Comments on: Where can I find a MacDraw-like program for Windows?

Question: Where can I find a MacDraw-like program for Windows?

jeffbarr — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 13:08:46 -0800

Where can I find a MacDraw-like program for Windows, preferably shareware or low cost?

Way back in the 1980's, I used to be able to use MacDraw to create decent drawings. I could choose shapes (circles, rectangles, lines, and so forth) from the palette, put them onto the canvas, resize them, color them, and so forth. It was easy!

Now all of the popular drawing programs (The Gimp, Photoshop, etc) seem to be layer-oriented instead of object-oriented.

I really need a simple yet powerful object-oriented drawing program for Windows. MacDraw-like functionality (20 years after the fact) would be just fine.

Any suggestions?

By: Memo

Memo — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 13:11:55 -0800

I've not used MacDraw but Inkscape and Sodipodi are opensource vector editors for windows.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 13:19:35 -0800

Deneba Canvas.

By: internal

internal — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 13:52:29 -0800

Why not just use Paint (it comes with Windows)?

By: fishfucker

fishfucker — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 13:53:41 -0800

Now all of the popular drawing programs (The Gimp, Photoshop, etc)

These aren't drawing programs -- although people do draw with them -- they're largely photo-editing applications.

Illustrator is a drawing program (or, as Memo puts more specifically, a vector editor), and probably the largest in the field. I'm not familar enough with MacDraw to know if it was/is pixel-based at its lowest level, but probably a vector -based illustration program is still going to meet your needs best.

thus, open source illustrator on google will get you a number of pages discussing possible alternatives.

By: jeffbarr

jeffbarr — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 14:03:13 -0800

Just tried out Inkscape and it was just what I was looking for. Thanks Memo, and everyone else.

By: mrbugsentry

mrbugsentry — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:00:26 -0800

Paint .NET is pretty cool, but is still layer-oriented.

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:06:16 -0800

[MacDraw is vector-oriented. Paint is pixel-oriented.]

By: Mikey-San

Mikey-San — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 17:18:22 -0800

This just won an Apple Design Award.

Disclaimer: I work here.

By: planetthoughtful

planetthoughtful — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 23:59:35 -0800

Xara Xtreme might be worth looking at. Not free, but not terribly expensive, either.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 00:39:01 -0800

Jeff, this is gonna sound nuts, but xfig does work under Cygwin. Some way overdetailed instructions here. Doesn't get much more old school than xfig.