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CompactDraw
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What
is the difference between CompactDraw and other vector or Bitmap
drawing software?
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CompactDraw
combines both the vector and the image editing software. It uses
the tools and convenience of vector drawing packages to create a
Bitmap image. The first difference between vector drawing packages
is the output with smooth edges and effects only Bitmap editors
can have. The difference with Bitmap editors is that CompactDraw
has nondestructive editing and everything is editable all the time.
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What
is e-JPG? |
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CompactDraw
saves the project in *.idr file. However you can export it in CompactDraw
special e-JPG format as well. e-JPG is a JPG compatible image format.
You can use it on your web pages or open it in any graphics editor.
However if you open the e-JPG in CompactDraw you will be able to
edit again its objects, text or whatever else. The quality or size
of the JPG image you see doesn't affect the quality of the editable
objects. In other words you can just show it as a small thumbnail
on your web page but then if somebody downloads it and open it in
CompactDraw he will be able to edit it in full quality and he could
save it in size or quality he prefer.
The advantages:
- you
don't have to make two files: a thumbnail and a file to download
- the thumbnail is already the project file
- you
can show the image in small size and let user to recreate the
image in a quality, size and file format he likes - because of
a small size of the project data the file would be much smaller
than a jpg of the original size and best quality.
- Versatility
and no quality loss, you can preview the file as a jpg with low
quality but with CompactDraw you can recreate the file again to
any format and any quality.
Samples
of e-JPG can be found on CD Gallery
pages.
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Why
there is no export to GIF? |
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Gif
is a popular format, however it is not license free. There are royalties
to be paid to Unisys. We were hoping for some reasonable fee, but
we have been asked for fee in amount of few thousands dollars. This
is still open and we are ready in the future to pay the fees.
You
can still save the image in png or bmp and convert it with many
free available tools.
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How
are the Airbrush-like images done?
(for example the Nokia phone) |
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There
is a short example at
the end of a manual showing the major tricks behind the phone image.
It is easy to do with CompactDraw. All shapes were created with Make
New Path tool or Circle and the rest is just the power of texture
mixing and bevels.
Also look at the CompactDraw gallery
to see more cool images. Usually the best effects are the simple ones. |
How
to add your own permanent textures? |
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You
have to put a texture image file (it could be in any format) to
the Textures subdirectory of CompactDraw. Rename it to something
appropriate. Important: Make sure you don't have any two
textures with the sme name (even if the file format and extension
is different).
Note: Because you can change the colors and mix of the textures
you don't need that many textures. You can create water by using
stone texture with Screen etc...the combinations are endless. Also
if you want to share the idr file you create with custom
texture with someone else you have to give him the texture file
or save the idr in a Portable file format (from menu Project,
select General Settings) which of course makes the idr file bigger.
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What
are seamless textures and how to create them? |
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The
textures used in CompactDraw are seamless also referred as uses perpetual
repetition or perpetuating. When such image is tiled, the image seems
to be perpetual, going on and on indefinitely in all directions, not
mirrored or overlapped. Such images are also used as a backgrounds
on the web pages.
All the textures in CompactDraw were created with special care from
different non-seamless images. This is a long manual process. There
are many tutorials how to create seamless backgrounds. The common
way is to use offset and different painting methods. See some tutorial.
Also there are millions of seamless background images on the web. |
What is the difference between CompactDraw and Real-Draw Pro? |
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Compact draw is entry-level software, yet with many powerful features. Real-Draw Pro continues where CompctDraw stops, it is more complex, offer even more effects (such as lights) and has also bitmap editing support.
Other difference is the price.
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