Have you ever set out to do an artistic or graphic project only to find out you've picked the one thing no program will do? I found myself in that very
situation a couple of years ago. I was trying to draw the logo of radio station and put it on my computer for use in letterheads, etc. At first this seemed like a simple undertaking. The logo looks like an interstate
highway sign, a shield with letters and numbers. That worked well until I decided to use a vector-based program. For those not familiar with the difference in graphic formats, please take a look here.The problem was
I needed to be able to draw the nice smooth lines of vector programs (like CorelDRAW!, etc.) but be able to have an eraser like bitmap programs (Adobe Photoshop, etc.). It was then I discovered SMARTSKETCH from Future
Wave Software.
The program, which now has a Windows 95 version, has some amazing features I have yet to find anywhere else. First, just as I had wanted, you can draw vector-based lines, etc. and then erase them like a
bitmap. For those who don't draw well, the program will automatically make lines straighter or smoother and the Shape Recogition helps make sure your circles and squares look great. And once you draw a shape, you won't
see any handles. That's because you can grab any line at any point and reshape, stretch it or drag it. And it has a way to fill in shapes and then edit the fills that is really neat.
When you paint an item it's like
the coloring book you always dreamed of. Click on the pull down menu and the color will automatically only go inside the lines of the shape. You can also choose to paint only behind the object or paint normal like every
other program. And with the fills, you can tell it to take into account different sizes of breaks in the lines so it doesn't paint over your whole picture unless you want it too.
Although it's been out for several
months, I think people see it as just for artists and so it isn't as popular as other drawing programs. On the contrary, if you can't draw, this is the program that will help you draw better. The features are identical
for the Windows 3.11 and Windows 95 versions except the look of the screen. The Windows 95 version was written to meet the "Designed for Windows 95" standards and is Microsoft Office compatible in its look and
feel.
The only complaint I have about Smart Sketch is in it's graphics offering. You only get 500 graphics and they are nothing to write home about. I think a better graphics package would take a great product and
make it a super one for the artist in all of us, especially the not quite so talented.
Additional reviews by Doug Hess Jr. are available at his
