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Canvas

What: Illustration, photo editing, page layout, and presentation software

By: ACD Systems of America

Cost: $349.95 regular version; $549.99 scientific imaging version; $649.99 GIS version

Download: www.acdamerica.com

Canvas is a powerful, precision illustration package that also includes photo retouching, page layout, and presentation capabilities. It competes with some of Adobe's Creative Suite tools and is available for both Mac and Windows. Its interface is cleaner than most drawing and page layout programs because it defaults to opening only one floating palette. Other palettes and dialog boxes are easily accessible via a tabbed tool bar. Novices can quickly familiarize themselves with tool functionality by using Dynamic Help. Other nice features include the ability to break large graphics into pieces to facilitate faster Web downloads, and sprites, which can be used to apply transparency effects to any object.

The figure shows two documents: a page layout and an illustration. In the center is the main drawing palette.

Why I like it: Canvas packs much of the functionality of several high-end software packages into one moderately priced application. It offers great value for the money.

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