ZeusDraw is a vector application that I found a few days ago on MacZot. At first glance it didn’t seem interesting, but I took the time to watch the demonstration videos and was blown away by the simplicity and intuitiveness of it’s brush and color controls. I’m no expert with graphic applications, but brush capabilities are something even I have found sorely lacking in the cheaper (i.e. not made by Adobe) graphic applications for Mac. They all allow you to paint with a brush, but usually the only things you can customize are the size, color, and softness. With ZeusDraw, on the other hand, it’s a different story entirely.

ZeusDraw has a library of different brushes to use, and the ability to make your own. To make a custom brush just select your objects, click the brush tool, set the type to “Objects”, and click the “Get Objects” button. Then you can customize other settings like the width, spacing, and the different aspects of randomness to ensure that you don’t just paint a row of identical pictures. You can also add your custom brushes to the library for future use.

ZeusDraw has a great color system. All you have to do to change the color of an object is drag the color or gradient from the palette to the object. ZeusDraw also has a very useful “Design Colors” palette, which contains all the colors used in your image; this palette can be used to change all objects of a certain color to another, just by dragging a new color onto the old one in the “Design Colors” palette. Gradients can also be modified from this palette, or directly from the canvas.

Another great color management tool is the panel ZeusDraw installs in the Apple Color Picker. It’s an earlier version of Shades, and makes it easier to create color schemes by showing a grid of related colors and allowing you to change various parameters. Follow the link for screenshots and a more in-depth explanation.

A section of the ZeusDraw toolbar contains buttons dedicated to viewing; these buttons save a lot of time when you need to zoom in and out a lot, and move your view around the canvas. For example, there are “Previous View” and “Next View” buttons, a button that fits the page bounds to the window, and a “Home” button that takes you back to your original view.

ZeusDraw is also able to open .EPS files by importing them as .PDFs. You can then convert the PDF to objects, and ungroup them to edit the objects like any other vector drawings. I’ve been having a lot of fun changing the color schemes of my .EPS files using the “Design Colors” palette!

The interface is a bit plain, and all those floating windows drive me crazy at times. $90 also seems a lot compared to VectorDesigner and Drawit, which are priced at $69.95 and $42 respectively. Then again, ZeusDraw is the only application out of these three with any brush capabilities to speak of, and apparently filters and the ability to put text on a path will be added in the fall. Considering ZeusDraw’s features and ease of use, and the fact that the only two features I found missing will soon be added, ZeusDraw is definitely an excellent choice for anyone in need of a vector application.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!