked in ZeusDraw help that I was able to figure out that I should have deselected Transparent Background when I did the export. Sure enough, the resulting PDF was parsed by Illustrator as a vector based drawing, fully editable.

ZeusDraw couldn’t open the PDF directly so I used File > Import in an open document to get the contents of the Illustrator-made PDF. The artwork was placed on the canvas as a single object. I selected Tools > Convert PDF/PS/EPS To Objects and the objects were converted into ZeusDraw objects. Well, sort of.

In this case the objects selected and deselected as a single item even though I could see their separate strokes. I selected Arrange > Ungroup to get at each one and discovered ZeusDraw handles the objects just as VectorDesigner, separating stroke and fill components.

Summary

The object fill stroke separation is really the only thing you need to be wary of when sharing these files. Make sure that you brief yourself on how these apps import and export so you can make moving files and sharing files easier for yourself and others.

Importing the PDF made by Illustrator proved to be okay, although the use of ‘Parse this object or file’ style commands means you have to be aware of the fact that PDFs need to be translated in order that their component parts be understood.

Also, in doing this part of the article, I was impressed by how many options were concentrated in the save procedure, so you could selectively save out parts of an illustration, the selected objects the area filled by the illustration or the entire page depending on the application. All the apps used sheets and made options available appropriate to the file-type selected which was great.

These apps are pretty much even when it comes to export and import of PDF and I found that the only reason I like ZeusDraw the least was the experience stemming from my misapprehension about what was going on.

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Scripting + plug-ins

I will be frank with you. I don’t program . I wish I did, and I can think logically like a programmer owing to my close friendship with a programmer. So a lot of scripting stuff is just magic thinking to me.

This is not to say that I don’t get it. I do. I created a set of actions in Photoshop for a huge scanning project and worked on automating a lot of a production workflow in one place, but I was always using built-in tools that were essential action recordings that could be saved and replayed.

These are fine as far as they go, so I was interested in seeing if any of these apps implemented Javascript (Adobe apps do in addition to their internal engine), Applescript, or even better for me, Automator.

Intaglio

Intaglio uses the OS Script menu to handle Applescript which also gets it screen recording for free using Script Editor. Intaglio also exposes some very infrequently used commands strictly to Applescript and not to the UI. These include Arrow Scale, Display Resolution (the resolution of the computer screen (in dots/inch)), Initial Window Position, Line Direction (property of a text block), and Undo Levels. Intaglio also allowed me to record macros using Script Editor.

Lineform

This app eposes an AppleScript dictionary for Applescripting capability. The Dictionary appears to be very comprehensive. Unlike Intaglio Lineform didn’t seem to support Script Editor Recording.

VectorDesigner

There doesn’t appear to be any way to automate VectorDesigner. There are no Automator actions, nor is there a Applescript dictionary. No mention in the app’s Help or on their website either.

ZeusDraw

This app is on par with VectorDesigner. Nothing available for Applescript and nothing made for automator. Help didn’t reveal anything and the single forum entry about Applescript revealed that it was not supported but was being considered.

And Automator

As far as I could tell, only Intaglio exposed it’s abilities to Automator, and these were limited to operation relating to bitmap images. Too bad.

Summary

I favour Intaglio’s approach because it allows me direct access to automation tools without programming should I need them, as well as the opportunity to create Applescript plug-ins should I desire. Lineform gets this too, but all of them are a far cry from say, Create 14 which can save files as Applescripts and when run from within Create re-create the original file.

I think this could be more exploitable too as these apps move long their capability curve, they could well become contenders for production environments where scripting is desirable or critical.

None of these apps offered alternatives to Applescript like some other apps provide. Adobe CS3 allows work to be done in Javascript, and Acorn, the image editor from Flying Meat, offers development API which supports Python scripting.

Lastly, lacking scripting support passes on the opportunity to create a user culture and other business opportunities for users and developers.

Help

Getting adjusted to an application always send me to the help files. For those who want to be recognized for their computer skills and application understanding, the Help files are the secret weapon of choice.

Intaglio

The help file shows a hyper-linked graphic of the menu bar and clicking on an item takes you to a help file about the commands in that menu.

Commands not directly available through the menus are covered in a list of topics and a section about the palettes and windows.

The writing is straight-forward and items within are well linked to other parts of the help file. Especially useful was the part about Exchanging Graphics With Other Applications and Scripting Intaglio.

Lineform

This app opens a PDF in Preview which because of it’s nature is searchable and pretty useful though I prefer the hyper-linked environment of the Help system. The advantage here is that the manual is well illustrated with explanatory graphics and is clear and concise.

VectorDesigner

Probably the most concise Help there is. There are four video tutorials which focus on important parts of VectorDesigner and the rest of the items are strictly procedural which is far less valuable that contextual and procedural information in tandem.

ZeusDraw

ZeusDraw’s help displays sections on the left and selecting one of them reveals topic which you can read with a click. The help is well written and provides good contextual information which is very valuable with this iconoclastic application. It has a good rationale for the design decisions and paying the Help close study will illuminate the approach and aid in the use of the tool.

This kind of thing is generally pooh-poohed as being a mark of failing the naive user “intuitive” test. Not only is intuitive not the right word to describe something intuitable, but the idea that any tool should be instantly understandable is foolish. Context and objectives and technical consideration always play a role in creating files and using tools on a computer and they all require learning and practice.

In this case the elaboration is welcome. It was eye-opening and refreshing, and I hope the developer finds some time to share his design ideas with the wider community of developers and users.

Summary

All the Help menus provided an item to open the app’s website in your browser with the exception of ZeusDraw which places the link in the help file.

Overall I liked ZeusDraw’s help the best, Intaglio’s next and the others not really much.

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Tonight’s Verdict

In Tonight’s verdict I am going to choose ZeusDraw as my favourite. Maybe it’s my disposition to apps that are unique and quirky, but I don’t think so. Understanding how it handles PDF and files is useful, it’s major disadvantage of not having layers was addressed during the writing of this review, and it’s original pen tool and brushes were just fantastic. It does take getting used to, but it’s some learning that I found paid well.

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Final ThoughtsThese apps are fine tools, and the newer they are the more original they are, at least in terms of doing vector work.

They run the gamut of traditional to original interfaces, and I am encouraged by VectorDesigner’s use of Mac conventions to make the drawing experience more flexible and of ZeusDraw’s persistent originality. If I was to rank this I would say: ZeusDraw, VectorDesigner in close second. Lineform in third because it’s more traditional although it’s banishment of dialogue boxes was sure welcome, and then Intaglio which falls victim to my dislike of the way things are or have been.

Applescript support would be nice but even better would be a move to support a plug-in community and get supplemental tools into their environments. ZeusDraw might be a technical challenge in the regard, but it’s also the most original and I’d be excited to see what these guys could come up with.

In my current capacity as Creative Director in a small design and web development company, I use Adobe CS3 to ensure cross-platform compatibility in the workflow, but I am always interested in tools with unique capabilities, approaches and features. These apps are worthy contenders for your time and money if you don’t have the obligation to support business workflows, and could even be used in a pinch to bridge to Adobe CS3 workflows if it was necessary.

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Linkage

Here are links to all the apps:

• Intaglio
• Lineform
• VectorDesigner
• ZeusDraw

• Canvas 11 – too expensive
• Cenon – Linux/GNUStep
• Create 14 – too expensive
• DoodleCAD – the website and the wood grain title bars
• EazyDraw – the website is a disaster (and so it the palette frenzy you can see in the screenshots)
• Inkscape – Linux/Unix/Windows
• OmniGraffle – Primarily for diagramming
• Sketsa – Linux/Unix/Windows
• WouldjaDraw – Not quite enough export options, but boy it was close.

The Reference App

Adobe Illustrator CS3

Where information is understood to be, or treated as, a commodity, the perceived value of information institutions like libraries is diminished or dissolved.

If I am correct, it means that the viability of public libraries is definitely in question. Specialised business or professional libraries will face many of the same challenges, but it may take longer for them to see some of the impact because their specialized information is more resistant to commodification.

Commodities are undifferentiated products, usually raw materials or agricultural production, where it’s hard to distinguish my bauxite as being somehow superior to your bauxite.

If information is easily available to me in all manner of mediums and in all kinds of contexts, why do I need a library? If I can expect that information surrounds me and informs me and is essentially a given like air, then why on earth do I need to spend tax money on what it may offer?

It is this very situation that every producer or distributor of commodity product will eventually face as any market matures. And libraries, which have traditionally been distributors of information and information access points will find that people understand them less and less and will feel no urgency to support them, especially where public resources are concerned.

What is different about getting information from a library than getting it from a website I trust on my Blackberry?

If I don’t find unique value in what a library does, then will I believe the assertion that “Libraries Change Lives?” I think not, which is bad for any kind of operation public or private. Your users need to perceive value. And assertions aren’t going to do.

