iDraw App has potential - $24, Apple App Store

[GenoaJenn]

I was searching for a “quick fix” solution that would run natively in Mountain Lion and Mavericks and found iDraw.

This was really meant as a quick fix of files that I had already made into PDFs in FreeHand (running on separate Snow Leopard hard drive on my 2009 Mac Pro). iDraw, so far, has been able to open every FreeHand PDF I needed to change with the layers and gradients intact.

There are limitations, though, especially when it comes to exporting files.

In FreeHand, I have converted the text to outlines in order to print any PDFs I make, so sometimes, I have to go back to the original FreeHand file to locate the font.

iDraw has potential to be more.

iDraw is more a combination of Illustrator and FreeHand than what Adobe did for Illustrator after shutting down FreeHand development. When I opened one of my PDFs in iDraw where I flattened all layers to the Foreground layer, I found the “layers" in iDraw actually had a similar layers palette as Illustrator — each piece of the graphic was parked on its own layer from first to last.

I thought to myself at the time, “What a pain in the ass layering is going to be.” But then I opened a PDF where I left the original layers named and just like that, I had my layers with names!

The current issues I have with iDraw concern the colors palette. I find it as difficult to name and save a color to it as in Illustrator. Plus, changing colors of objects was driving me crazy… sometimes I could change a color with a click and other times I could not change the color to save my life.

I’m sending the makers of iDraw (http://www.indeeo.com) a note to see what the problem is and if it’s fixable.

The other cool thing about iDraw is they have a version for iPad.

I’m sure I’ll find other issues and differences that may be annoying, but I can't argue the price.

For a measly $24 I found an app that will allow me to fix or change FreeHand PDFs, save them to a variety of formats (PDF, PSD, SVG, PNG, GIF, JPG and TIFF), works in Mountain Lion and Mavericks, and has a version for my iPad, which is quite a bundle of potential.

[FFH Mark]

Great review!

iDraw has been very attentive to us FreeHanders. I contacted them about a year or so ago and they intently listened to the concerns. They even have a copy of the FreeHand/Illustrator comparison guide to refer to. But I see by your review it shows that iDraw features have really improved in the right direction. I didn't know that an imported FH-PDF will retain its layers!

Reading their Facebook page always has FreeHand users chiming in and I read that the next feature will be CMYK support. Now if they can get native FreeHand files to import directly, we will be golden.

—Mark

[GenoaJenn]

They already have CMYK color in their color palette, but as I mentioned above, the colors don’t always change on the object when you want them to. Just a little glitch, I imagine.

I’m seriously thinking about purchasing the iPad app version so I can add graphics to some of my Pages documents without leaving iPad.

—Jenn

[moonliner]

I agree that the iDraw folks are working with us. They have implemented some of my wish list (not saying because of me, I'm sure others asked for same features) and they usually reply.

There is also Creator Express from MultiAd which has some features that iDraw doesn't. Between the two you can do a lot.