Graphic App Reviews

This is my go-to vector drawing app. I occasionally will use this to create SVG files for Wikipedia. I noticed if create a document with one object in it, export it as SVG and then open the SVG file there will be two objects, one for the storke and one for the fill. December 2018.

Hey all. Over the years of my computing, I have used Illustrator, CorelDraw, Inkscape. Whatever I could get my hands on. If you need an app that runs natively on your Apple, check this out. Sure, Graphic is not a household name, but it may be some day. I did have some issues at first, but those issues were easy to fix, repair or whatever. Right now, I’m only using it for basic page layout, but hope to expand my skills. The GUI is clean and to the point. The tools do exactly what they are supposed to do. Color picking, editing is a snap. This is the neatest app I have on my older iMac. Plus, if you used an SVG editor historically, your files will be opened and able to be edited without issue. I can say that with 100% confidence. Thank You Picta for filling a need in graphic design/illustration!

I previously commented that "There used to be a pan bar for panning the canvas when zoomed in to a level where the canvas would not fit within the drawing window and that this pan bar is no longer available even though it is visible in the App Store screenshot." This holds true for the document I had been working on, which was created in a previous version of Graphic, however, I just created a new document and the panning bar appears when I zoom in sufficiently. Oddly, when the old and new files are open at the same time and can be individually viewed by clicking the applicable tab, the issue still exists.

the drawing scale function does not work properly if at all. Would like a refund on this as it is unusable for me.

Love this app. Glad to see that’s it’s been updated. I was concerned after Autodesk took it over that it would disappear. I see that it’s owned by Picta, Inc. now. Hope it stays around and keeps being updated.

Perhaps these low-baller reviews are 'Experts', but I have used this since 2016, when it was 'idraw'. Since then, it has done everything I needed for graphics. Plus, when I needed help, they emailed back within a day. Tim

I recently was having an issue with something not working correctly and I assumed it was the application’s fault. I’ve been contacting them about it for a couple weeks and in each interaction they have gotten back to me much more quickly than I’ve gotten back to them. They were able to figure out the problem today and of course it was something wrong with my own computer--not something on their end at all. Their emails included very thorough step by step instructions and videos that were a great help for a novice like me. Can’t recommend them enough!

This program is worth every penny, it's way more powerful than it looks like. Highly recommend.

I thought this would be a nice tool for creating logos. I could do more on Microsoft paint in 2006. I wish I never spent the money on this. I'm really disappointed in the limitations of this. But this morning, I gave it another chance…. I shouldn't have. I’m currently here because of the lack of arc lettering, no tapered lettering, & the interface is NOT user friendly. This has been an ultimate waste of my time, and left me feeling even more connected to pencil and paper. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME IF YOU WANT TO DESIGN.

This has an easy learnig curve for Mac users. Many of theother available drawing tools seem to have been ported from windows where there seems to be no common user interface.

I want to be refunded my money back the app doesnt even open up on my laptop. Someone needs to reach out to me in order to fix this or refund me my money back.

I love this app. I use it on my lap top and ipad to make SVG and all my various art needs. I was a long time user of Adobe Illustrator from the old days. This app is all I need. I do not usually write a glowing review, but this app is well worth the money spent.

I am so impressed with how much this app does in the pricepoint. Truly appreciate it!

Really like this app and over all much easier to use than Illustrator yet with 80% of the capability and power for 5% of the price. (or close). The only rough part for me is I hate the tabs. I have 3 monitors and with Graphic and only opening one window, I may as well toss two of my displays in the trash. It gets more interesting as not only are you forced into using tabs for all your documents, you can’t drag the tabs around (a la Safari) to reorganize them or pop them off into a separate window. It is cumbersome. If you don’t love tabs, this app is not for you. — Update : Added a star… This app actually generates drawing code in Objective C or Swift!! You can draw your interface widgets in iDraw / Graphic, copy the **code** using the context sensitve menu, flip to Xcode (that interface abomination) and paste in the code to draw the thing you created in iDraw / Graphic. I would buy the app just for that. Dang I want to give this 5 stars but the inablity of the app to have more than one window open is incredibly annoying. It is designed like Xcode in that regard and Xcode is perhaps the Apple's worst user interface ever produced. Brought it up to 4 now though.