Operating in Commodity Environments

This opens the discussion about operating in commoditized contexts and how any organization should conduct its activity therein.Generally commodity markets are dominated by very large aggregated businesses or operations that have the wherewithal to compete on high volume and low price. The dependent organizations in logistics and shipping and sales and marketing essentially are at the mercy of these large businesses.In spite of this situation small companies in steel, agriculture, and natural resource production, to name a few, compete and thrive. How do they do this?

I think it’s because they practice a few things extremely well: they limit their scope and market, they offer some unique advantage over the usual commodity, and they communicate this very well and with persistence and clarity.The rise of green and organic business focuses on these very things. Products like potatoes and corn are differentiated by clear messaging: no chemicals, no GMO, short transportation chains, high nutrition, local focus. Combined they deliver a value proposition that consumers are very responsive to. This means higher prices and higher margins and a chain of added value in spite of the overall environment. It also means a great deal of opportunity and success for distributors and sellers of such products at all levels in the supply chain.

Note how the entire proposition ties together. The entire value idea is predicated on certain things: that their are no chemical fertilizers, that genetic modifications are not allowed, that the transportation cost is small and it’s impact is minimized. All of these things are social positions with economic and political consequences, yet the success of these businesses relies entirely on taking this position and committing to it from inception to product delivery.

Successful related businesses like food delivery companies and organic wholesale distributors, and food product manufacturers benefit too and also predicate their unique offerings based on these features.So it’s evident by analogy that libraries must analyse their position in the supply chain of information and formulate some set of unique offerings that are perceived to have value by the people they seek to serve.The very choice of these things serves to limit their market scope, which actually gives them a real advantage when offering their products to people. They don’t have to compete in the same volume as other commodity producers and handlers. They don’t have to reach everybody in the same way. They are not relegated to being invisible like many natural resource companies are. They don’t have to settle for a harrowing game of razor-thin profits. Just the very act of choosing this set of things automatically gives them a great deal of viability.

So again, this suggests that in a commodity situation, libraries stand to gain a great deal by choosing their role and focus and identifying exactly the unique nature and value of their offerings.Making these choices also dictates how a library might go about delivering its services in a valuable way. Many parts of the ‘green produce’ supply chain operate as one might expect and are really no different than their non-green counterparts. Things are grown and harvested and processed in some way and shipped and shipped again. What does differ is the amount and method by which any one of these steps happen. transport distances are shorter which means geographical allegiances and time to market become major drivers in the success of these businesses. I submit that if the situation was analysed there are correspondent things that libraries might discover about themselves.

Operational conduct is also abetted by new technologies in commodity markets, and that is something that libraries are in a fair position to capitalize on already as many libraries are already offering a range of digital services, RFID circulation techniques and more. Generally these are user facing services, and I think internal tools could be developed to help libraries operationally in a far greater way than at present.

Communicating Unique

Another critical aspect of delivering service and product in a commodity situation, is the effectiveness of communication.

Again, initial choices define the work that needs to be done. Just as the green production chain focuses on production choices like no GMO, the communications mandate is to express that fact as a value to potential customers. Initially it’s simply drawing attention the that fact, but soon after it becaomes a message about real whole food improving your life without any unknown or unintended consequences. The communication objectives are defined and kept clear by the narrow focus of the activity.

Communications in these environments also can focus on things other than statistical data and enumeration. Libraries live and die on statistics, but I am not convinced it must be so, or if it must be, that the same set of statistics need to be used.

The focus on the things that are different, and thereby valuable, becomes the greatest communication content. And when delivering unique ideas, it is a far easier task to engage people, get reaction, make an impression than delivering the same old statistical information. It also make original expression the norm which further distinguishes your situation, and set you far apart from other commodity producers and handlers.

Libraries do not have a great deal of expertise in this, and it seems to me to be generally denigrated within librarianship. In my experience, communications functions have served primarily to support programming activity at the expense of stratgic relevance and branding opportunity and also a the expense of internal communication.

There is a great deal of opportunity here for libraries to get the news out that they’re not playing the commodity game

Experience My Commodity

The PC industry experienced commditization in relatively short order, and the general swing from IBM PC to generically supplied parts integration producers created a culture of sales by specification and focus on the teated performance of component parts. Attempts by Dell and Gateway (large PC commodity aggregators and distributors) to penetrate the lifestyle market through retail failed abjectly. Their very nature as companies dedicated to competing on slim margins and impressive price to performance ratios worked against them when trying to engage consumers in their hearts and living rooms. Sony has had a much easier time of it, stying in retail than these two corporations, and Apple Inc, even more success by focusing entirely on their users experience of every device they make and how it is sold and packaged.

In a commodity situation, the uniqueness of your value proposition cannot be overstated enough and simple advertising and marketing activities will not suffice. The entire chain of experience by your user, customer or patron must convey that uniqueness. The experience that a user has is opening a box, or reading the manual or even that there is a manual all are telling things about the thinking behind that item. In a world of commodity PCs, Dell needed to purchase Alienware in order to get any panache or indiviuality into their product line at all. And Alienware, who were in the same business as Dell, building PC systems on-demand for their customers) had succeeded in the commodity market only because they chose a focused market (gamers) to serve with focused products (high performance gaming machines) in a unique way (Alien allusions and product design and marketing), in spite of cost.

Apple reatil stores thrive and continue to expand their operations because they aren’t retail stores. They’re purchasing exeriences, with products on offer that let you get the features and functionality that other commodity PC and electronics manufacturers offer, but as part of a unique and positive experience.

I think that libraries would do well to study and adopt these crucial lessons.

Making the LeapIn most circumstances, the entire commodity proposition that libraries will confront will be trying, and publicly funded institutions will be hard pressed to change their culture and their outlook to stand out and be valuable in these contexts.

I would venture that by-in-large public libraries will find themselves on the defensive in upcoming years and will be working with shrinking budgets and ever diminishing public interest and support. And while I have used private sector models to draw my analogy, I don’t believe that public-private-partnerships are the solution. Rather I believe that design thinking with an eye to creating unique value and delivering it from promise to experience holds the key to library survival in an increasingly commoditized environment.

They’re all getting better.

Some are getting rotate tools and fixing bugs and others are inventing whole new ways of making pictures.

Like this: DrawIt 3.3 Sneak Preview

Did you see that?

I love that.

This DrawIt app is trailblazing.

I mentioned in Image is Everything that one of things I frequently do is crop photographs and artwork. For me this is a regular task because I need to find ways of keeping old and over-used photos as fresh as possible. Yes, I know there are limits to this, and my team is on track to get this addressed as the new year rolls around, but for now it’s a must.

You might also recall that I really like the compositional grids in the crop tools in Acorn and Pixelmator.

Well, I just found a great little tool called FrameAway.

Essentially this app creates a compositional grid overlay over any application window and then using a simple Control-Command-T shortcut you can work directly with the application under the grid.

So you can open a photo, bring up FrameAway, drag a compositional grid, position it, invoke the key command then use your app’s crop tool to make the crop.

Pretty cool, but do you need it if you’re already using Acorn or Pixelmator? Maybe not, though FrameAway does offer some alternative grids as well as the Rule of Thirds (which are used by both Pixelmator and Acorn) including: Golden Thirds, Nautilus Spiral, and two variants of Golden Diagonal. You can also create and add your own grids using Lua. I haven’t tried this yet but I could imagine being useful if you needed a special grid for your publishing work or something. Or just fun to goof around with. There are three already at FrameAway’s plugin site.

There’s no reason to limit your use to cropping assistance. You can use it to help you compose layouts and artwork too.

FrameAway has a single Inspector (in the HUD style) which displays the work through toggle command, Frame Type menu, Aspect Ratio menu and a selection size read-out. Preferences is a dead-simple control for the colour and opacity (labelled as ‘Alpha’) of the area outside of the selection. Help sends you to the workflow page at the FrameAway website which is clear and useful.

Nice touches include a Command-U shortcut that toggles through various measurement units (pixels, inches and mm), Simple key-strikes to rotate or flip the frame, and to toggle through frame types. Sparkle is here too for updates.

You need to license the app to access Preferences and make the shareware stuff disappear.

For me, cropping all day long, the price is measly (18.55CAD) and the transaction easily handled through Kagi (which give you a PayPal option).

Rough Edges? Sure, but they’re really minor. Use the word Opacity instead of Alpha. Refer to the Command key as Command not Mac, especially now that the Apple is gone and it wasn’t ever Mac to begin with. Trying to connect to the Kagi store from within the app didn’t work for me, but going to the FrameAway site and clicking ‘Buy a license’ worked just great.

If you’re a designer or photographer, and your current tools don’t have compositional grids, then this is a super app to add to your arsenal.

Linkage

FrameAway
Goodbye Apple, hello command
Lua

Well, here we go. I just found about about this.

I think I’m going to have to buy Leopard and get it installed post haste. Looks like a nice approach to the UI thing too.

If you’re a Leopard user and try this before me, let me know! I’d love to hear about your experience.

