PhotoDraw was created mostly so Microsoft could bundle it with editions of Microsoft Office, where they could include it in a features checklist to make their suite "better" than others'. But it was so lacking in features and such a dead-end for anyone who wanted to do any real image editing or drawing, that they've discontinued it! (So much for the myth of Microsoft always being a "safe" choice.) Their remaining product in the category (Picture It!) is just a toy. So what's an "orphaned" PhotoDraw user to do? Pick one of these:
	Adobe Photoshop is the image-editing software that others are measured against, and much of the graphic-design industry runs on it. That's not to say that it's the best at everything, but if you can afford it, and you need a complete feature set, it's probably worth it. The bundled ImageReady program adds the Web-friendly tools the main program lacks (such as animation). For those on a budget, PhotoShop Elements leaves out some of the high-end features for a lot less money. PhotoDeluxe is an even simpler version for home users. For Windows and Mac OS.
	JASC's Paint Shop Pro began as a small shareware utility only a little better than the toy Paint program included with Windows, but in recent years has grown into a credible "poor man's Photoshop". While it's not quite as full-featured, it has most of the tools folks might need, including layers and plug-in filters. And it's affordable. A program for working with GIF animations is included in the package.
	Macromedia Fireworks has some of the same ideas that PhotoDraw is trying to implement, combining object-based (vector) drawing with (bit-mapped) painting by simultaneously keeping track of the vectors, but displaying the bit-mapped results on screen. It's particularly well-suited to producing graphics for the web (one of Macromedia's general areas of strength). For Windows and Mac OS.
	The GIMP's name is... unfortunate, but chalk that up to geeks with a fondness for silly acronyms; the program is anything but "crippled". GIMP is an abbreviation for the GNU Image Manipulation Program. The user interface is a little different from what you might be used to, but it's greatly improved in version 2, so if you hear horror stories about it, they might not apply anymore. It's the premiere graphics tool for Unix-like systems, and is now fully supported for Windows and Mac OS X (using X11), with independent ports (lagging behind a bit) for BeOS and OS/2.
	Deneba Canvas supports vector, bit-mapped, and text elements in the same image, and even adds page-layout and web-page capabilities. Its "sprite" technology lets you apply special-effect filters to both kinds of graphic elements. Available in both standard and full-featured "pro" versions, for Windows and Mac OS.
	Ulead Photo Impact is a tool designed specially for web graphics from a company known for its graphic tools, though it's useful for other kinds of graphics as well. In addition to the usual image manipulation tools, it supports a combination of vector, bit-mapped, and text elements, and even generates HTML and optimized image files for entire web pages based on those elements.
	Ability Photopaint is available as part of a suite similar to MS Office (except much less expensive), or by itself. It's very similar to Photoshop in both its interface and its standard features, such as layers, filters, tools, and file formats. The "Studio" version adds support for Adobe-compatible plug-ins and vector-based graphics. Available for Windows, with a Linux version in the works. A free trial can be downloaded.
	Megalux Ultimate Paint is a shareware program with an emphasis on features and efficient (small and fast) code. In addition to the many included filters (it also supports Photoshop plug-ins), there's a tool for modifying or even creating your own filters from scratch. Another nifty feature are the menu options to automatically load the Windows startup and shutdown screens for editing.
	Pixia is free shareware program for Windows. It was designed for the anime/manga (Japanese animation/comics) community, which gives it a strong user base, but it's useful for any kind of art, really. Versions in Japanese, English, German, and several other languages are available. Its main shortcoming is its lack of support for .GIF files, presumably due to the licencing fees required for that... which are hard to pay when you're not charging money for your product.
	602Photo is part of a free suite from the Czech company Software602 that includes a spreadsheet and word processor that are strong substitutes for Excel and Word. It doesn't have the quantity of features of many other packages, but it has the most useful features and it implements them cleverly. Like PhotoDraw, it's a bit of an afterthought to include in its office suite, but it serves its purposes well.
	Corel Painter is a professional-grade graphics program, intended primarily for simulating natural media, such as various paints, charcoals, pencils, etc. As such it's more for creating naturalistic images than editing them or creating techno-style imagery, but it offers unique capabilities that the do-it-all programs lack. Available for both Mac and Windows.

All logos and product names are trademarks of their respective developers or distributors.
This site is in no way affiliated with Microsoft Corporation
© 1999-2006, Todd VerBeek.