As an artist and engineer for 30 years, I wrote code and created images and animation for applications and titles like Aldus PageMaker and “Leisure Suit Larry” from Sierra On-Line. All the while I dreamed of a simple 2D graphic application that did what Adobe Illustrator did, but simpler and cheaper. Many times over many years I bought or downloaded 2D applications that look like the right one. Many times I tried to design and code such an app, but failed. Then I discovered Graphic, a year or two after Indeeo introduced it. It immediately became my go-to 2D graphic app and an integral part of my image creation and animation pipeline. It’s only gotten better through each iteration as Indeeo Graphic, then Autodesk Graphic, and now Picta Graphic. Now that I’m a screenwriter and video producer, I use it all the time to make images for ads and videos. It’s simple, fast, cheap. It exports cleanly into major graphic formats, like PNG and SVG, and the tech support is excellent.

No updates in years. Before it was bought by Autodesk it was a good product. I would avoid any future autodesk products.

The developers must have fallen off the face of the earth. The last update was in October of 2015. This app desparately requires an update. The advances in Swift have been significant since the last update. They need to incorporate Swift changes into their app at a minimum.

Frankly, there is so much functionality in this app that it takes time to figure it out, but once you do, it will bring out the artist in you and you will experience great creative joy. Here are some of the things I am able to do now thanks to this tool: * Designing logos for letter head and business cards * Designing Jockey silks * Drawing images for children’s books * Designing very large (full sized bed) paper piecing patterns, (bed quilt sized) * Designing giant appliqué for appliqueing on my embroidery machine using multiple hoops. (45”x45” quilt of snoopy laying on his dog house, woodstock sitting on his belly, for example.) * Desiging vector diagrams to cut on cricut I’m not sure where the remarks come from on instability and lacking, but it made me want to share that my experience with heavy multi-purpose usage has been stellar. It is TERRIFIC, and the price is unbelievable, especially with the seamless integration with the iPad app. You need both. There are just some things that are way more efficient on the iPad, and the same holds true for the Mac version. note: I have not tried the scriting or the API yet.

From its start as iDraw, I’ve always found this app, both iOS and Mac, to be a delight to use and effective in creating graphics. It’s powerful enough to use on almost any design project, while not requiring an exorbitantly priced subscription to maintain access to the tool. Perhaps if you are a full-time designer who needs other tools in a company’s ecosystem, then you might need to look elsewhere, but for me I can always get it done in Graphic.

I’ve been using this app since 2013 and I really love it. I use Sketchup for technical stuff, but this is such a great tool when you want something either more creative or just quick and dirty. The price is very reasonable and functionality is wonderful. I only hope they never go to the subscription model others are using. Awful! Just won’t do it. Keep up the good work Indeed!!

I have been using graphic since before it was acquired by Autodesk, and since then the program has gotten buggier. Things that worked before - easy things, like resizing the canvas - are suddenly bugging out. QA gotta get on this.

I have been using this app for a few years now and after every update i hope there is an option to curve text. (If there is an option and im missing it can you help me find it?) I make all kind of designs for customing T-shirts and love the app for everything else.

I got this application to make a marketing project. I had to design a magazine cover and make a logo. I was really impressed with the app in the beginning stages of my project when I made my logo. It was very easy to use and my logo turned out great! When I got to the portion where I had to make the magazine cover, it all went downhill. The app started to continuously glitch. I tried multiple times to restart both the app and my Macbook and neither helped the glitching. The paint brush tool and the pencil tool are terrible. You “color” or “trace” in one area and the actual mark is on the other side of the page. After every paint brush or pencil move, you also have to go and click the little mouse button otherwise it will glitch out and you can’t even use the brush or pen for like 10 minutes. I have tried updating the app and that didn’t make an improvement either. Overall, I am very disappointed with this app and WOULD NOT recommend buying it. It’s a complete waste of $30. If you want to deal with constant glitching then great, get the app! It will probs make you very frustrated and disappointed like me though. It’s created many migraines and not a great project. I completely agree with another reviewer who said this app should be renamed “Garbage”!!!

I created a sign in landscape. When I printed it came out portrait. There were no options available in the print que to change it to landscape. I am runhing an iMac with version 10.12.6 and an Epson XP-360 printer. I have tried several other signs in landscape and they all come out portrait. No a happy camper.

