Alternatives to Canvas?

Hi there,
Apparently canvas controls takes up a lot of memory and has a lot of functionality that is usually not needed just to layout components. Are there any alternatives to Canvasses? Like a light-weight version of it? If you layout your components via MXML on the designer,UIComponent or Sprite is usually never an option(gives compilation errors).
The same with Custom Components-do I really need to wrap each component I make in a canvas?
Is there no component in Flex like .NET's <asp:Placeholder> ?
Any advice would be appreciated.

Canvas is basically created by extending UIComponent>Sprite components. You may create your own custom container with only required features by extending Sprite class available in Flex.

Similar Messages

Set search text when form is in query mode

Hi forum members,
is it possible to set the value of a textfield when a form is in query mode?
In our form you can enter query mode with F7 and execute the query with F8.
When you go back to query mode with F7 and then press F7 again, the search criteria of the past query appears.
Now in our form there is an alternativ search, that can be executed in query mode with F9. A different search canvas appears then with a more detailed search.
When I go back from that canvas to the initial canvas, change to query mode with F7 and try to get the last search criteria with F7, not the last search criteria (from F9 search) appears, but the first one (F8 search).
I have tried to copy the search value into an invisible textfield and then copy it back to the search field when F7 is pressed after the alternative search canvas was closed.
Instead of appearing in the search field, a new record is created in background.
Is there any other way to set the value of a textfield in query mode?
Thanks,
Marco

Hi Craig,
thank you for this hint.
Unfortunately it does not solve my problem.
My goal is to fill the search fields with values when they are in query mode.
I try to explain it step by step:
Step 1
- In my Form I change to query mode with F7.
- I fill a search field, e.g. Name: TIGER.
- Then I execute the search with F8.
- Record is displayed in the block
Step 2
- I press the F7 Button to change to query mode again
- Now when I press F7 again, the search values from the last search (TIGER) appear (I think it is a standard forms functionality, isn't it?)
- I execute the search with F8
- Record is displayed
Step 3
- Again I change to query mode with F7
- I fill the search field (this time Name: SCOTT)
- Now advanced search is executed with F9
- A special search canvas opens over the form with result records and more detailed information to the result
- I close the search canvas
Step 4
- Again I change to query mode by pressing F7
- I want to get the search value from the last search (SCOTT) by pressing F7 again
- Value from the first search appears (TIGER)
My goal is to save the search value from step 3 anywhere (in a variable or copy field or something) and get it back in step 4 when the form is in query mode.
It seems to me that it is not possible to fill fields that are in query mode, is that right?
Thanks a lot!
Marco

Fireworks and software

I have this thing about Software. I'm supportive of
Macromedia and now Adobe. I've done dtp with Freehand - then
progressed to the web and found Fireworks, Flash and Dreamweaver. I
have allegiance to the Macromedia line, and as well to Corel. (I'm
Canadian)
I find unfortunately and sadly, that the products I've
learned for years are starting to fade. Freehand is almost, if not
gone. Fireworks is looking at a new version. Flash will be around
for a while; and Dreamweaver will replace Go Live. (personal
opinion).
My dilema - everywhere I go it's - Photoshop, Photoshop this,
Photoshop that, Photoshop / imageready, "get a job and you have to
use Photoshop and Adobe" - if you're going to web - must have
Imageready for rollover effects.
I'm 52 years of age, and don't want to spend another $2ooo
for a creative suite that does print and web. I have daughters in
University with Macs, using Open Office. I know you've all heard my
drum beating before - but does anyone feel like me ??
Software was always a freedom of choice; as Apple vrs MS is.
I'm reaching some of my most creative years, and many "salt and
pepper hairs" are too. Corel supports PDF - MS does not. Word 2007
will not. Wordperfect does. We still have freedom of choice in word
processors, and spreadsheets, but slowly I'm backing up into a
corner with graphics ??
Does anyone feel the same way ? And if you do tell me what
you're doing. If I must learn (insert Adobe product here) then I
will. But where are the graphic choices ??
Bill
Expresiv Designs