(Brandon (?) I didn’t know how to get a hold of you about the image I have used above. Your stuff looks great. Anyway if you’d rather I not use it I will of course remove it -Your Host) 

A few weeks ago with the release of Pixelmator, I dashed off a few first impressions comparing it to Acorn, a new contender in the Mac OS X image editing softscape. Since those first impressions, I have been giving a lot of thought to this, and other graphics and image processing applications have come to my attention. So here’s the scoop.

I want to be clear up front: I won’t be comparing the applications’ feature lists exhaustively in the article. I am also going to concentrate on some major items that are always requirements for me. That means I’ll miss some that are critical for you. And I’ll be concentrating on the UI and the behaviour of these apps, because that’s where we spend the most time. Little things that get short shrift in other reviews like application and document icons will be covered.

Testing

My test platform is my aging, but much loved, PowerBook 17 G4 1.5 with 2 GB RAM and an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700. I am not using benchmarks at all, and any time I mention how fast something is it’s a subjective measure. I should mention I am a professional Graphic Designer, and I spend a lot of time in Adobe Creative Suite 3 Design Premium, but I am not an extreme Photoshop professional. I don’t use a tablet. I am always on the lookout for new interesting software with an eye to improving my efficiency and capabilities.

The test image is one that I have taken with my Samsung NV3. The image is a relatively slow exposure taken on a city bus on my way to work one morning. I will be handling the picture in its original format: JPEG, 3072 × 2304, 3.2 MB. This camera doesn’t output RAW files. The photo is stashed in iPhoto ‘08 (v. 7.1). There are a lot of undefined edges, reflected colours and halos.

I’ll be running these apps with a few others open, a typical scenario with me. In addition to the usual suspects I’ll be running Activity Monitor and checking in periodically to see what the state of things are. Often I am running some CS3 apps too, but for this I’m not going to because I just think it will be a pain.

I am running these apps when testing:

• Finder
• Terminal
• Mail
• iCal
• iChat
• iTunes
• Safari
• Coda
• TextMate
• Scrivener
• Yojimbo
• Linotype FontExplorer X
• Address Book
• CSSEdit
• Version Cue CS3 running in the background
• Snapz Pro X running in the background

Selection Criteria

The comments for The New Wave were excellent, and there were some good suggestions for other programs that one might compare. I have chosen to limit this article to comparing three applications. They are: Pixelmator, Acorn and DrawIt. I selected these programs because they are all native Mac OS X applications, they all use Core Image, and they all exemplify a fundamentally different approach to making an image editor.

This last criteria, is extremely important. One of the most major features of any application is its UI. It’s often overlooked, especially because many UIs have become homogenized over the years. Usually one word processor looks and acts pretty much like another. There are of course many advantages to this state of affairs especially when it comes to learning new programs. The downside is that it stifles innovative tools and features,because they may not be able to be expressed clearly using the current UI model.

The exciting thing about these programs is that they exhibit a range of thought and approach, that demonstrates the diversity and originality that’s possible, even within a consistent OS interface.

Focus + Stated Goals

Let’s take a look at how each of the contenders bill themselves.

Acorn

A simple and easy to use image editor, built for the 21st century.

Acorn is a new image editor built with one goal in mind – simplicity. Fast, easy, and fluid, Acorn provides the options you’ll need without any overhead. Acorn feels right, and won’t drain your bank account.

Don’t let Acorn’s size fool you; it’s a powerful little guy. Fancy math to keep your pencil strokes from having sharp edges, squeezing as much performance out of your computer’s GPU as possible, and simple innovations to make your life easier.

DrawIt

Drawing and Illustrating for the Mac

DrawIt is not your typical image-editor. It does not fill up your window with lots of pallets you don’t use but instead presents with just one simple and clean window. Nevertheless, DrawIt packs an impressive feature-list into this single window. DrawIt is layer-based, has a powerful vector-drawing tool, incredible support for masks and much, much more.

Pixelmator

Instruments to join the creative world

Pixelmator, the beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editor for Mac OS X has everything you need to create, edit and enhance your images.

So that’s pretty clear Acorn = Simplicity, DrawIt = Not Typical, Pixelmator = Beautiful + Easy.

It would be obvious to compare the programs’ feature lists which would be a disservice to all of us. Instead I am going to concentrate on the experience of using these applications, and focus on doing some of typical things with my photo, things that should be easy to accomplish. This should demonstrate how the applications’ UIs work, and the facility with which things can be accomplished.

Installation

Installation is as simple as we’d expect. Download the app and drag it to the /Applications folder to install it.

Updating

Each program makes use of the Sparkle module for update functionality, and enables it with a selected by default check for updates choice in their preferences.

In my test I had an earlier copy of DrawIt not yet installed, which I installed and ran, and experienced the typical Update Available window that Sparkle enabled apps show. Worked like a charm as expected, though sometimes I wish I could set the app to update at the end of a session, rather than the beginning.

Icons

The Finder icon is an important part of any application. Developers who get it spend some time and money on their program’s primary icon and those who care spend on the entire icon family.

Icons have a lot of things to do. They need to stand out in crowded docks, convey enough information about the app that a user may make an educated guess about what it does, convince prospective users that the application is indeed of professional quality, and assure existing users that their money is well spent and they remain in good hands. This applies to icons inside the application, as well as the files or object icons that result from using an application.

Acorn

Acorn’s Finder icon, is appropriately enough, an Acorn. Cartoony, and not too far off the mark, it’s simple and attractive. It also resides in the brown part of the palette and is a unique enough shape that it does pretty well for itself in the dock. That it doesn’t reveal what it’s intended for is too bad, but then neither do others ( Photoshop -indeed all the CS 3 apps- Coda, Skype, there are probably quite a few…), and I don’t think it’s fatal.

But it’s shiny. It’s dipped in plastic. An Acorn. Dipped in plastic. What about something not so plastic like Coda’s nice leaf icon?

Acorn’s files are typical document icons. Acorn displays the Finder icons in the Open and save dialogue boxes. If you select Option + Acorn > Preferences, you can set Acorn to save a thumbnail image icon.

The UI icons are pretty good. I’d rather the Paint bucket wasn’t lying in the spilled paint, but with this single exception, these icons work well, although we’ll see some problems a little later on with some of these.

DrawIt

The Finder icon is a box of crayons on some paper, and while not the most original concept there is distinction here that it works very well in my dock. It also observes the idea of using a drawing implement and a page to indicate its purpose and stay close to the HIG for application icons. It’s kind of crazy though. I was looking at it and realized that the crayon box only holds three crayons and there the black crayon on the page with no place in the box. But the thing is I like it and it does it’s job.

DrawIt documents appear as normal document icons with the DrawIt crayons and label on them. Other file types display as their default application icon. Open and save dialogue boxes display whatever the Finder displays.

The UI icons are very attractive and are well designed. They look best on the large size setting.

Pixelmator

Paintbrush. Okay. Paint drops. Yep, they even use those as their favicon. Board. Palette? Hmmm. Maybe. Photograph. Okay fair enough. Definitely orange. A lot like iPhoto and probably intentionally so. But I’m getting ahead of myself. It works well, though I do a double-take when iPhoto and Pixelmator are open at the same time.

Pixelmator document icons are regular documents with the orange photo from its Finder icon attached and a label indicating file type. Pixelmator attaches it’s icon to file types like .pxm.

UI icons are nicely made and well drawn. Except for the fact that black tools just DON’T SHOW UP OVER A BLACK (or almost black) background and are hard to target and hard to check even when they’re popped out. You really have to focus to get the Move tool or Crop tool.

Startup

Opening the app with no image. I’m counting icon bounces in the dock for timing.

Acorn

Acorn opened to palette and its startup window in 9 bounces (a single bounce is both up and down). The Acorn startup window is simple: Start a new image or open an image. Selecting New Image displays a dialogue box for pixel dimensions of your new graphic, your desired resolution and background colour which can be Transparent, Black or White. If there’s an image on the clipboard the From Clipboard button will be enabled. It’s a nice touch. Selecting ‘Open Image’ displays a regular Finder open dialogue box. you can disable the startup window in the window itself or in Acorn > Preferences…

Note: Acorn uses about 40MB on launch without an image opened.

DrawIt

DrawIt opens in three bounces. The app’s window opens and a sheet pops out for setting width and height with and background colour. The default background is Transparent. Clicking to change the colour opens the Mac OS X Colors inspector. Click Okay to begin or Cancel to dismiss the window (like a good Mac OS X citizen DrawIt remains open on window close).

Note: DrawIt uses about 32 MB on launch without an image opened.