The tabs fail.. or they don't mean anything to the app..I close them but my canvas is still open!? Pretty amazing app, love the minimalist UI and simiplicity.

This app is excellent for the price. I use it for my own home usage laying out projects. I use it to layout my garden every year. Also I use it for landscaping plans, item placement in my garage, house wiring plans, kitchen cabinet layout. and woodworking plans. It is a great hobby tool. You do need to draw your own objects since the included shape libraries are pretty weak.

I think this would be good if you are creating a logo and like to use vector graphics. there is no way to manipulate an existing image. For example, if you have a multicolor image and want to change one color to another you can’t do that. there is also no feature to cut a portion of an exisiting image. You have to create objects and maniputlate each object. So you can change everyting in a given image but you can cut it out or change a portion without using a brush pixel by pixel. In grapics tools I have used I could fill based on a color and have it stop filling when it reached a border of another color - can’t do that here. There’s also no way to cut portions of an image and move it around. You have to manipulate everything in in an object and the tool treats everything in the object the same unless you set it up with the tool itself. I used to use Paint Shop Pro on the PC from corel - It is the best tool for the price I think on the market this doesn’t even come close. However, if you are starting from scratch and love objects this will probably work for you. I just that the description was a little misleading and without a trial i feel like i got duped.

Nice

The porting to & from desktops & iPad is marvelous. I have to dial back my negative comments about Graphic: Autodesk HAS issued (2?) new minor updates in early 2018. They appear tp be committed to keeping the app vital. They haven’t killed it off, & while its not perfect, they haven’t gouged customers with paid minor updates or subscription services. Commendable. That said, there are negatives to address. Context is important to describe this application. If your coming from an underpowered 'draw primitives' feature inside a text document or the usual low end draw apps - its probably not a serious thing to get used to Graphic & you’ll be instantly happy. If you are used to a high end app or CAD program, it will have its few irksome moments. I’ve been using this since it was iDraw. I still can’t get comfortable with [what I perceive as a] quirky interface in my sporadic use, but its a useful app, even if a tad awkward. Other apps have made a hard turn in their interfaces as well. To be fast using Graphic – you will need to address a learning curve, imo. Magic Mouse use with Graphic is aggravating, yielding frequent unintended, unwanted pans/scrolls. This is not insurmountable, but affects user experience. The layering structure is something to get used to. Each item/feature/geometric primitive is stacked in descending order. Each of those is controlled in Groups, which really act as layers & groups BOTH, making layer management of reusable items/features overly complicated. If you are used to high end CAD or perhaps the way illustrator works as your benchmark - Graphic organization might be a hard thing to adapt to. I find that a bigger problem on an iPad, as your items/elements/draw primitives (or other terminology) often need to be resequenced. Text editing is aggravatingly spare. I’m always fighting the nervous wireless mouse. It has the usual shortcomings of some 2D drawing apps & CAD apps that feel like hangovers of the 1990’s, but its vector drawing is quite good. Take the painful time to name all your draw items same as you would in other apps, if you think you will be editing your documents over & over, or using them as templates. It will help as the drawing becomes complex & you can work without grouping & regrouping before a useful stack structure is established. Don’t let a litany of complaints dissuade you. For the cost of $30 or less, it is fairly useful tool, despite a few aggravations they will hopefully address in future versions. I don’t test driveall the lastest apps, yet haven’t seen anything to date with a comparable feature set at this price point.

Don't waste your time! Keep looking.

It used to be one of my favorite apps. What was really cool about it is that it was developed constantly and had iOS version which is quite identical to Mac version. Aparently since it tured into Graphic from iDraw the development stopped (or at least was frozen). Pity.

For those not wanting to learn something like Illustrator— this does the trick. I can turn out professional, print quality artwork with ease. Having been formally trained on Illustrator, I know this is not equal for most designers, but does the trick for me. Plenty of tools to work with, and easy to manipulate vector images. Can’t beat it for the price!

I needed to write a technical graph for an software engineering project in school but I don’t like the other expensive tools. I asked them if Graphic had a plugin to support creating an Entity Relational Diagram (ERD). They said it does not but they told how I could make one manually if I wanted or that I could create the ERD with another tool and then import it into Graphic to improve the style Greate customer service and enough features to get most anything done. You may need to do a bit more work for really technical stuff but with these tools it is possible. I highly recomend this app!

