Looking for an inexpensive alternative to the “industry standard” design and drawing apps for the Mac? You might want to check out the newly-released public beta of iDraw 2.3 by Indeeo, Inc.
With iDraw you can create vector illustrations and save them in SVG, PDF, PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF formats. It offers many of the features you would expect in a high end drawing app, like Pen, Brush, Pencil, and shape tools, plus layers, effects, transparency control, styles libraries, templates, masking, and more.
The app normally sells for $24.99 in the Mac App Store, but for now you can download and test drive it for free. Among the many new features in version 2.3 are:
Photoshop PSD Import/Export
• Import layered PSD files with vector paths and effects.
• Shape layers are imported as editable vector paths.
• Layer effects are imported as fully editable drop shadows, glows, etc.
• Export designs as layered PSD files.
Document Color Management
• Per-document color profiles.
• Assign and convert colors to a different profile (Modify > Color Settings…).
New Blend Modes
• 8 new blend modes including Linear Burn, Linear Dodge, Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, Hard Mix, Subtract, Divide.
• Existing blend modes (such as Color Dodge) have been improved to ensure they match the appearance of imported PSD files.
OpenGL-optimized Drawing
• Significantly faster rendering of complex projects.
• Multi-threaded drawing ensures lag-free scrolling and zooming.
Instant Image Masking
• Instantly mask effects and other fills by an image with transparency.
• Toggle masking using the ‘Set as transparency mask’ setting in the Appearance pane.
Per-Shape Blending
• Apply blend modes to individual shapes and groups.
• Apply blend modes to strokes and fills in the Appearance Pane.
Copy/Paste Appearance Items
• Copy individual stroke, fill, shadow, glow, etc. items and paste them on other shapes.
• Quickly re-use the same image and gradient fill settings among different shapes.
This article was last modified on August 8, 2013
This article was first published on August 8, 2013
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Thanks for the review! I’m keeping an eye out for alternatives to what is now the Creative Cloud. Adobe’s business model for CC won’t work for my needs so it helps to keep up on possible alternatives!