Pixelmator

Palettes, erm, I mean (cough) HUDs (cough) begin opening at bounce 9 but the app isn’t fully launched until bounce 11. I got the update notification to 1.01 on my first launch today which I decided to install. This update fixed issues with the wand, and adds support for opening CMYK files, and more which I couldn’t read about because the scroll bar in the Software Update HUD didn’t work. Neither did the thumbs or my mouse wheel. It also wouldn’t take any click on the control buttons (Skip this version, Remind Me Later, or Install update). Even after switching to Scrivener to write this, the HUD stayed on top of everything. Interestingly, while I was taking the screenshot, the Startup Window was apparently loading in the background behind everything else. When the screenshot saved, the Startup window was interleaved with other windows and behind the Software Update HUD, but wasn’t accessible either. Clicking on the HUD made everything look like the screenshot again.

By Command clicking between Scrivener and Pixelmator, I got the startup window to the top and dismissed it then the Software Update ran. Sparkle of course works as advertised. The 1.0.1 update is almost 30MB big.

(Music plays while update is completed etc.)

Okay, the update is done and it installs and relaunches Pixelmator if I want it. I do that.

Let’s go again. This time HUDs begin opening at bounce 6 but it still takes 11 bounces before the app is launched and the Welcome window displays. It’s swooshy, with the titles and options doing a really great Keynote-style build-in. Looks freakin’ awesome. I quit the app and started it again (this time 3 bounces to the first HUD and 7 to launch – and no I hadn’t found the Help > Welcome Screen… menu item yet). I can Create a New Image, Open Existing Image or Start Using Pixelmator. I can select to not open the window at startup. Create New Image will open a dialogue box familiar to any Photoshop user. But it’s hard to read. Open Existing Image displays the usual Open dialogue box, and Start Using Pixelmator dismisses the Welcome window and puts me in the app as expected.

Note: Pixelmator uses about 62 MB of memory on launch with no image opened.

Summary

Note to everybody: Make the text labels next to selectors in dialogue boxes clickable. It’s just nice manners. Acorn’s Startup window allows this, to my great relief.

In Acorn there’s no need for a ‘Start Using Acorn’ button when a window control will do the trick. But my favourite is DrawIt. It’s fast and doesn’t mess around. Bam! The app opens, and gets you started on an image right away. That’s a nice use of sheets. The added benefit is that you can ignore it and just do a Command + O.

DrawIt’s got this nailed down and Acorn does pretty well too. Pixelmator isn’t that far off the mark, but the little things like non-selectable labels and the team’s choice to HUDify already shows weakness because they have to add a new control to make something happen that they could have got for free like Acorn did, or entirely dispense with like DrawIt.

My bias is for Acorn’s proposition, but I have to say that DrawIt is compelling and wins me over.

UI

Well this is where we really get into it. The UI is where you’re getting things done and it’s where the differing approaches of these apps really becomes pronounced. This isn’t trivial. It’s all important. I’m going to spend a lot of words here and come back to these points later while we explore some of the tools.

Acorn

Welcome to the future. It’s a single palette that cleverly combines the toolbox, tool options and layers. Menu commands seem well placed, but in an unconventional move the tool menu items are under View. Do we view Tools? I guess in a sense. The tools all have keyboard shortcuts. In fact Acorn is thoroughly shortcutted and smartly done. Filters don’t have shortcuts however, but more on this later. In addition to the single tools palette, Acorn uses Mac OS X’s colour panel and font panel. A sound move from a development and UI consistency point-of-view, but also a pain in the ass for finer type controls.

Acorn has comprehensive Help that’s clear and concise too.

For the most part, the tools work as I expect them to but I immediately miss the ability to drag control handles and rotate selections and layers as I do in Photoshop. This is actually quite a big deal to me because it’s very common for me to want to straighten and crop or rotate a layer so it looks better in the piece I am creating.

The zoom tool is easily lost because it has no white or light areas.

Note: Opening the 3.2 MB test file caused Acorn to use over 200 MB of real memory.

Closing Acorn released memory but only down to 62 MB holding on to 30 MB.

DrawIt

DrawIt’s UI is clear and obvious. It owes its approach to iWork and siblings and it shows. There’s a single window, panels attached on both the right and left and a great set of toolbar icons at the top.

The fascinating thing about this app is its conception of tools and objects. In DrawIt, EVERYTHING is a layer. I’ll repeat that. Everything is a layer. Drawing tools are layers. Images are layers. The objects you draw are layers. The masks you make are layers within a layer. There are a set of tools and they are specifically bitmap editing tools that you use to directly change the pixels in an image. Otherwise you’re working with layers.

To draw something you select Insert in the toolbar and select the kind of layer you want. Click inside the image area and you’ll be drawing. When you like what you have you press Return and you’re off to the next task leaving an object on a layer behind.

Understandably, the entire left panel is dedicated to layers. The right panel offers different options depending on the object selected and whether or not a filter is applied.

There are a couple of nice touches too: like the gear menu under the toolbar. The gear icon functions as a toggle. In one setting it shows you which object is selected in a chain of items. In the other is shows you tool hints options and settings. Objects in a group can be easily identified and selected using DrawIt’s Expose feature which, like Apple’s Exposé, reveals all the items stacked atop one another allowing you to select the correct one visually. This is really cool.

Right off the bat I had trouble trying to close paths when I was drawing with the vector layer/tool (hmmm that’s interesting, what should I call them?) until I realized that closing was a tool option and there was a toggle switch. I am not yet sure if I like this, but I don’t hate it.

Note: Opening the 3.2 MB test file caused DrawIt to use over 86 MB of real memory.

Closing the image in DrawIt released memory but only down to 83 MB.

Pixelmator

Pixelmator presents an interface that’s just plain nice to look at. It’s very dressy and the palettes in presents will be familiar to anybody who uses or has used Photoshop. I should qualify that by saying Photoshop 7 or earlier, before docked panels became the norm. There’s a toolbox two columns wide, a brushes palette along with the usual suspects: a swatches palette, a layers palette and a tool options palette. There are a few others like gradients and mask in the View menu.

At this level, things feel and act pretty much like Photoshop. The dark palettes however, make working with dark colours and tools difficult. Selecting tools in the toolbox makes them pop-out which is a nice touch, but this isn’t sufficient to help a user find the dark coloured tools like Move, Crop, Magic Wand and Zoom. Adding a new swatch also shows a subtle shift from Photoshop. In the gradients and masks palettes, Pixelmator pops open a sheet with a caution stripe across the top, and provides the tool or option to name the item. I think this is good because the sheets keep the interaction non-modal which is something that I absolutely loathe in Photoshop.

Keyboard shortcuts mimic Photoshop too.

Note: Opening the 3.2 MB test file caused Pixelmator to use over 200 MB of real memory. Closing Pixelmator released memory but only down to 85 MB holding on to just over 20 MB.

Summary

Acorn has chosen a novel path with a single palette which I think is great. DrawIt is taking an iWork approach, and by merging the ideas of tool and layer is simplifying making things happen. Pixelmator’s differences are superficial in the main except for the implementation of sheets for tool and options in the palettes which is just fantastic.

My bias is for Acorn’s approach, but DrawIt is growing on me. Pixelmator’s palette sheets are great but only enough to qualify as a nice improvement over Photoshop. I appreciate the touches that Pixelmator brings, but floating palettes all over the place, HUD style or not is just such a pain.

Full Screen Mode

Editing in full screen can be a real pleasure and all the programs have the capability.

Acorn

Click the tiny full screen toggle icon at the bottom of the tool palette or press the F key, or select View > Full Screen. I commented in The New Wave, that I wished the bright background in full screen mode could be dialed back, and Gus Mueller, Acorn’s dev, responded suggesting I hold down Option and select Preferences. This showed some extra preferences which have been kept hidden for simplicity’s sake, including the option to change the colour of the background. That’s a big help.

The menu bar is available when you jam your pointer to the top of the screen.

In full screen mode, the status bar at the bottom of an image is still displayed along with the scaling slider. The tool palette’s opacity is reduced too, which is a considerate piece of detailing.

DrawIt

Pressing the F key, selecting View > Full Screen in the menu toggles the view. The attached panels become floating palettes in this view, the toolbar, gear bar and menu bar disappear and aren’t available until you return to normal view. The colour of the background is available in the Preferences, under the Colours tab.

Pixelmator

Command + F places you in full screen mode. Palettes stay visible and the menu bar is available with the pointer to the top of the screen.

Preferences

Acorn

One of the simplest preference panels I’ve seen in a long time, Acorn offers seven options grouped in 5 groups. Selecting the Optional Preferences (Option + Acorn > Preferences) offers an additional six grouped into 5 categories. For some reason the keyboard equivalent to get to the optional preferences doesn’t work. You have to select from the menu. Acorn’s Preferences are intentionally simple because that was one of the design principles that Gus Mueller used for developing Acorn.

You can set Acorn to show the startup window, remember which documents were open, make a new layer for shapes and keep those shapes selected, automatically check for updates, set a keyboard shortcut for taking screenshots and set an image format for file actions. Optionally, you can set the full screen background colour, the height of the rows for each layer in the tool palette, suppress the layers warning when saving files that don’t support layers, create a thumbnail icon of the document and hide the canvas border.