Color fill is absolute junk. Need a simple way to color fill for basic clip art coloring. Can’t figure out how and support is non existant. Want my money back.

I use this application nearly every single day. Professionally, I am an instructional designer. I use Graphic to create visual assets for documents, presentations, online learning objects and more. I have used it to design posters, infographics, t-shirts, even metal and resin pins (you know, the kind people like to trade with each other)! It is very easy to learn and use. There are some great tutorials online to help you get started. Once you create your design, you can easily export it in the most popular formats: png, jpg, even svg. Occasionally, I am so busy that I have to contract with other artists and designers. I usually suggest to them to get this app so we can easily collaborate on designs—they usually end up loving it, too. This application is definately worth the small asking price!

I dont know where to start but this application is great, it has so many features that apps like Pixelmator Pro and others I’ve tried are lacking. I’m not a pro graphic designer but I have to say this app is very intuitive, well designed, simple to use, and it has a lot of precision controls. Simplicity without sacrificing features is the hallmark of great design. I love their dimension drawing tool, other apps dont have this feature, exporting is a snap and easy to understand. Customer service is great, I had a couple questions and a few small issues when designing my graphic art, so I fired them an email and they got back to me very quickly, ready to resolve my issue. They even updated or made me a custom plugin, which was awesome. Thank you guys for making an amazing app! God Bless!!

I have used this app for years to do vector drawings for serious apartment renovations without any trouble. The layers are done in a simple, straightforward way, so I never have had trouble remembering how layers and combinations work. What I like most is that they have not invented unusual ways to draw or save. Many illustration programs have created their own file systems, which I find exceptionally irritating. I use a Mac and iPad Pro so that I can avoid running to a manual to determine how to accomplish something simple. This application works great for that. (I wish that Pages would do the same.)

Solid program, but zero development for over a year now.

The Core Graphics Export just stay in the View you cannot resize your drawing inside the View just stay there. I have to draw several sizes to fit every device you respond with the Scale Factor Variable I can use to (Easily Change the size of the drawing dynamically) PLEASE can you be more specific on EASILY CHANGE THE SIZE OF THE DRAWING DYNAMICALLY. THANKS IN ADVANCE HANS

2017 UPDATE: There hasn’t been an update in over 2 years. I guess this is abandonware now, and the remaining bugs will never be fixed. Avoid. 2016 UPDATE: They were bought by Autodesk, and now it’s called “Autodesk Graphic 3”. Pretty much nothing else has changed, except now they no longer seem to be answering their support emails. I can’t even recommend this as a cheap alternative now. I really wanted to like this. It's very affordable, for a vector graphics program. Unfortunately, it's not there yet, and I’m not sure it’s ever going to get there. First, nothing is Mac-standard. The document view isn't standard (it uses custom tabs for documents), so you can't even look at two documents at the same time. The windows aren't standard (custom titlebars), so they move and highlight and disappear in unique ways. Everything's just a bit off, and while some apps can get away with a completely custom UI, it takes a ton of work to get it right. Every day I use it, I find myself wishing they just used the standard controls so the basics worked right. Second, the workflow is a bit funky. For example, make a round rect, and try resizing it: the border curve is distorted. Or make a text object, change its color, and then make a new text object: it doesn’t default to your most recent color, because text objects have their own color-picker, in a different place, and sometimes it uses the normal one and sometimes it uses the text-tool-specific one (which is only visible during editing, not selection). The app is full of little oddities like this. Once you learn their specific way to do everything, it's OK, and there’s nothing I’ve found which is technically impossible, but there is a bit of a learning curve because it’s just not very polished. Things don't work the way they appear to, or the way they do in other vector drawing apps. The worst is that I’ve been using iDraw for over 3 years, and I’m not sure I can name anything they’ve really changed. I know of 2 or 3 bugs they fixed, and their webpage indicates they support a lot of newer OS X APIs under the hood, but the things that drove me nuts in 2012 still drive me nuts. They’ve been focusing on adding new gimmicky features (“smart duplicate”! “export as Swift code”!) rather than fixing the fundamental ones they’ve got that don’t work right (like zoom, or export — as an image file).