Microsoft stakes out mid-range graphics
territory
by Alan Zisman
(c) 1999. First
published in Toronto Computes,
September,
1999
Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000
www.microsoft.com/office/photodraw
approx $250
requires: Pentium 90 or better, Windows 95/98/NT, 32
MB RAM, up
to190 MB drive space
Think graphics software companies and you may think of
Adobe?makers
of high end favourites like PhotoShop and Illustrator, or of
Ottawa-based
Corel, with its popular CorelDraw suite.
While software-giant Microsoft controls big hunks of
the operating system
and Office suite markets, they haven?t been a force to reckon with in
the
graphics market?not until now, at least.
Microsoft?s new PhotoDraw 2000 may change all that,
however. It leaves
the professional market to companies like Adobe, Corel, and Macromedia
while also avoiding the low end, where products are often bundled free
with digital cameras and scanners.
Instead, PhotoDraw 2000 combines a lot of power with
an easy-to-use
interface, and aims for a hitherto mostly ignored middle
market?non-graphics
professionals, many of whom already use Microsoft Office, who need to
sometimes
produce high quality graphical output.
Crossing the boundaries between high-end and low-end,
PhotoDraw also
crosses the boundaries between bitmap photo editing (like Adobe
Photoshop
or Corel PhotoPaint) and vector draw programs (like Adobe Illustrator
or
CorelDraw). Like Deneba Canvas, PhotoDraw supports both bitmap and
vector
graphics commands in a single program. In fact, PhotoDraw users don?t
have
to know about these two basic sorts of graphics?they can simply get
down
to work. Similarly, users don?t need to know what sorts of file formats
to use for different projects?the program offers options to ?Save to
the
Web? for example, which automatically converts files to the proper
format.
Like Microsoft?s Publisher desktop publishing
software, PhotoDraw tries
to simplify the often complex task of creating or enhancing artwork.
Selecting
a toolbar item produces a bar full of icons of related tasks?this can
make
for a busy screen, but makes it much easier to make a selection without
learning a lot of specialized graphics jargon. And like Publisher, it
comes
packed with templates, making it easy to customize someone else?s idea
for your project?300 templates for business cards, letterhead,
brochures,
flyers, Web banners and buttons, and more.
The program excels at letting you reposition existing
work?helping to
alter your letterhead into your business card, return envelopes, and
Web
graphics. The CD is stocked up with 20,000 clipart?much of it easily
customizable,
200 fonts, photos, and more. Of course, it also works fine with your
own
artwork, scanned photos, or what-have-you.
The program includes all the standard photo-enhancing
effects?red-eye
reduction, dust and scratch removal, contrast and brightness controls,
and so forth. Drawing and painting tools can be used when starting from
scratch, or on existing artwork. These include a wide variety of
brushes,
including some interesting photo brushes, letting you ?paint? with a
small
image.
Text can be easily manipulated including easy 3D
effects. The program
supports multiple undo and multiple layers?so text is always editable.
My favorite PhotoDraw feature is the collection of
Designer Effects.
This includes a diverse collection of ?painterly? effects that can be
applied
to an existing photo, with results that vary from the unviewable to
tasteful
to artistic to cliched. Most of these effects have been available
(often
as extra-cost plugins) for some time for high-end photo editing
programs,
but Microsoft includes too many to count together with an easy-to-use
interface.
At the same time, this showed off the program?s
limitations?there?s
no way to preview the effects before applying them for example, and no
settings?you can?t vary the intensity of the various effects.
I suppose this is intentional?if you want high-end
control, get a high-end
program. All in all, Microsoft is successful in producing a graphics
program
with lots of power, easily accessible by someone who isn?t a graphics
pro.
A 30-day free trial version is available as a 31 MB
download, or on
CD. PhotoDraw 2000 is included, along with FrontPage 2000 in the
?Premium?
version of Microsoft Office 2000.