iDraw – A Cheaper Alternative To Adobe Illustrator [Mac]

Adobe Illustrator is a commonly used software in the designing industry. It gives all the services required by a graphic designer. But it has a drawback. It is very expensive. Therefore, casual designers cannot afford it. A cheaper alternative is available to Adobe Illustrator. iDraw is a useful app available at a very cheap price which is easily affordable by the casual designers.

Though you can draw a design in Pages but it will not give you as effective results as Adobe Illustrator gives. However, iDraw is an app that meets the standards of Adobe Illustrator at a very cheap rate.You can use this app in both iPad and Mac. These are not expensive as compared to Illustrator. There are more capabilities in Mac version as compared to iPad version.

The iDraw is equipped with all the tools you require. These are arranged in a very organized and standard manner. Go to ‘Properties’ window. You can control various elements of your canvas, change the size and alignment of a specific object along with spacing and path. You can access these functions from the menu.

Check out the left side of your canvas. Certain tools are located there. You can use them to create objects. For example, you can easily create a logo by using various shapes and tools such as lines, circles, polygons and rectangles. In Adobe Illustrator, the complicated shapes are created by cutting index points and moving them. Here, you can create these by using an eraser tool.

Go to ‘Appearance’ window. You can control the appearance of the text and the objects. The sharpness of the ends and line weight can also be controlled here. You can also set the shape and size of the brush in the window.

There is a fill color for the shapes but the color choices are very limited. No options are available for RGB or CMYK. Also, you can set the shapes in a manner so that the images and gradients can be filled in these.

You can also control the text in ‘Appearance’ window. The alignment, font and size of the text can be handled here. Set the text as per your choice. The text can be used as an object by using ‘Convert Text to Path’. The text can be filled with an image by using this option. This app has limited options for the text. You need a text box for each character to get a curved text. Rotate each box separately to get the results. This process was followed when the advanced options were not introduced. You can save the text in the form of an image by setting it in the text program.

Once your design is complete, you can export it in many formats such as SVG, PNG, GIF, JPG etc. If you save your design in JPG, it gives you an option to define the image quality and also include a grid and a background. If you do not have enough knowledge about the options, the app displays a short explanation for each exporting option. This helps you in getting familiar with the option.

iDraw does not have options for image manipulation. If you need advanced creativity tools, then you should go for an expensive option like Adobe Illustrator. However, iDraw is suitable for simple designing and image manipulation options.