I hadn’t heard of Canva. I see that there’s free version and subscription-based Pro version. The free version is worth a try, I suppose, but my usage is so intermittent that I wouldn’t want to enter a subscription scheme at this stage. My track record with subscriptions is poor, in that I forget to cancel them. I suspect I’m not the only one.
I just took a closer look at this feature of Pages. It does look quite like MacDraw really, and I have used it from time to time in a very simple way. I note that you can create a graphic made of several vector components, group it, copy it and paste it into another app. I’m not sure if it arrives as a bitmap or a vector - I suspect that depends on the app. For example if you paste into Preview, it’s a PNG. So there are issues like, what if you want to maintain a high resolution? This would be guaranteed in a vector image, but obviously not in a bitmap. I’ll look a bit harder.
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Yes, I’ve not played around with exporting, and it’s surprising that pasting into Preview doesn’t create a PDF. One thing to consider trying is to use Keynote. It has the same tools, but the canvas is based on a customisable pixel size, so might be better for creating images/diagrams for export. Size your slide appropriately and then use the vector tools to create a diagram that fills the slide (I think you can adjust the slide size at any time). Then export the slide as a PDF. You could of course have a document with several diagrams on different slides.
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Another vote for OmniGraffle. I’ve used it for years to do schematics used in academic papers or for lecture slides. Excellent app that sees frequent updates. No subscription required.
It’s probably overkill compared to the more simple MacDraw. I admit I rarely use it for more than stuff I probably could have done in MacDraw and yet I never feel like its complexity is getting in the way of my productivity. In that sense, it’s the exact opposite of MS Office for me. It’s just a really excellently made app.
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Have you considered online tools? I have been using the free draw.io (diagrams.net) for years to do simple diagramming like network diagrams, flowcharts and swimlanes. I’m sure that if one draws diagrams on a daily basis, one requires OmniGraffle (which also handles Visio files quite well) or the like. Me as the once-in-a-blue-moon diagrammer, I cannot justify neither the price nor the learning curve for that extra level of sophistication and UI satisfaction (draw.io is not very Mac-like in that respect).
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I remember MacDraw. When I need to do something of that nature now I use the Draw program in LibreOffice. It costs you nothing unless you donate to it.
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Depending on what you want to do, this may be worth investigating: RealCADD - 2D CAD Software There is more information available here: RealCADD 2D Computer Aided Drawing Program
I didn’t notice that. I had tried it for a book project, it worked well enough that I paid for a full license to finish the job, then thought I had been hit by an upgrade requirement. I’ll have to pay more attention. It’s not software I use regularly, and Libre Draw might fill my needs
How on earth do you get any useful vector drawing from PowerPoint these days. Once upon a time it did have what were useful 3D graphics for the time, but lately I have found it unusable even for when I want old-style PowerPoint drawings. Do the hide the usable graphics somewhere?
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I used to draw technical drawings and when MacDraw came out I used it extensively.
My company transitioned to Windows and as MacDraw faded away I started to use Visio. Very cool the way you could “glue” objects together.
Now however, you can’t beat draw.io. It’s a cloud based web app. Its modeled after Visio but everything is easier than Visio. It a better Visio and its free.
Point your browser to draw.io and you will be drawing in less than a minute. Great responsive UI. Works in any browser. Even Safari on my 2012 MBA.
I notice that Canva also has a regular MacOS app, so it’s not just on the web. Does anyone have experience of how good the free version is, since I’m not sure I can justify a subscription for the amount I am likely to use it. Also, how does it compares to the old Canvas?
Referent for “it” is ambiguous. If you mean “Canva”, this discussion is the first place I have heard of it. I’ve not investigated it.
Current Canvas X Draw is not particularly different from Canvas 3.5 for the Mac (now that’s ‘old’ Canvas), at least from the User Interface. The newer version supports the latest Apple Silicon, macOS and is 64bit.
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Intaglio used to be a good option but has sadly disappeared. Grafio is another possibility which supports Mac & iPad (on the app stores). I was using OmniGraffle but it has some unpleasant behaviours when rotating small features - an acknowledged bug that has never been fixed, so I can’t trust it anymore for new work. Like others here I am using Pages or Numbers for quite a lot of basic vector drawing and it’s not a bad environment at all unless you need to export to other applications. There are also some low-end CAD packages for the Mac which might be suitable like MacDraft.
Curio has pretty good drawing tools and is fantastic in many other ways. Support is superb. I use it very heavily for diagramming, mind mapping and brainstorming.
You can also download draw.io (now called diagrams.net) as an application and use it offline.
https://www.diagrams.net/
FYI their business model (explained on their About page) is explicitly pro-privacy, anti-customer lock-in. Very unusual. They make their money solely from selling their integration with Atlassian.
The tool itself is solid and worthwhile, if unpolished in places. Importing other formats is a bit hit of miss, the diagrams always seem to need adjusting afterwards. And some features are hard to discover. But still, thumbs up from me.
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@livfoss
I also remember MacDraw (and probably have a very old Mac that still runs it…).
I recently needed to draw a simple network diagram (boxes, lines, a cloud, some text, etc) and came across diagrams.net. It can be used entirely online, or there’s a app than can be downloaded. I used the online version, and was quite impressed with what can be accomplished with HTML5, Javascript and other web magic. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but I found a playlist of tutorial videos on YouTube that are helpful.
Diagrams created can be saved (and shared) on Google Drive and other cloud-based repositories.
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There are lots of choices that no one has mentioned:
Amadine ($30)
CanvasXDraw ($299)
Growly Draw (free)
Affinity Designer ($70)
will open both .eps and .ai files from Adobe Illustrator.
Graphic for Mac ($30) (formerly iDraw)
EazyDraw ($95)
DrawBerry (free, donation requested)
http://raphaelbost.free.fr/DrawBerry.html
https://launchpad.net/drawberry
Sketch ($9/month)
SketchBook Pro ($20)
My Draw ($69)
Inkscape (free, donation requested)
ZeusDraw ($90)
OmniGraffle/Pro ($150)
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Actually several of these have been mentioned already. My original post was seeking something simple for vector drawing on a Mac. You will remember that the original MacDraw was free, and my requirement was for something of limited functionality for occasional use, so not something I would pay a lot for. So in my particular case, all the apps over $50 are out, as are all using a subscription model. I have a feeling that most people who’ve taken part in this conversation are of a similar opinion, but it may be just a feeling.
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That’s a nice summary, Randy. Thanks.
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I understood what you were looking for, which is why I left out all of the professional tools that cost well over $100. As far as my list containing exactly what you want…I can only point out what exists and hope that after you check out the many options, one of them can somehow be pressed into service to meet your needs.
If you are on a limited budget, I have a Web page that offers a very extensive list of free software for the Macintosh:
Free Macintosh Software
http://www.macattorney.com/free.html
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