iWorkTipsnTricks

[PeterBreis]

Pages has some limited ability to create, draw and edit shapes but is a poor program to do more than this.

Reasons to use dedicated drawing applications:

1. Outline text to convert it to a graphic

2. Run text on a curved or multi-angled path

3. Merge or subtract shapes

4. Complicated details, shapes and blends

5. Mask bitmap (photo) images inside complex shapes

Mac drawing programs:

DrawBerry Free. Promising but needs work. No documentation and the interface is partially in French.

Inkscape Free, requires Apple's X11 to run. Open source so it is rough around the edges, but capable.

DrawIt US$39.95 Basic program but it handles both vector and bitmap graphics.

VectorDesigner US$69.95 Fun, simple and intuitive vector application.

Lineform US$79.95 Nice interface but buggy. Undo hasn't worked in yonks.

Intaglio US$89.00 Capable, has CAD like scaling but some users report this feature is buggy.

ZeusDraw US$$90.00 Best of the cheap draw programs. Quite capable but currently lacks text on path.

EazyDraw US$95.00 Has a lot of features but is somewhat unMaclike and uses odd keyboard shortcuts.

OmniGraffle US$99.95 Great for flow charting & organisational charts but can draw quite well. Large collection of "stencils", collections of ClipArt.

Adobe Illustrator US$599 THE professional tool and priced accordingly.

CorelDraw Discontinued for the Mac but still runs on PPC.

FreeHand Discontinued but still runs on PPC.