DrawIt

Probably the most comprehensive of the bunch, DrawIt’s preferences are displayed in a standard Preferences panel beginning with the General Tab. Default styles comes next and allows you to make settings that will automatically be applied to you layer objects when you make them. Colours comes next which offers settings for visual presentation various things like groups and Expose. Placeholders is the last tab and is another innovation that employs a common word-processing feature where variables or tags (such as current date and page number) can automatically be substituted with other information. This makes inserting unique variables into a template easy and consistent.

Pixelmator

A simple three tabbed preference window, Pixelmator allows you to change 5 settings. I rather suspect that this window will become quite full over time. In General you can have Pixelmator startup with the Welcome window or do nothing; set the contents of a new image to White, Black or Transparent. Under transparency you can set the grid size and darkness and under Updates you can enable or disable checking for updates as well as check now. 6 settings. Not 5. I stand corrected.

Summary

As these programs develop, these settings will become far more extensive except in the case of Acorn which will stay as lean as possible given Gus’ stated design goal. I hope that all the apps keep tool options and the like in the active part of the UI and don’t banish them here.

Layers

All of these applications support layers, which is great. DrawIt takes it all the way and shows us that layers objects and tools can be one, which I just can’t help but be pleased about.

The difference from other approaches is subtle. I think the specificity of each and every thing being it’s own part exposed in the layer tree just makes sense to me.

Fast Image Creation

I take screenshots or use art from one file and copy it to the clipboard to use in another piece of art. My preferred screenshooting app is Snapz Pro X which I find extremely useful as it can save shots to the clipboard, send to e-mail, send to a printer, save a file of many types into pretty much any location and generally read my mind. And make movies.

So it’s set a pretty high standard which I don’t expect these apps to match. What I hope to find is that these apps are a handy alternative or a useful option for people who don’t have or use Snapz Pro X.

Acorn

Acorn offers a couple of useful alternatives here. You can start Acorn and select New From Clipboard in the startup window. If that’s disabled or you’re already up and running in Acorn you can select Command + Option + N or File > New From Clipboard for the same option. You can also create new images from selections using File > New From Selection. So it’s already pretty handy.

If Acorn is running, you can press Command + Shift + 6 and Acorn will offer a selection frame which you can adjust. Pressing Return will take a screenshot and open it immediately in Acorn for editing. It’s a very nice touch, and makes some options for touching up screenshots a bit handier than Snapz Pro.

DrawIt

File > New from Clipboard or Command + Shift + N is there which is great. DrawIt doesn’t have a startup screen or Welcome Window so the option is missing from those places.

Pixelmator

This app isn’t as obvious in its support for making new images from the clipboard, but it is there. Just like in Photoshop, the New… dialogue box come pre-populated with the dimension of the image on the clipboard. So in Pixelmator you can handily do this action. Not surprising behaviour here at all.

Summary

I am glad I had a chance to revisit and check out my suspicion that Pixelmator would pattern Photoshop for this functionality. Acorn has the best features in this task, and they’re handy and well done.

Rotate

Well here we go starting to manipulate the image. I am not trying to create any one thing or design, I just want to do something common.

Acorn

The question of whether or not you could freely rotate objects, images or layers in Acorn came up frequently in the comments in The New Wave and the only answer is: Yes you can. Sort of. In Acorn you can rotate the canvas in 90˚ increments clockwise or counter-clockwise. You can do the same with a layer as well as flip it across its horizontal or vertical axis. It’s there, just not that free. Selecting a layer then going to the Layer > Transform Selection menu item seems promising, but doesn’t allow me to rotate the layer freely. So now comes the fun part.

You can go to the menus and select Filter > Geometry Adjustment > Affine Transform which will get you the controls you need to rotate your image. There are several problems with this. Setting your origin moves the origin corner (lower left) to that location. It’s NOT setting a new origin co-ordinate within the image extent, but moving the origin to that co-ordinate. Using the Rotate wheel would be great, but it’s tiny so typing numbers becomes necessary. This is a pain especially because you can’t up or down arrow to adjust the value. This is further compounded by the fact that the origin for the Affine calculation remains staunchly in the lower left so you can’t select a point around which to transform.

So that’s not so fun, but it gets worse, because filter operations in Acorn happen in a dialogue box. Now the nice thing is that operations can be chained together in a nifty display like setting up an Automator Action. You can preview the effect live or display dialogue box preview if you prefer. So that stuff is all right, but after getting so clear and clever with the single toolbox approach, I think that dumping me in a big filter box is kind of surprising. I thought perhaps there would be a Filter section in the toolbox with a node view and pop out sheets on the nodes for options like in Shake, keeping everything in one palette. But alas it was not to be.

Doing simple rotations in Acorn is just too difficult. I must be missing something. Please tell me I am.

DrawIt

All right. Select an object or layer, Press Command + R, grab a corner and rotate. You can freely rotate around the objects centre point, but there’s no way to change that, and there’s also no numeric read-out or input to gauge or finely regulate a rotation. This is far better than Acorn, but obviously could be better.

Pixelmator

Pixelmator offers the usual 90˚ clock- and counter-clock wise rotations, flips etc. and also offers Edit > Transform > Rotate. This places control handle on the corners and displays a small readout with the rotation value and a confirm (√) or cancel (X) button. You can specify or get a read-out to two decimal places, but it doesn’t do math like a lot of the dialogues in Adobe CS do. I love entering values like 90/17 and have the application calculate the result. There’s no keyboard shortcut and also no apparent way to change the operation’s origin point. So it’s centre point or nothing.

Summary

I have to admit to some pretty serious disappointment here. Doing rotations on an object or image seems to me such a basic function that I am flabbergasted that none of these tools get it all the way. Am I missing something? As it stands at the time of this writing, Pixelmator handles this the best, but a settable origin would be nice. DrawIt is a close second and I can’t discuss Acorn becuase it makes me cry, and I get embarrassed when I cry.

Free Transform

By free transform, I mean the ability to select an object, layer or image and conduct any number of operations on it like rotation, skewing, distorting, scaling or enveloping.

Acorn

So the fact that you have to go to the Filters menu and select an appropriate filter for this set of operations, isn’t so much a problem for me. It’s selecting the correct filter, then learning how to use it and seeing as how some of the filter option panels are, um, shall we say, uh, less than intuitive, its becomes a pain rather quickly. I understand that introducing all the great things that Core Image offers is a real challenge and probably strains the resources of an indy developer in terms of time and/or money. I wonder though, if restraint isn’t the better part of valour.

So for transformations like we’re discussing you have to hit Filter > Geometry Adjustment and then sort yourself out. Filters are complex enough that I’m not going to get into them here, suffice to say that you’ll want to have some time to figure things out, so don’t try if you’re in a hurry for any reason.

DrawIt

Select an object or layer and you’ll see typical selection handles on the corners and side. Drag to scale. Press Command + R and rotate. Beyond that though, there doesn’t seem to be any way to skew or distort an object.

Pixelmator

Probably the most diverse set of options in this respect, Edit > Transform gets you a fair Photoshop like list of transformations: Scale, Rotate, Skew, Distort, Perspective; Rotate 180˚, Rotate 90˚ CW, Rotate 90˚ CCW; Flip Horizontal, Flip Vertical.

There don’t appear to be keyboard shortcuts, but I couldn’t believe it and went looking in Help. No joy. There are none. The tools work as expected which is nice, but not all of them have a numeric readout.

Summary

Disappointment again. I’d expect to see the selection handles behave more directly. Selected objects should be able to be freely rotated and messed with with a la lot of round tripping to the menu bar or goofing around in complex dialogue boxes.

So, pretty slim pickings here except for Pixelmator which has the works and just needs refinement. Perhaps in time these apps will include easy to use, combined transformation tools.

Crop

Cropping is pretty common in my world, because I take hasty pictures. I’m also interested in trying to extract new visual impact from tired old pictures that people have seen over and over again (in my job, I have a limited selection of photos in the approved library) so cropping is one of my favourite methods to create dramatic and useful images.

In Photoshop, the crop to allows me to select a size, position and rotation with one selection box and then upon pressing enter I can Crop and Rotate in one fell swoop. I thought in iPhoto the tool was much the same, but with the addition of a compositional grid for lining up horizontals or verticals in the image with the rotation capability and then cropping and rotating. I looked, but then it was iPhoto ’08 and I just don’t remember what came before. Maybe it was Aperture or Lightroom, which I only used beta or trial versions of and no longer have available.

I expect the crop tool to operate in this way, so let’s se what we’ve got.

Acorn

Selecting the Crop tool (Tools Palette > Move > Crop) allows me to drag a selection box over the image. Compositional Grid! Yay! Information about the selection is displayed in the middle of the selection. The information is the coordinates of the top left and bottom right corner and also has a tip for Crop tool use. Okay, so far so good. But the selection can’t be rotated and the fact that I need to do some mental arithmetic to figure out how many pixels high and wide my selection is… well let’s just say my head gets all noisy. This tool would be a lot better if it had height and width displays on it like the Frames feature in xScope. I like the compositional grid though. Even though it disappears a moment after positioning, it’s a great help in visualizing the outcome.

