Inkscape is fine, too. I use its 0.46 version here, which has a decent
user guide--http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/.
Illustrator is the /de facto/ industry standard, so using that as a
normed reference makes sense for comparison purposes for other
vector-graphics applications. As would comparing gimp and IrfanView with
Adobe Photoshop for raster graphics.
Whenever I find errors in Adobe's user guides nowadays, I simply will
park the corrections on my forum site (for my future easy reference and
for anybody else) and no longer will bother sending any more detailed
errata lists to them (or their forums) as they completely ignore
corrections in the succeeding editions of their user guides or online
help. They never responded to me after I submitted anything over the
years--although they clearly state that they would welcome such reports
to assist them in quality control. That is simply marketing bull shit on
Adobe's part, and their manuals from earlier versions are far better
written than their current guides--often resembling Reader's Digest
compared to the earlier editions for the same software apps.
When I reported some long-standing errors in FrameScript's
documentation, its chief developer remarked that nobody ever bothered to
bring it to their attention before to the point that the he suggested
that maybe nobody reads their docs anymore. I know some user types who
constantly piss and moan whenever they cannot do things correctly that
are easy to do, if any simple directions were followed. Instead of their
reading any simple or detailed docs, they just complain on email lists
or forum sites for everything that they could fix by themselves.
Four and 1/2 full decades of AA and lowering standards, thereby, in the
US has taken its toll on US government schools, I reckon.
Gary
Jean Hollis Weber wrote:
Might be good to also compare both Draw and Illustrator with Inkscape,
another free and open source vector drawing program.
I've heard that Inkscape is very good. I haven't had a chance yet to
give it a try, but will probably be doing so in the next week or two.
--Jean
Gary Schnabl wrote:
Not being talented much with graphics, I decided to see how somebody
poorly skilled in graphics might fare with some current
vector-graphic applications. So, over this weekend (around midnight
Friday/Sat AM), I decided to purchase a new copy of Adobe Illustrator
CS4. The best price for Adobe's SRP $599 Illustrator CS4 was an
ebay-store dealer with a 99% positive feedback rate.
He wanted $299, but his price was negotiable from that. So, I bid
$285, leaving him a 48-hour window to accept it or not. He accepted
it fairly quickly, so, perhaps, I should have bid lower? Anyway, I
paid for it through ebay-owned PayPal, and I was contacted by him and
its delivery is already in motion. It will come with a DVD tutorial
produced by Adobe (standard for CS4 or not--I do not know), a
physical US PostOffice DVD delivery, a COA, no sales tax, and no S&H
charges. IOW, $285 total for a brand-new copy of Adobe Illustrator
CS4, period.
Whenever it arrives, I intend to compare both Draw and Illustrator,
and eventually post how I rate them on an /ad hoc/ basis on my older
Technical Editor forum site on FreeForums.org, along with the other
/ad hoc/ material posted there.
Gary
--
Gary Schnabl
(Southwest) Detroit--two miles NORTH! of Canada (Windsor, that is...)
