Expert’s Rating
Our Verdict
The open source community has worked hard to develop apps with professional - level feature . One of the shine examples isInkscape , a free lottery lotion that usesX11 , a way to run Linux apps on the Mac without a lot of trouble . When you set out Inkscape , X11 laden automatically . The menu do not match the Mac ’s normal drug user interface but when you save single file , they are bring through to the Finder .
For basic drawing tasks , Inkscape is just as knock-down as Adobe Illustrator . you could supply a superfluity of boxes and multi - sided shapes , 3D box , freehand drawing off , and intricate whirl . Inkscape provides advanced options for edit out specific points on a geometrical build and tweak your illustration down to the exact transmitter coordinates .
For customizing your workspace , you could add rulers , guides , and a click - to - grid . There are countless selection for controlling any frame ’s exact position , layering , colour , and size . The program is also highly extensible – there are extra plug - ins and card options for , say , adding an airbrush look to a corner or turning a piece of snip art you import into an editable object . Export options are also panoptic – you could spare your papers as an EPS file and load up it into Illustrator , or exportation as a bitmap look-alike file .
The only slight complaint with Inkscape is that it tends to run slower than a native Mac app . If your Mac is fast enough , you may not notice the slowdown , though .
Our 186 - varlet Mac Gems Superguide is a veritable greatest hits of Mac Gems . It ’s useable as a PDF download , PDF on CD - ROM , or as a print Holy Scripture . find out more about the Mac Gems Superguide .
[ John Brandon is a 20 - year oldtimer Mac user who used to run an all - Mac graphics section . ]
