Recommend a basic drawing program?

Question

Level 1

15 points

Recommend a basic drawing program?

I need to make some figures for a math project, and I realized I don't have a basic drawing application. I just need to be able to draw circles, shade regions, arrows, that kind of thing. I also need to be able to label things, so I need text (including greek letters, or even better, I would just insert the text as images from latexit).

I have Seashore but it doesn't seem to have a circle tool. What's a good program to use for this kind of drawing? Preferably a free one.

Thanks!

macbook - white, Mac OS X (10.5.5)

Posted on Feb 28, 2009 2:47 AM

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Answer 1

Yer_Man

Level 10

162,308 points

Feb 28, 2009 3:26 AM in response to Terabithia

Here are some possibilities.

Regards

TD

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Answer 2

thomas_r.

Level 7

31,989 points

Feb 28, 2009 4:44 AM in response to Terabithia

My previous computer came with a program called OmniGraffle, and I have found it to be great. If was not pre-instaled on my new MacBook Pro, though. It's not free, unless it happens to be sitting on your computer already and you're not aware of it.

There's a quite good, but complex, vector drawing program like Adobe Illustrator called Inkscape... the downside is that it isn't a native Mac app. It's a Unix app and requires X11 (available on your Mac OS X install disk as an optional install). There's also a similar program (also requiring X11) that is more like Adobe Photoshop called Gimp.

Hope one of these can help you!

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Answer 3

Feb 28, 2009 8:05 AM in response to Terabithia

For simple (and even some complex) shapes and labels, arrows, shading, etc., I use the drawing tools in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel). Since most of my work is done in those applications, it is quite handy.

If you don’t have MS Office, you can try some of the dozens of freeware, shareware or commercial drawing applications listed on VersionTracker.com.

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Answer 4

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Feb 28, 2009 8:17 AM in response to Terabithia

OmniGraffle is not free but may have been bundled with your computer. DrawBerry is a basic free vector drawing program which might work for you.

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Answer 5

Feb 28, 2009 9:18 AM in response to Yer_Man

Terence, I don’t know about others, but for me the link you provided is blank and I would like to see what you recommended.

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Answer 6

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Feb 28, 2009 9:52 AM in response to Terabithia

Corel Painter?

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/imaging_3d/corelpainter.html

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Answer 7

bdmarsha

Level 4

2,580 points

Feb 28, 2009 10:14 AM in response to Terabithia

This is the inexpensive drawing program that I recommend; if you are a college student you can also get Adobe Illustrator at a good discount (still about twice the price of Intaglio).

<http://purgatorydesign.com/Intaglio/>

bd

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Answer 8

Ashka

Level 4

3,885 points

Feb 28, 2009 12:45 PM in response to Terabithia

Paintbrush might work for you, the price is right too.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32559

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