MacDirectory Magazine

Spring-Summer 2010

MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.

Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/11584

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COMPANY PROFILE DEKORRA OPTICS’ EAZYDRAW > ON A MISSION TO MAKE YOU A BETTER ARTIST WORDS BY MATT MARQUEZ Not all of us are blessed with artistic talent, but Dave Mattson believes that a shaky drawing hand shouldn’t stop us from whipping up plans for a new deck or quilt design when the need arises. That’s why Mattson designed the EazyDraw software – so everyone can look as talented as the doodler in those UPS commercials except without all the shaggy hair. Mac users can find a host of drawing applications on the market, but many programs are either too shallow to let would-be Picassos get their feet wet or else so deep and complicated that beginners quickly drown. EazyDraw strives to find the right depth so that less experienced users can draw a simple logo painlessly and advanced artists can find all the tools they need to illustrate a detailed cartoon image or technical schematic. And by all accounts, Mattson has succeeded. Mac Observerlabeled the latest version of EazyDraw “Best of Breed” and called it “the friendliest, most capable, backwards compatible… vector drawing program on a Mac.” EazyDraw is the latest brainchild for Mattson, who originally designed and manufactured analytical instruments (think “CSI,” he says), before founding Dekorra Optics to develop spectroscopy instruments for pharmaceutical research. The industry hit hard times after 2001 and Mattson was forced to look for a new direction. He recalled how the ability to craft compelling presentations was nearly as important as data analysis skills for the scientists he had been building equipment for. That’s when he realized that a drawing program for the just-announced Mac OS X would be a necessity for anyone who needed to produce creative illustrations without a world of talent. “Drawing is not just for artists,” Mattson says. “It is an inherent part of communication. Ask anyone to go up to a whiteboard and discuss a topic – when they’re done the board will likely have a few words scattered around as well as other drawings like circles, arrows and squiggles.” Customers can purchase a 350-page manual (created with EazyDraw, of course), but the program was designed to be easy enough to use right out of the box. From something as simple as curving a line of text to producing an entire comic strip, EazyDraw has the tools to get the job done intuitively and painlessly. And since EazyDraw is a complete vector drawing application, finished products can be printed at the highest quality possible and exported in a variety of formats, including EPS, PDF, GIF, PNG and JPG. The most recent update to EazyDraw was released late last year and it was designed specifically to make the already accessible program even more intuitive. The user interface received a complete make over and Mattson’s team added text capability to make it even easier to design page layouts and typography work. “We wanted to make certain EazyDraw could handle the big jobs so the entire program manual was done with EazyDraw,” Mattson says. “It made it easy to include and position all the figures and screenshots, and EazyDraw allows linked text boxes to flow across pages and columns and around other graphics.” Mattson says that a move to 64-bit computing is in the works to take full advantage of Mac OS X Snow Leopard’s capabilities. So look for EazyDraw to be even faster and more robust in the future. Support for scalable vector graphics (SVG) is also planned for the next EazyDraw release. Just as the EazyDraw caters to a wide range of skill levels, the application is available in a variety of formats. The full downloadable version costs $95, or users can purchase a 9-month license for only $20. Don’t be fooled into thinking the trial is a “lite” version, however – the trial license offers full use of the program with no constraints and free updates for the entire period. But if that’s too much of commitment, a free demo is also available with a 20-graphic limit. All versions can be accessed at . Whatever your needs or skill level, Dekorra Optics’ EazyDraw is designed to help you become a better artist. Who knows, you could even become the next UPS presenter. 126 MacDirectory

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