DrawPlus

DrawPlus
DrawPlus X5
Developer(s)	Serif
Stable release	X5 / August 1, 2011; 6 months ago (2011-08-01)
Written in	C++
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Type	Vector graphics editor
License	Proprietary
Website	www.serif.com

DrawPlus is a 2D vector graphics editor developed by UK-based software company Serif, also responsible for PhotoPlus, PagePlus, WebPlus, Digital Scrapbook Artist and other titles.

In addition to traditional vector drawing tools, DrawPlus provides realistic, natural-looking brushes that allow the user to paint with watercolours, oils and other media whilst retaining vector editing capability. DrawPlus is also able to produce Stop frame and Key frame animations, including output to Adobe Flash swf file format and support for ActionScript.

DrawPlus X5 and Starter Edition offer support for pressure sensitive input devices such as Wacom's range of tablets. Both applications feature a Pressure Studio to allow calibration of the individual devices and allow functions to be mapped to the supported buttons on the tablet. DrawPlus supports pressure-sensitive vector lines and brushes to create a striking range of effects from manga through to painting in an array of media.

DrawPlus is available both as a paid-for version, DrawPlus X5, or as a cut-down Starter Edition which is completely free. Both variants support SVG import and export to provide compatibility with other vector editing software.

1 Supported platforms
2 History
3 Features
- 3.1 Object creation and editing
4 Import/Export
5 See also
6 References
7 Bibliography
8 External links

Supported platforms

DrawPlus was developed for Microsoft Windows and is fully compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista (32/64bit) and Windows 7 (32/64bit).

History

DrawPlus 3 1996.

DrawPlus 5 2000.

DrawPlus 6 2001.

DrawPlus 7 2003.

DrawPlus 8 2005.

DrawPlus X2 6th August 2007.

DrawPlus X3 16th February 2009.

DrawPlus X4 19th April 2010.

DrawPlus X5 1st August 2011.

(There was never a DrawPlus 9, 10, or 11).

Features

Object creation and editing

DrawPlus provides a range of object creation and editing tools which are common in other editors, and also offers additional tools ^[1]

Pencil and Paintbrush tools create freehand curves. The Pen tool creates Bezier curves and the Line tool allows easy creation of straight line segments. All of these tools can also be used to manipulate existing curves.
Context-sensitive Node tool provides control over post-editing objects and nodes.
A range of QuickShapes which are predefined simple shapes that can be quickly modified with sliders to adjust certain parameters, for example quickly creating rounded rectangles, etc. Shapes include: Rectangles, Ellipses, Stars, Spirals, Cogs, Petals, etc.
Freeform Paint tool creates solid polygons by 'painting' areas.
Eraser tool for intuitive object erasing and manipulation.
Knife tool to cut through objects leaving them in multiple, editable pieces.
HSL, RGB and CMYK colour models. Plus a range of Pantone palettes.
Gradient colour picker which samples gradients and allows them to be used as fills, in addition to single colour picking.
Gradient fill and transparency effects, also mesh fills.
Connector and Dimension tools for creating flowcharts and technical drawings.
Artistic Text, Frame Text (which wraps to a frame) and Curve Text which can be entered onto an existing curve.
DrawPlus offers image editing and filters through its PhotoLab and also provides a dedicated background-removal tool in the form of Cutout Studio. X4 introduced an Autotrace Studio to automatically convert bitmaps into vector representations.
Shadow tool to interactively add drop and wall shadows to any object.
Crop tool allows easy cropping of any object(s) including photographs.
Blend tool.
Envelope, Roughen and Perspective tools.
Filter Effects for one-click realistic effects such as glass, metallic, plastic and other 2D/3D filters. (this is limited in Starter Edition).
Instant 3D to transform 2D objects into 3D.
Snapping allows objects to be snapped to page margins, centres and guides. Dynamic Guides allow snapping objects to existing objects and vertices.
Object Properties tab shows all the current attributes applied to the selected object at a glance and allows them to be edited freely.
3D Planes to aid creation of pseudo-3D objects.
Various Overlays such as Golden Spiral, Rule of Thirds and an Export Overlay, which help with design and layout.
How To tab offering context-sensitive help depending on current selection and tool choice.
Layers Control showing previews of each element of the document in a tree-view.
User-definable keyboard shortcuts.

Import/Export

DrawPlus X5 and Starter Edition both support the SVG file format in order to allow cross-application document exchange. Both versions also support PNG, JPEG, GIF, Microsoft HD Photo and TIFF export. DrawPlus also opens and exports PDF documents, CAD drawings, and is also able to open EPS documents and Adobe Illustrator files (version 9.0 onwards). DrawPlus can be used to create Adobe Flash swf files and WMV/AVI movies from user animations. DrawPlus can also be used to create GIF animations. Output from both DrawPlus and Starter Edition can be automatically supersampled to create very high quality exported images.