DrawIt

It was deceptively simple. Select a layer. Press enter. Select Format > Crop Layer from the menu bar or press Command + K. This is the point where I got confused so I’ll explain this to you. You will see a light blue outline around the layer. There are no selection handles but clicking and dragging will set the crop frame on the layer. The crop selection is rectangular and can’t be rotated. The layer can be rotated, but the crop selection stays orthogonal to the canvas. It’s pretty weird because dragging the crop selection edge will adjust the crop on the rotated layer, orthogonal to the layer. Pressing Return will accept the adjustments. A nice thing about DrawIt’s Crop tool is that it’s entirely non-destructive and you can go back and adjust your crop any time.

In DrawIt, it seems far more useful to use a mask and a layer rotation to ‘crop’ an image.

Pixelmator

If you can find the Crop tool in the toolbox and get it over your image, and click and drag Pixelmator displays a compositional grid and some selection handles. The Tool Options palette allows you to discard the cropped information or just hide it if you want it in the future. Nice enough, but again, rotation doesn’t apply. Pressing Return commits the changes.

Summary

I appreciate the non-destructive nature of Pixelmator’s and DrawIt’s crop tools. I like the compositional grid in Acorn and Pixelmator, but I’d love to see some rotation so I could kill two birds with one stone. DrawIt’s tools seem to be focused on creating and not editing, though with a little planning the result would be perfectly decent. The offerings of Acorn and Pixelmator are both adequate, though the extra palette for Pixelmator’s tool is a small mark against. I like its display better though, so it’s a wash.

Adding rotation and more appropriate information in context would help all of these out.

Undo

A long time ago, when RAM was scarce and expensive, Photoshop had a limit to the number of undos it could offer. As time went by some good design changes and generally massive increase in RAM availability eventually led to Photoshop offering unlimited undos.

This is a good thing, especially for pursuing experimental approaches and being able to back out of poor design decisions.

Noticeable in all of these applications are no limits to the number of undos except that of RAM that the application is allowed to use or address.

In all cases Command + Z and Command + Shift + Z are the Undo and Redo combinations.

Acorn

The commands work as anticipated, but there’s no information about the operation that it’s currently undoing.

DrawIt

The commands work as anticipated, but there’s no information about the operation that it’s currently undoing.

Pixelmator

Pixelmator kindly indicates which operation you will be undoing if you care to use the Edit > Undo menu, displaying ‘Undo Pencil’ for example. Nice!

Selections and Masking

These two things are little less important to me than they are to many of you out there in ReaderLand, so I am going to try to do these without getting impossibly deep. I’m simply going to try to select the advertisement that’s stuck to the ceiling of the bus in a quick and reasonably accurate way. I’ll give each a couple of tries with a different approach.

Acorn

Acorn’s selection tools are pretty typical, but lack a polygonal lasso or a magnetic lasso. The magic wand works as expected and higher tolerance settings include more of the picture. I like Acorn’s choice of using Escape as the deselect command as well as Command + D which has annoyed me forever.

My initial attempt is using the Freehand Lasso tool. It feels like it’s a cross between a regular lasso and a magnetic lasso. If I dragged slowly it seemed like it was trying to find colour to snap to. Maybe that’s an illusion, because I had to drag slowly to see the selection I was making. I dragged an outline carefully around the ad. It took a minute I would guess.

My next attempt I decided I’d select a lot of the area with the Rectangle Select tool Then add as much as I could to the selection using any of the others except Magic Wand. I followed Acorn’s Help, holding down Shift to add to the selection, but this had the added effect of constraining the selection to a square when I was using the rectangle Select tool. I finally figured it out though. Hold down shift before you click to add to the selection, then click and begin to drag. Release the Shift key and you select a regular rectangle of any size. This wasn’t working so well just in terms of time and accuracy. After I made the larger selections I zoomed in and tried making finer edge selections using the lasso Selection tool, but the results were no better than my previous lasso attempt.

As an alternative I added a layer over the image and selected a bright green flood fill. I put the opacity of the layer at about 30%. Then I selected the erase tool and erased the fill over the poster. This was a pretty nice way to do a Quick Mask, and the results were pretty good. I selected the empty pixels and turned off the layer, leaving the poster shape selected, I was able to select the image layer and copy out the poster. With a little more care, and judicious brush selection, this could have been improved, but I felt much more in control than just using the lasso.

DrawIt

Because DrawIt is primarily a drawing program, and further, is based on layers, there is a distinction made between layer tools and bitmap tools. Bitmap tools are used specifically to select pictures within a rasterized layer. As a consequence DrawIt has only a rectangular select tool and a magic wand tool for selections.

Does this mean that DrawIt’s selection capabilities are less than stellar? I tried selecting the poster in the test photo.

I tried using the Magic Wand tool, but to increase its tolerance was to decrease its usefulness. The photo has a lot of different colours and some occur within other colour fields. This proved to be challenging (and would be for any application). I tried the rectangular select tool, but without a lasso or a polygon selector this just wasn’t going to cut it.

I changed my approach. First I added a layer and flood filled it much as I did in Acorn. I could select Fill and turn it on in the Attributes panel, but then it wasn’t erasable. The eraser tool has a softness setting which was a big help in doing this. I found myself wishing for the capability to swiftly zoom in and out and have a hand tool to move the canvas during this task. Then I remembered my mouse wheel Up Down and Shift + Up and Down had me scrolling around the picture just fine.

This approach was working great. I erased the portion of the layer with a nice wide eraser with soft edge and corrected some of the corners with a smaller one. I set the tolerance of the Magic Wand to about .15 and selected the poster. That’s what I expected. But now I found myself in a bind. I had no way to save the selection, and the selection applied to that layer only. Exporting part of the image gave me a different selection than the one I made so that wasn’t a solution either. Obviously my approach was wrong.

Then I used the layer shapes and made a vector selection. I made sure that Close path was turned on and drew a rectangle around the poster. It was a little difficult only because I had Alignment Guides enabled so when points got too close to each other they snapped together. But this is really what I was after. I was able to draw a shape that matched that of the poster. I made sure the shape was filled and selected both it and the image layer then went Masks > New Mask from Layer… I clicked the gear icon on the path bar and I had my selection masked out.

I realized I should have had a copy of the layer so I added and image layer and sized the layer to match. Then I dragged it upward in the layers panel to put it behind the masked image layer. Now I had a masked selection. I clicked the Filter tab on my poster layer and selected Color Controls, reducing saturation to get a black and white effect. It looked pretty good. I can imagine that adding masks and turning them on and off with the layer visibility control could be pretty powerful.

Let’s see what Pixelmator has to offer.

Pixelmator

I’ve got a ticket on the Mode Hate Train so when I saw that Pixelmator’s lasso tool was mode based I figured I’d be on the train the whole time. It wasn’t the case. After I consulted the Help to figure out and confirm the 3 modes. I started making my poster selection in the Add to Selection mode. This was great because I didn’t have to worry about holding down a modifier key or clicking in the wrong place, or having to activate the add to mode with a modifier which I needed to let go. I just clicked and dragged until the poster was selected.

At this stage I wanted to refine the selection so I went Edit > Refine Selection… (Command + Option + M) to get the Refine Selection sheet. The sheet offers sliders to control Feather, border smoothness and contract/expand. These controls are great and Border works by converting the selection you have made into the inside selection of a ‘box’ with a new selection drawn as many pixels away from the original selection as you specified. I like this a lot. But because Irony is the Ruler of All, it just so happened that the part of the image I was adjusting was at the top and the sheet obscured it as I made adjustments. Sigh. And of course there is no live preview in this mode.

Well I was able to make a reasonable selection pretty quickly so it’s not all bad, but of course a polygon selector, or vector selection tool would have been nice.

Pixelmator offers a Quick Mask for layers like Adobe Photoshop does, so I thought I’d try that too. Working like the workaround I tried in Acorn and DrawIt, the Quick Mask essentially gives you a rubylith screen which you can remove to expose the part of the image you would like to modify.

Click the Edit in Quick Mask Mode icon at the bottom of the tool palette and the mask is applied. I used the brush tool to paint away over the poster. And for the most part I thought this was okay. Then I clicked the Load Mask as Selection button on the bottom of the masks palette and saw just how inaccurate my work had been. It’s not surprising really. Considering the amount of red in the actual photograph it was really hard to tell if I was painting away the mask or not. It would be useful to have the option to change the colour in circumstances like this in order to improves the quick mask edit.

Without a polygonal lasso or magnetic lasso or a vector tool, selections are going to be inaccurate. I also tried the magic wand , but because it works on the same principles as all magic wands, the results were uneven, especially in the undefined reflective nature of the photo.

