Canvas X Draw 7.0
Affordable graphics software for technical illustration work
$49/year From Canvas GFX, canvasgfx.com
Needs macOS 10.14 or later
The Mac has always been a popular tool for graphics and design work, with programs such as Adobe Illustrator leading the way ever since the desktop publishing revolution of the 1980s. However, graphics software on the Mac has always tended to focus on the “creative” side of design work, creating eye–catching illustrations and magazine layouts. But there are plenty of Mac users who work in more technical fields, such as architecture, engineering and product design, who need a slightly different set of tools.
If your work requires precise and accurate drawing tools for technical illustrations and documents, then a more specialised drawing tool such as Canvas X Draw provides an affordable solution. Like many professional programs these days, Canvas X Draw requires an annual subscription, but it’s still competitively priced at $49 per year or $120 for three years. There’s also a 14–day trial version that you can download if you want to try it out first.
It’s worth taking a look at the trial version, as Canvas X Draw is a fairly dense program that will take a little getting used to. It’s powerful and versatile, combining tools for both vector and bitmap graphics, but the sheer variety of all those tools means that you’ll need to ease yourself into the app gradually. To give an idea, the “quick start” guide is 35 pages long, and the full PDF manual stretches to well over 400 pages.
But, thankfully, Canvas X Draw provides plenty of help for new users. Its interface is fairly straightforward, with a series of pull–down menus running across the top of the screen, while document windows have a toolbar at the top and a context– sensitive Properties Bar below.
TOOL UP
There’s a traditional floating Tool Palette that contains all the main drawing and painting tools. When you select any of these you also see a secondary mini–palette that shows additional related tools, while the Properties Bar switches to show more detailed settings so you can fine–tune how each tool works. So, if you select the Rectangle tool in the main tool palette you’ll see the mini–palette appear with additional tools for drawing other shapes, while the Properties Bar allows you to precisely adjust the size and position of your
rectangle, along with properties such as opacity or color effects. Beginners can also display an Assistant palette that provides detailed info about each tool that you select.
GET TO WORK
When you’re ready to start a project, you can import and export dozens of different file formats for both bitmap and vector graphics from other programs, including Adobe Illustrator (.ai) and AutoCAD (.dwg and .dxf), Postscript, TIFF, and JPEG. You can also import text files (.rtf or .txt) if you need to create longer documents that combine both text and graphics.
You have three options for creating documents in Canvas X Draw, starting with “illustrations,” which focus primarily on graphics alone. You can also create “publications” that are designed to be printed or distributed as PDF files and which allow you to specify layouts such as two–page spreads or two–sided printing. You can also create “presentations,” which are divided into a series of slides for on–screen display.
Canvas Draw X primarily focuses on creating vector graphics for technical illustrations, so it provides a good selection of tools for drawing freehand curves and shapes along with standard geometrical shapes such as rectangles, ovals, and arrows. There’s also controls for adjusting stroke, fill, and color. The Symbol Library contains hundreds of ready–made images and symbols, and a special palette has tools and symbols for creating flowcharts. Canvas X Draw also contains a basic set of bitmap– based paint tools for enhancing your documents, including a Paint Brush, Airbrush, and Pen. You can also add some simple effects such as shadow, glow and reflection, which can be used with either bitmap or vector drawings. There are some useful page layout tools as well, including multi–column text for creating tables.
BE PRECISE
As well as specifying precise coordinates for your drawings you can choose a variety of automatic alignment options, or use the Snap controls to precisely place objects as you draw them. You can “snap” objects so they line up parallel or perpendicular to each other, follow the tangent of a curve, or “snap” to specific points on a grid or other nearby objects. And there are useful extra features such as the Annotation Lens, which automatically zooms in on a section of a drawing so you can highlight specific elements and add annotations.
It can take a while to locate all these tools, though, especially as the program often hides menus within menus. But for users familiar with vector graphics software such as Adobe Illustrator or Affinity Designer, Canvas X Draw will be familiar territory, providing precise and versatile drawing tools well–suited to technical illustration work.
THE BOTTOM LINE. A bit of a learning curve, but Canvas X Draw is a powerful, affordable program for technical illustrations. CLIFF JOSEPH