Easy images with 1st Design - GST Software's 1st Design 1.01 drawing software - Software Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, June, 1994 by Angela Gunn

Ratings: *** 1st Design Version Reviewed: 1.01 List Price: $70 Average Street Price: $50 Publisher: GST Software, (703) 560-2354, (800) 236-1062

WIN

A striking logo or well-executed graphic can impress customers in a way that even the best text cannot. If your letterhead, reports, or fliers could use some spicing up, GST's inexpensive 1st Design can help.

Though 1st Design is a drawing package, its real forte is working with someone else's art--that is, clip art. The package includes 600 pieces of vector clip art, all easy to tweak into the graphics of your dreams. The beautiful border clip art merits particular praise. 1st Design also includes 27 attractive TrueType fonts (you get 25 more when you send in the registration card).

The clip art images were easily separated into their component pieces--for example, we tailored a coffee cup image to our own ideal by breaking it apart (a process known as ungrouping) and removing an extraneous line or two. Similarly, it's simple to re-color and skew these images--i(t was no problem to tilt the coffee cup to match the skew we put on some accompanying text. We used Autotrace to further manipulate images, outlining and reshaping them. There is no layering feature, but objects can be moved to the front or back of a group or layout. Gradient fills and blends enhance the graphics capabilities, and such text manipulators as fit-to-curve are remarkably good.

The Windows interface is attractive, friendly (we already needed to bother with the pull-down menus), and informative. Virtually all the commonly used functions are accessible in button form. Selections are easy to understand and it takes little effort to get the hang on using the tools (a good assortment of shapes, lines styles, and distortion mechanisms). One item that is particulary interesting is the starbust tool, which allows you to create starbursts with up to 99 points and in a number of different sizes. The 50-level undo/redo allows overeager people to back up through ill-advised experiments.

While 1st Design performs many of the functions you'd expect from a higher-priced illustration package, the execution is a bit odd in spots. For instance, the package creates pie charts, but the method (draggEng slices intil the correct percentage/size is shown at the bottom of the screen) is unusual. Most people will probably do the smart thing and leave the pie chart creation to their spreadsheet and presentation packages.

A few features are still missing, however. The lack of a brush tool and eraser is annoying if not fatal. Additionally, line widths are not indicated in real time, making line control unwiedly when using heavier lines. The program also saves files only in a proprietary ART format. And with the abundance of included clip art, GST must improve the image preview mode or include printed paper copies of the art-work to help people sort through the offerings. (The company says it plans to ship a clip art manager/viewer in the near future.)

1st Design is a flexible and useful package, good for the occasional designer or the graphics wary--and the price just can't be beat. You won't find this on a professional artist's computer, but if you want to augment your text with attractive, easy-to-handle graphics, 1st Design is your package.