EazyDraw for Mac, free and safe download. EazyDraw latest version: Draw and illustrate in vector formats. EazyDraw labels itself as 'Simple enough for a beginner yet.

If a developer were to set out to design the friendliest, most capable, backwards compatible, best documented vector drawing program on a Mac, they'd arrive. Not only does it use modern Mac OS X technologies, but remains true to the Mac heritage of drawing apps.

Many of us have been distracted over the years on the Mac. I know I have. The Internet has immersed us in Safari, e-mail, RSS, Twitter, virtualization, and security.

It's all too easy to gloss over technologies that have that distant ring, that legacy feel of something we used to do, but don't do much anymore. Especially with the pressures of modern life. EazyDraw Technical Drawing It's rare to find a first class Mac application that doesn't require Internet access. Indeed, one that focuses on the solitary art of something very basic -- drawing.

When I saw the EazyDraw booth at Macworld, I had that feeling. Something tickled my fancy, however, so I lingered and chatted with the people in the booth. In a few minutes I realized that I had lost something in my Mac journeys: awareness and skills with a first class vector drawing program. VP Jay Pedracine gave me a copy and a license and invited me to explore EazyDraw 3. I have been delighted ever since. This is a program after my heart. Design Principles Really good software excels at all the ambitious goals set for it.

Reviewers like myself are constantly exposed to software that does a few things well, then drops the ball in other areas, either because the developer didn't have the time, expertise or resources to fill out the product profile. For example, if one were to establish some goals for really good software, the list might look like this: • Have complete documentation. Rs File Repair 1.1 Key more. Include even the anecdotal.

Inform rather than address. Include historical notes. Provide tutorials and examples. • Have a simple user interface (UI) but include imbedded power, leveraged off Mac OS X advanced technologies. • Do things in a Mac-like way where everything just works and the program instantly becomes a candidate for a WWDC Apple Design award.

(EazyDraw hasn't been submitted for that award.) • Include great backwards compatibility with long gone predecessors, even it it requires painstaking reverse engineering. • Remain mindful of printing, color and import/export issues and explain those to the customer. Getting Started Another mark of a great program is the affordance for the user to install easily and start using the program right away in a productive way, thanks to intuitive design and legacy Macintosh principles. Then, as the user wants to dig into details or get an explanation, a nicely laid out manual can be referenced. This is exactly what EazyDraw does. I've seen all too many programs that scare the wits out of the user during installation, (with an unnecessary Admin password request or onerous logs) then present such an opaque interface that the user feels a sense helplessness and disappointment. If you've ever used AppleWorks, ClarisDraw or even MacDraw, you'll be right at home with this program.

In fact, you probably have some old ClarisDraw or AppleWorks files sprinkled on your hard disk, but have relegated to them to a dusty past because you despaired of ever reading them again -- let alone being able to edit them. Again, EazyDraw does this with ease. The manual explains: 'To the best of our knowledge the definition of these file formats is lost information. Certainly, none was available to our company. The EazyDraw project for these file formats was reverse engineered -- a daunting task. Unlike the depiction in a Movie or TV show, the 'hacker' doesn't tap away at the key board for a few minutes and proclaim 'I'm In.'

The process is actually months of drawing (in the old application), comparing binary content of two slightly different drawings, deciphering differences, and finally writing code.' I found that particularly refreshing and informative in these times of cryptic and obfuscatory speech. Digging In The first thing I did was to import an old AppleWorks file that had an engineering drawing of my TV system. After a flawless import, I started editing the drawing to get a feel for the UI elegance.

At every step I was pleased with the design of the program. I especially like nuances such as a small, red block in a text block that indicates that some of the text has been obscured. The red circles that terminate lines make aligning easy. As one might expect, holding down the shift key constrains lines to be horizontal or vertical.