Editorials/User Comments
Editorials
Macworld 02/01/04 - Multifaceted Illustration Program Has New Technical
Features
“ACD Systems' Canvas X Professional Edition is primarily for technical
illustrators who need to design precision graphics. It can also pinch-hit
as an image editor or an illustration program -- plus, it can serve as
a page-layout, drawing, presentation, and Web-site program.”
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Geoworld 12/01/03
“Canvas X is a full-featured graphics package with extensive vector
illustration, image editing, desktop and Web publishing, and presentation
features as well as a particular focus on technical graphics. If you're
unfamiliar with Canvas, imagine something that combines many of the capabilities
of packages such as Aldus Freehand, Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop, Microsoft
PowerPoint and Macromedia Director.”
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Cadalyst 10/15/03
“Canvas X is a must-have program for anyone who works with graphics
and text. It has all of the tools you need for creating high quality brochures,
proposals, presentations, posters, pamphlets, illustrations, flow and organization
charts, and Web pages. The program easily handles vector-based objects
(such as lines and curves), bitmapped images, and text in the same document.
You can even create simple, dimensioned CAD drawings with Canvas X.”
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User Comments
Brian Underdahl
Award Winning Technology Author
"In my line of work, I get to try out
a lot of different software applications. A very few of them actually deliver
on their promises and become a permanent part of my toolbox. Canvas is
one of the rare applications that has the power to handle everything I
throw at it, and it is simply the most capable image creation and editing
software I've found."
George P. Munson, Ph.D.
University of Miami School of Medicine
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
"I have been using my installed
copy of Canvas 9 for the past 2 days and I feel that this is an AWESOME
release/upgrade. A far better step from Canvas 8 to 9 than the initial
release of Canvas 8 was. Well worth the upgrade and then some!!! Canvas
9 is a must have and the whole team at Deneba should be very proud of their
work. I've shown it to several of colleagues and I'm sure that at least
two of them will be buying their copies soon. I'll also be buying at least
one, possibly 2 more copies/licenses for other workstation in my research
group."
Jonathan Dapra
Founder - In The Know Graphics
"I consider the new context sensitive
Property Bar and Help Bar to be some of the most important enhancements
ever added to Canvas! The Help Bar (like Tool Tips on steroids) instantly
provides new users with a detailed description of any tool they select
- one can confidently start creating without having to cross reference
a manual when they encounter an unfamiliar tool. The new context sensitive
Property Bar will make your design workflow infinitely more productive
by providing key tool settings for the tool you are currently using. Canvas
just became very easy to use!"
Kurt von Behrmann
Technology Author
"With Canvas 9, ACD has done a superb job of fine
tuning an already solid program. By making access to features easier and
a much more considerate user-friendly format as well, Canvas should be
picking up some new fans quickly. This is one application well worth considering,
particularly since it is now so much improved and refined. "
Lynette Chang
Designer / Author
"Everything was just so easy because Canvas is integrated,
and intuitive. It's great to be able to select a chunk of detail and just
render it in situ. At work I am constantly fumbling with the Adobe Indesign,
Illustrator and Photoshop menus, all of which do a little of what the
other does, and with menus that are sufficiently alike but a little different
to guarantee you'll always be having to try and remember how to do things."
Paul Burger
Professional Cartographer
"I have been using Canvas for creating digital
cave maps and geologic illustrations for almost ten years with tremendous
success. Its easy intuitive user interface and tools allowed me to rapidly
learn to use the program and quickly begin making maps that were as good
or superior to my old hand-inked maps. The program was much easier to learn
and use than most of the drawing and CAD programs I have used.
The ability to create custom line styles and symbol sets have made creating
uniform-looking maps of different caves very easy. The GIS edition of
Canvas 9 has additional support for scaling the drawing page and allowing
you to import DXF files at an exact scale which greatly assists in the
import of cave survey information. The image morphing capabilities in
Canvas 9 allow cartographers to register hand-drawn survey notes to the
cave data and rapidly create final maps from original field notes. The
additional support for GIS information will help integrate cave and geologic
maps to create graphics for field projects and informational displays.
Canvas has the right set of tools and functions to manipulate raster
and vector features to create high-quality cave and geologic maps. The
program is intuitive, easy to learn, and cost-effective. It is the software
that I recommend to any cave cartographers wanting to move into the world
of digital cartography."
Rob Gendreau
Attourney - From Yahoo - MacLaw Groups
"No, this isn't spam; it's a
mini-review. I don't work for these guys, etc., etc.
I've been using Canvas since about version 1. They've supported the
Mac since at least the Mac Plus. Canvas has been referred to as the Swiss
Army knife of graphics, but it's even better than that.
I now use it as my primary page layout program for office communications,
announcements, newsletters, etc. I dumped Pagemaker (never made it past
System 9) and Quark/InDesign are overkill. Canvas has all the tools for
text I need: flowing columns, kerning, good font management, styles,
etc. etc. And I find its ability to handle just about all graphic formats,
whether pdf, jpeg, vector, or whatever, it's very valuable. You can do
everything in one program.
But many of you probably already know this. What I really appreciate
in a product is tech support. So let me recount some recent events. First,
as I mentioned, Canvas has been committed to the Mac for a LONG time.
And it was quick to go to an OS X version. It is now on its SECOND major
OS X release, Canvas 9, which was released less than a week ago.
Being an early adopter, pre-ordered my copy and downloaded the day of
its release (and I appreciate the all-too-rare fact that it actually
released on its release date). So I'm using it and I find I can't open
one of my old files. I'm annoyed, so I post a complaint on their support
board, and send an e-mail to support.
The next day I had TWO responses, both requesting copies of the offending
file for diagnosis. I send it (a large file BTW), the day after that,
the file is returned to me, fixed. It turns our that this revealed a
need to change the application; so the support person informs me he has
written some code for the first maintenance release that will prevent
this error from happening again (not an issue for me, since I'm now using
v. 9, not 8).
Needless to say, I'm pretty impressed with this tech support.
So kudos to Canvas, and if you need a good all around graphics/page
layout/CAD/drafting/x/etc program, check out http://www.acdamerica.com. |