As I was painting away the rubylith there was visual artifacting that resulted in kind of an aggravating blink that made the process more difficult. Also when doing a process like this you’ll want to be in precise tool mode by having the caps lock key ON.

Summary

All told, I was hoping for a bit more.

DrawIt pretty much has the most flexible masking and selection tools, if you play in it’s new approach. The ability to create shape layers and convert them into masks as well as add masks with layers inside of them, pretty well gives you limitless options with a fine degree of control. I do wish that the masks could be converted to selections in a rasterized shape/bitmap/image layer. That would pretty well seal the deal.

The masks in the help file for Pixelator show selections for hair and the like, and I’m left wondering just what kind of Wizards those guys are. I think that Pixelmator got the Refine Selection tools idea right but the implementation should be a palette that can be positioned in relation to the selection, so after you apply it you can see what you want to do. A Preview function here would be awesome.

Acorn’s lasso selector was my favourite freeform selection tool, but the lack of precise tools and after selection adjustments made it just a bit too clumsy.

All of the apps could benefit from a polygonal selector (or a straight and curved line mod key and or a variation smoother or governor of some sort) and, even better, a magnetized selection tool.

You can do basic things here, and I am sure making selections in cleaner, higher contrast pictures than this test image would be pretty easy in all cases with the magic wand tool.

Filters

Well, as we all know, even if we don’t handle images all day long, Photoshop has spawned an entire industry of filter developers, making it a hugely flexible tool that has the capacity to be as specialized as one’s imagination.

When Apple introduced Core Image, it made available to independent developers a wide range of image manipulation effects, essentially automatically providing an extensive library of filters that could be exposed to the user. This technology, more than any other I think, has given rise to this new wave of image editors.

Acorn

Acorn provides access to filters through the Filter menu. This menu is organized into categorical entries which helps you find the kind of thing you might be looking for. But without a good deep knowledge (which I will admit to not having) about imaging filters and what the terminology is, you may find yourself overwhelmed with options.

Initially, you select a filter from the menu which is grouped according to kind, and the Apply Filters window opens. The window is a channel that shows filters much like actions in Automator. Filters can be chained together, and clicking the bottom green Add Filter will introduce another filter into the chain. When you do this, you get a sheet that has animated previews of the filter effect that you select, giving you a good impression of the way your image will be affected. You can select a Preview toggle to see the effects live. You can also expand the window to show a preview panel which I found needlessly redundant and interfering. Clicking the red X in each filter panel removes it from the chain. Filters can be dragged around to re-order them in the chain. Once you click apply, the filters are applied. The Apply Filters box is modal, meaning you can’t do other editing with the filters window open.

After the filter chain is applied, it is undo-able and redo-able with Command + Z and Command + Shift + Z as a normal step in the history of your changes.

In all, this is a pretty fair solution for getting filters to the user, but it has some drawbacks. I found my self wishing for more accessible controls and better guidance about the use of the filter itself. Sometimes the filters were just plain baffling.

DrawIt

We already got a hint of DrawIt’s capabilities in the selections section, but let’s take a closer look.

As you add elements to your image, whether they are layers or masks, you get the ability to change their attributes and add filters in the right-hand side panel. This is a deceptively simple thing. It means that every single element can have filters applied to it. When you click the filter tab, and pull down the menu you get a categorized list of filters much like in Acorn. Selecting one adds a filter control panel. You can add as many of these as you want. You can’t seem to drag them around to re-order them though.

The filters are live and take effect immediately. You can remove them by clicking their close button.

As you progress, you can go back at any time and by selecting the layer or element you can add more filters or remove them as you wish. Let me repeat that. Filters are live and applied as you introduce them and adjust them. They stay in effect and can be changed at any time. You can’t see me right now, but I am weeping tears of joy and shaking my head listening to the hollow sound of what I believe is lack of imagination. Filter states are saved and are as adjustable after saving and closing as they were when you first applied them.

This is absolutely killer. Killer. None of the new wave of apps have this.

I wish I had the days to explore this before writing the review, but time is a-wasting so alas I must move on.

Pixelmator

Pixelmator handles filters in pretty much the same way as the others. There’s a categorized filter menu and selecting a filter opens the filter’s palette where you can make adjustments quite handily. The controls are obvious and easily handled and the icons that label the sliders can be clicked for an integer adjustment just like in Apple’s iPhoto or Aperture. This is a nice feature.

Some of the filters are transformations that require a radius or centre point and these filters have a ‘rope’ attached to them. You can drag the loose end of the rope to adjust the origin. it’s a lot clear than just providing a blue dot, but the rope animation is kind of slow on my machine.

Pixelmator has some filters the others don’t, called Transitions which have effects like the turning of a page corner and the effect of an explosive flash in front of the image.

Filters are cumulative, and can be repeated from the Filter > Last Filter command (Shift + Command + F). There’s no way to chain filters as in Acorn or DrawIt, and Acorn remains unique with the ability to re-order filters at will.

Summary

All these apps shared mostly the same names or terminology for the filters that Core Image provides. Sometimes this is good, but others like ‘Affine Transform’, though accurate and specific, might not convey the right idea to the user at time of creation.

In Acorn many of the filter panels the controls are small and hard to use for fine adjustments. The good news is that there are usually value fields that you can type into. In some cases the filter panels are very crowded and offer enough options that you wished for a lot more guidance when it came to figuring out what the filter can do.

Actually, I wished for a lot more guidance about what filters could do or what potential uses for them might be, though Acorn’s animated preview was nice in showing some idea of the range of effect a filter might provide.

The fact that filters in DrawIt it were so flexible really made this the winner for me. Acorn’s previews and re-ordering were great but filter controls were somewhat lacking. I like Pixelmator’s filter control a lot.

Memory + Performance

While I was testing these apps, trying out the various selections and filters I was trying to keep my eye on memory use and stay aware of performance issues.

When the apps launched they open and carved some memory out for themselves, DrawIt being most efficient, Acorn a close second and Pixelmator being the most greedy. Opening the test photo really made memory use spike, probably in preparation for layer additions and compositing and filter applications.

Acorn went from 32 MB to just over 200MB and Pixelmator grabbed just as much. DrawIt was a little more conservative taking 86 MB.

Closing the test file relinquished memory but never back to the startup amounts.

Performance wasn’t what I expected. These programs felt slow. In my modest tests, Pixelmator was probably the most responsive, but rendering artifacts were a real problem. Acorn performed smoothly but slowly and felt stodgy and soupy at times, especially when zoomed in on a portion of an image. DrawIt varied widely. When drawing, adding layers or filters DrawIt was snappy. Scrolling was good too. But then DrawIt took a long, long, time when scaling image layers, and crashed once during a filter adjustment.

When I did the flood fills for the quasi-masks, Acorn and DrawIt both took awhile to think about it.

Pixelmator uses the F/OSS ImageMagick library for a lot of its brain. This library has been developed over the course of years and provide functionality to manipulate a range of bitmap formats in an efficient manner. This is where a lot of Pixelmator’s general speed is coming from. When it come to Core Image, all the apps here use it as the basis for filters. This is where Pixelmator’s claim about being ‘GPU powered’ comes from. Though I do think that being the first is certainly debatable as any app that implements Core Image surely gets the framework’s GPU processing and there are many apps that have preceded Pixelmator that use this technology. Further, claims that ‘Pixelmator is blistering-fast on the latest PowerPC and all Intel-based Mac’s.[sic]’ doesn’t feel like it’s the case. It’s not slow but my eyes weren’t popping out of my head either.

All of the apps took awhile to save out files too. Maybe not a problem, but I reflexively save after every major operation, especially if I think it’s taken a long time to render. And I also save whenever it occurs to me. It occurs to me a lot, so I found myself waiting. After a bit it becomes a real drag to be kind of in the flow then have to pause before continuing. none of the apps offered a save progress bar. It would be nice to see something. In Pixelmator I was relying on the window’s close button to change from grey and for the cursor to return to the selected tool. DrawIt showed a beach ball but the others relied on the title bar to change and the close button to become available to tell me they were finished. This isn’t a deal breaker, but having visual feedback on progress can provide a lot of reassurance. Maybe use the Dock icon or a sheet…

Summary

Claims to the contrary, all of these apps could afford some improvements in their performance speeds. I really hope that DrawIt and Acorn improve their speeds. It may be that on Intel Macs they’re a lot better performers, but even if they are, I don’t imagine that rendering speed and operation performance would be a bad thing.

Saving + Exporting

After your work is done, you’ve got to save it and make it available in some kind of format that’s useful for your requirements.

Acorn

Acorn saves to its native format .acorn, as well as the usual suspects: PNG, TIFF, GIF, JPEG and BMP. Although TIFF can support layers Acorn will only save layers in .acorn files. If you select JPEG as the file type there’s a quality slider but otherwise there are no options for saving the file type. What this means is if you require transparency in the final file, it must be in the original, and the target file type must support it too.

