Review: Serif Drawplus X2 design software

The vector graphics editor DrawPlus has been around since Leonardo was a lad.

You might think it would be hard to add new features and functions for what is effectively version 9 (the X2 of the title is there to line it up with PagePlus X2, Serif’s companion desktop publisher). You’d be wrong.

The program looks like most modern graphics editors, with a toolbar down the left-hand side of the screen and a set of palettes down the right.

A useful feature that provides extra information is automatic measurement of dimensions as lines and shapes are dragged out.

From a graphic artist’s point of view, two of the most useful additions to the tools are the Freeform Paint and Erase tools. Freeform Paint enables the user to draw an object stroke by stroke, with each new element being added to the object's outline, to make the drawing of more complex vector shapes much easier. The Erase tool rubs out segments of objects, to change their shapes or even split them into separate ones. Both tools are great time savers.

There's also the excellent Quick3D transformation: a single mouse-click can turn a composite shape into a 3D object (see our screenshot). You can, of course, adjust the colour, texture and lighting of the 3D shape, so it takes a lot of the slog out of producing such objects.

Another aid to 3D is DrawPlus’s 3D grids, which can be set up using the projections provided as standard, or by defining your own. Tools for lighting and live shadows work in a way reminiscent of Xara Xtreme. You drag arrow controls to set the position and orientation of the effects.

There are improvements on the animation front, too, with new Keyframe animation, so DrawPlus does the hard work of animating between key frames. You can pan across a drawing, too. Finished animation files can be exported as F lash, AVI, Quicktime and more, or rejigged for screensavers and phones. If you maintain a Web site, a quick and easy rollover tool produces three versions of DrawPlus images, ready to export to a web site as Flash graphics.

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