I have been exploring drawing packages again.
One of my long standing complaints about Apple is that the company effectively abandoned some useful drawing and painting packages which were available up to the time that MacOS moved on beyond Snow Leopard.
When I first encountered those software tools - way back in the days of ClarisWorks, then AppleWorks, I really didn't like them much. Why would I have used those in preference to Word and the offerings from MicroSoft?
Then I discovered that I could do simple graphics quickly, and because I wanted/needed to do diagrams on a day to day basis I got to use those tools. I could knock up a diagram to show to others within minutes, without having to worry about people saying "we can't read your writing, you'd not drawn it right, etc".
I was still using those tools from time to time up to a year or two back, but recently I went back to see if they still work on my old iMac. They do.
I spent a lot of time trying to find out whether there were other tools - perhaps better - which would do the same kind of job - and up to now I have to say that i haven't really found anything quite as quick and almost intuitive.
I would definitely have switched to any good modern replacement tool, but in over a decade I've not found one. Newer tools may be better in terms of the quality of output, but in terms of learning and quick ease of use, all have failed for me.
One problem now with the early tools is that they produce raster output - and on the latest computers this is just not really the kind of quality we seem to expect nowadays. Vector graphics tools can produce better results - but the downside is that one has to know how to use them. Graphic artists who use computers a lot will take this for granted, but the rest of us perhaps won't. There are good vector graphics tools which can be used to produce high quality diagrams, but often a problem is that one has to create the basic units - before starting to make a diagram.
Anyway, I've just discovered this article - https://setapp.com/how-to/paint-for-mac which mentions that inside Apple Preview there is a simple drawing/painting tool. I tried this out, and to my surprise some of the features of the old tools are indeed embedded within Preview - and some of the keyboard shortcuts for the earlier - now pretty much defunct and obsolete - programs still work. There may be features which don't work - or don't work as well as in the older programs - but it definitely looks as though many of the features of the older programs are now hidden away in Preview - but can still be used by anyone who wants to try.
One of my long standing complaints about Apple is that the company effectively abandoned some useful drawing and painting packages which were available up to the time that MacOS moved on beyond Snow Leopard.
When I first encountered those software tools - way back in the days of ClarisWorks, then AppleWorks, I really didn't like them much. Why would I have used those in preference to Word and the offerings from MicroSoft?
Then I discovered that I could do simple graphics quickly, and because I wanted/needed to do diagrams on a day to day basis I got to use those tools. I could knock up a diagram to show to others within minutes, without having to worry about people saying "we can't read your writing, you'd not drawn it right, etc".
I was still using those tools from time to time up to a year or two back, but recently I went back to see if they still work on my old iMac. They do.
I spent a lot of time trying to find out whether there were other tools - perhaps better - which would do the same kind of job - and up to now I have to say that i haven't really found anything quite as quick and almost intuitive.
I would definitely have switched to any good modern replacement tool, but in over a decade I've not found one. Newer tools may be better in terms of the quality of output, but in terms of learning and quick ease of use, all have failed for me.
One problem now with the early tools is that they produce raster output - and on the latest computers this is just not really the kind of quality we seem to expect nowadays. Vector graphics tools can produce better results - but the downside is that one has to know how to use them. Graphic artists who use computers a lot will take this for granted, but the rest of us perhaps won't. There are good vector graphics tools which can be used to produce high quality diagrams, but often a problem is that one has to create the basic units - before starting to make a diagram.
Anyway, I've just discovered this article - https://setapp.com/how-to/paint-for-mac which mentions that inside Apple Preview there is a simple drawing/painting tool. I tried this out, and to my surprise some of the features of the old tools are indeed embedded within Preview - and some of the keyboard shortcuts for the earlier - now pretty much defunct and obsolete - programs still work. There may be features which don't work - or don't work as well as in the older programs - but it definitely looks as though many of the features of the older programs are now hidden away in Preview - but can still be used by anyone who wants to try.
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