There is no information in the Help file about the files that Acorn saves, but it saves all the files in 8 bit RGB.

Acorn has a neat feature that makes it handy. the File > Actions menu has some interesting options. The first is PDF Workflow > which gives you direct access to PDF options normally provided in the File > Print > PDF menu button gizmo. This is nice. you can also add an image to iPhoto directly, open the folder that contains the shell and Python scripts that provide this actions, open the image in Preview, and send the image to Mail where a new message is opened with the image inserted as an attachment. Most of the time that these actions take are dependent on other apps and if they’re open and ready for business.

DrawIt

DrawIt saves its own file type , .drawit, as well as exporting JPEG, PNG, TIFF and GIF. PDFs are available through the Print dialogue > PDF button menu gizmo.

DrawIt is interesting in the when you export, it pops a sheet that gives you options to set the pixel dimensions of the final output, the format and any format options (JPEG has a quality slider and TIFF has a compression options menu for example). It also exposes a few Quartz Filter effects allowing you to flip the image rotate it make it black and white or make it sepia.

The final option is like Acorn’s Actions menu and offers the possibility to export your file as an image, email it, upload it to ImageShack, send it to iPhoto, or copy it to the clipboard.

You can also preview your settings which is handy considering the presence of Quartz filters.

Select your options and click Export. A normal ‘Save’ dialogue box opens and you can save your file. Drawit doesn’t show you but it does append the file type to you name when it save the file.

DrawIt also has the unique ability to export a partial image (Option +Shift + Command + E), which shows you a blue selection border over your image which you can size and position.

There are no handles on it (that would be nice) but you can drag the edges and move it around as you’d expect. Press return when you’re satisfied, and the sheet pops out as described above.

Nice feature because it allows you to check in on portions of your artwork as you go or share them with your workgroup without having to reveal and discuss the entire image.

All the files were defaulted to 8 bit RGB files, something that isn’t settable.

Pixelmator

Pixelmator has a very extensive list of file types it supports. File > Save As… shows 12 types, and File > Export shows those same 12 plus 47 more for a total of 59. We’re getting into Graphic Converter territory here. And that’s not a bad thing. As I mentioned in ‘The New Wave’ GC is feeling very long in the tooth. Pixelmator also opens a bunch of different types which would make it the go to app if you weren’t using GC.

Pixelmator’s flexibility comes at a price, and it always took the longest to save. Strangely, saving or exporting a GIF of the test image made it unresponsive 6 times out of 6. Ouch.

The output was 8 bit RGB files. Not something that I could change.

Comparison

Comparing File Save Efficiency (File > Save As… or File > Export…)

Summary

All of the apps save to RGB and none expose any CMYK controls, so they’re not suitable for prepping files for press work. For me that’s a real limitation, but for many printing to local lasers or inkjets or publishing to the web, it’s not that big a deal.

The time it takes to save is a real issue with all these apps, DrawIt and Acorn, both being the quickest. All of them could use some visual progress indicator during the save operation.

The sizes of these files are mostly dependent on the types themselves.

Unless I needed some unique file types, I’d choose DrawIt or Acorn over Pixelmator.

Scripting + Plugins

Extending the capability of a program is both the domain of scripting and the more popular model of plug-ins. Often repetition is handled by scripting or user recordable macros or actions. These programs are new, so let’s see what they have to offer.

Acorn

Acorn offers a couple of approaches to these to aspects of image editors.

Firstly, Acorn is unique in that it supports Python scripts as well as Objective-C compiled plug-ins. This is precisely the way that Photoshop became so huge. Initially plug-ins provided capabilities missing in the main app. Even as the feature list of grew, these plug-ins matured and refined the main app’s offerings or were retired and replaced with plug-ins more suitable.

You can download and use sample code for Acorn’s plug-in architecture.

Already there are some plug-ins out there for saving files, masking operations, and correcting white pixel haloing when exporting files with alpha channels. Perhaps there are more and I hope that Flying Meat is prepping a plug-in page which will offer some sort of index to these as they’re developed.

Acorn doesn’t expose any Applescript dictionaries or Automator whatchamacallits.

DrawIt

Currently, DrawIt is the least scriptable of these new apps. There’s no Applescript Dictionary, and nothing appears in Automator either. A brief conversation with the developer indicated that DrawIt may very well get some scripting in the future, so we’ll have to wait and see.

Pixelmator

This app has bragged from the get-go about implementing Mac OS X tech, so it’s not surprising to find that it has an Automator library. There are 5 Actions each with different settings, and one that I think is interesting which is Transform Images. This offers 12 transforms and 4 settings, including Shear and Rotate. Dumb little tiny controls, but having this capability is great.

There was a comment on The New Wave about plug-ins for Pixelmator which pointed to this entry at the Pixelmator forums. The developer states flatly that there will be no SDK for Pixelmator plugins. Further suggestions are ignored.

Summary

Acorn offers the most flexible support for plug-ins and scripting (if you’re a Python or shell scripting kind of person). The fact that plug-ins can be written in both Python and Objective-C bodes well. I think it’s really too bad that the Pixelmator team have chosen not to support plugins, but from a support point-of view I guess it makes sense. I am cautiously optimistic about what DrawIt may do, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Tonight’s Verdict

Okay, so we’ve been through the apps and I’ve tried to give you some good detail about how they work and behave.

In all cases I think the apps are promising. They all show a different approach, and a different focus about editing images, which is nothing if not useful.

For original image creation, and figuring out how to make rich complex images with masks, layers and live filters, I think DrawIt is the best. I love this app’s refreshing originality: its iWork feel (unique to image editing – even iPhoto isn’t like this) and the ‘everything is a layer’ approach to tools and element creation. The live filters make this thing so cool I lose my ability to speak. Sure Photoshop has this but it never had it so early, and it costs a lot of money. I am excited about the kinds of innovations we’ll see from the developer. If I think I can do it in DrawIt, I am going to reach for this one first.

My second choice is Acorn, and pretty much for the same reasons as I outlined in ‘The New Wave’. I am a palette hater and the single palette thing really appeals to me. The price is right and there’s going to be a great library of plug-ins soon. I like the design goals too: simple and modern.

Pixelmator is my third choice, primarily because there’s no new UI here except in some details, and though it feels comfortable and familiar the palette thing just makes me crazy.

Opinions on these findings

In general, all the applications could use some refinement in selection tools. Magnetic and polygonal lassos would be great. Vector drawing tools with the ability to convert shapes to selections would be ideal. Acorn plug-in opportunities abound here with the potential for specialized masking tools like Vertus Fluid Mask or tools that address other specialized needs.

Transformations could be better too, and I don’t think I should have to select special tools, or worse, dialogue boxes and filters to rotate elements.

Saving files could be helped with some kind of progress indicator too, especially in Pixelmator where files saves take the longest.

Core Image is great and these apps show that you can get a lot of capability rivalling Photoshop by using it. The problem lies in the sprawling nature of image manipulation where almost anything is possible. Categorizing operations helps, but only goes part way. Describing or demonstrating the effects of a filter a good too, but there’s never guidance on why or when I might choose one over another. This is actually a problem in all image editing, but it’s really apparent here, using these apps.

Also we need to talk about in-application icons. Maybe the Gamma on Modern Macs is a lot brighter or maybe modern Mac displays are far better than my aging PowerBook LCD, but icons and tool representation are critical. Pixelmator team: Please make your black gradient icons white and grey (if you really want the 3d gradient effect), don’t walk. Run. Change this now. Move, Crop Magic Wand and Text. And Zoom. Acorn could uses some brightness in the icons too. Working on dark parts of an image is a pain. DrawIt’s are pretty good, and the pen tool benefits from the layer becoming translucent white. DrawIt’s toolbar icons are great. I’d prefer handles on selection drag points in Crop and Export Partial Image… tools though, or some kind of clue that the edges are draggable.

Well, for the first round these apps are pointing the way to a pretty promising future. I enjoyed testing these and look forward to what comes next. Please add your comments I welcome the input and all of these and other apps as yet unwritten can benefit from well reasoned commentary.

Linkage

The Contenders
Acorn
DrawIt
Pixelmator

Other software
Coda
CSSEdit
Graphic Converter
ImageMagick
Shake
Sparkle
Snapz Pro X
Scrivener
TextMate
xScope
Yojimbo

Here’s a table that describes the general balance of Good News and Bad News that in turn describes the long moral arc of the universe tending towards maximum irony.

Well, these and the fact that you really really don’t want a table still open when this theme trims off the article for posting on the front page of your site.

That’s what’s happened to me here which is why I’ve inserted all this extra text. Anybody with a clever idea on where I can set the number of characters before trimming?

Well, on with the chart…

I offer this information partly as an apology and partly as a warning. Thank you.

And the heroes we select, we choose for a particular quality, a particular design or body of work, or a particular world view.

And sometimes our heroes are simply ideas.