ACD Systems Canvas X review

Canvas is rather an odd beast.

For the past few years it has been passed from one software company to another, and recently it ended up with ACD Systems, which is marketing it primarily as a tool for creating technical illustrations. For this latest version of the program, ACD has slashed the price from almost £200 to just £90. That's quite a bargain - especially as the US price is still a hefty $349 (around £196). However, it still leaves the question of who exactly Canvas is aimed at.

Although Canvas is now presented as primarily a technical illustration program, it includes a wide range of graphics tools, combining both vector and bitmap graphics and even a good selection of photo-editing, animation and desktop publishing (DTP) features. We wouldn't recommend it as a graphics program for home users - the sheer range of tools crammed into it makes Canvas a little too complicated - but for business users it represents a very affordable alternative to other graphics suites such as the more expensive CorelDraw.

When you launch the program its Start screen asks you what type of document you want to create. The options here reflect the program's wide range of graphics tools, and include vector-based illustrations, DTP publications, animations and custom documents, where you can freely mix and match different types of graphics. It also has a small selection of templates for creating documents such as calendars, business brochures and presentation slides. Acknowledging the possible confusion that can arise here, the Start screen also allows you to open a series of web-based tutorials designed to introduce the main graphics tools quickly and guide you through common tasks.

Once you've selected the type of document you want to work with, you enter the main workspace where all the different vector and bitmap graphics tools are available. These include simple lines and arrowheads for drawing flow charts, sophisticated text layout and formatting features for DTP work, a variety of photographic filters and special effects and, of course, vector drawing tools for technical illustrations and business graphics. If that all sounds a little daunting there's a helpful context-sensitive Assistant palette that automatically provides information about any tool you select.

To emphasise its jack-of-all-trades status, Canvas can import around 100 different graphics file formats. It also provides a rather unusual printer driver option. Once installed, this driver appears in all the other applications on your computer and allows them to convert their own documents to Canvas format so that you can edit them in Canvas.

Given this almost bizarre degree of flexibility, it makes sense for ACD to concentrate on the program's technical illustration tools and simply treat its DTP and bitmap graphics tools as an added bonus. Viewed in that way, Canvas represents excellent value for business users who need to produce technical illustrations, diagrams and other types of business graphics.