Bill Wood wrote:
> I have this thing about Software. I'm supportive of
Macromedia and
> now Adobe. I've done dtp with Freehand -
FreeHand is not and never was a DTP app. It's an
illustration/drawing
app with a very unique multiple pages implementation that is
geared and
suited to drawing work (like creating multiple versions of a
client
logo, a letterhead template and/or envelope templates all in
the same
document). It still has a pasteboard/canvas size that is
similar to
Illustrator's (it,s a little bigger but not that much).
FreeHand's multi
page implementation is alike to scattering sheets of paper
around on a
desk or on the floor. Eventually you'll run out of room. What
is unique
is that you can create different pages of any sizes and
orientation. By
comparison, DTP apps like QuarkXPrress or InDesign (and even
word
processors like MS Word or OOo Writer) treat pages like an
infinite
stack. You need one more page then you just add it. You'll
never run out
of "space" because good DTP and word processing app will
"stream" the
pages into memory as you need them. It's a very different
kind of
workflow. Furthermore, FreeHand will slow to a crawl if you
link/flow
too many text boxes together (it doesn't take many) while DTP
apps are
optimized for this and will not slow down because of this.
> then progressed to the web and found Fireworks, Flash
and
> Dreamweaver. I have allegiance to the Macromedia line,
and as well
> to Corel. (I'm Canadian)
Ah Corel... ;-) I'm Canadian as well but I have no love for
Corel apps.
Their interfaces don't agree with me at all and I cannot get
anything
done with them.
> I find unfortunately and sadly, that the products I've
learned for
> years are starting to fade. Freehand is almost, if not
gone.
The thing is, FreeHand will keep working on your Windows
machine for a
long time to come so even if it's not updated anymore it
won't suddenly
stop working. It has some annoying issues but it still works
well for me.
> My dilema - everywhere I go it's - Photoshop, Photoshop
this,
> Photoshop that, Photoshop / imageready, "get a job and
you have to
> use Photoshop and Adobe" - if you're going to web - must
have
> Imageready for rollover effects.
Those people could learn a thing or too and get a clue by
reading the
following ;-)
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/fireworks/articles/why_fireworks.html
> I'm 52 years of age, and don't want to spend another
$2ooo for a
> creative suite that does print and web. I have daughters
in
> University with Macs, using Open Office. I know you've
all heard my
> drum beating before - but does anyone feel like me ??
You don't have to buy the whole suite. No one can force you
to stop
using Fireworks and move to a less efficient 3 apps juggling
workflow
(see above article). For DTP work on the other hand, InDesign
is the
best application by far and would serve you much better than
FreeHand
for that kind of work. Illustrator is worth learning because,
like it or
not, it is the industry standard and it does do a lot of
things better
than FreeHand. Both apps could "learn" a lot from each other.
I started
with Illustrator but I really love FreeHand too. Bottom line
is, if you
need to do print work then you may just need to buy
Illustrator and
InDesign. But as great as Fireworks is, Photoshop is still
the best at
raw bitmap image editing and Fireworks does not do print at
all (no
CMYK, etc). Getting the suite at that point would make sense.
It's
pricey but it's quality software.
> Software was always a freedom of choice; as Apple vrs MS
is. I'm
> reaching some of my most creative years, and many "salt
and pepper
> hairs" are too. Corel supports PDF - MS does not. Word
2007 will not.
> Wordperfect does. We still have freedom of choice in
word
> processors, and spreadsheets, but slowly I'm backing up
into a corner
> with graphics ??
I wouldn't qualify FreeHand's (unconfirmed) disappearance as
being
backed up in a corner. There are alternatives (Illustrator,
Canvas,
DrawPlus, etc). As for office apps, I use OpenOffice more
than MS
Office, especially Writer. OpenOffice is high quality
software and well
worth taking the time to learn it... and it does PDF natively
too.
> Does anyone feel the same way ? And if you do tell me
what you're
> doing. If I must learn (insert Adobe product here) then
I will. But
> where are the graphic choices ??
I use both Macromedia Studio 8 and Adobe Creative Suite 2. I
could not
do all that I do without both. Fireworks was the first
Macromedia app I
bought... got it standalone long before the suites/studio
packages). The
first graphics app I dabbled with was Photoshop (3.05 if
memory serves)
but I much preferred vector apps and Illustrator is the first
graphics
app I learned in depth. It and Fireworks are the two I still
use the
most. Fireworks for all my Web graphics layout design work
and
Illustrator for my work at a screen printing company.
FreeHand MX is
used for all kinds of things from specific drawing tasks
where its
toolset is stronger than Illustrator's and also for short
multipage docs
like Web site documentation (wireframes, flow charts and site
diagrams).
InDesign is a new addition to my workflow but I use it to
create
specifications documents for the screen printing company I
work at and
to create business collateral (letterhead, envelopes
invoices) for my
one man Web design shop. I think choices are wider than ever
but costs
are certainly going up... You can save on your next MS Office
license by
switching to OpenOffice though... ;-)
Cheers and hang in there!
Stéphane Bergeron
reach:connect:communicate
www.webfocusdesign.com
blog:tutorials:articles:gallery
www.pixelyzed.com

Is there an alternative control for canvas in SAPUI5 which is responsive?

Hello,
I followed Electronic Signature using SAPUI5? for electronic signature. I could integrate it easily.
I have few questions; In signature lib <canvas> is used. Is there any control in SAPUI5 I can use for <canvas>. I have xml views, I am adding the canvas from js controller to <core:HTML id="signature" />.
This way <canvas> is not responsive.
If there is no alternative control in SAPUI5, Is there a control where I can place the canvas from controller which would make canvas responsive without additional coding?
Thanks,
Rashmi

Yes, it would work, but I'm not entirely sure it would be the most obvious way for a motion designer to go about it. I'm trying to make it as easy as possible for a non-advanced AE user to change a string. So, I though of using the Layer Select expression control, then have a null object resting in the comp with a placeholder name. Then, the user could change the layer name of the null object, and select that layer from the drop down in the expression control. Then my script could read the value of the name for that selected layer.
I just wanted to avoid having anything actually in the comp layer. Your suggestion would mean they would have to unhide something, type out the string, then hide it again so it wouldn't render. Thank you for your suggestion, it got me thinking of alternative ways to handle it
Best,
Laz

Alternative to Double-Buffered Canvas

I am working on a program in which I use a double-buffered Canvas inside a JScrollPane. The problem is that the Canvas draws over the scrollbars. I have tried extending JComponent, JPanel, JApplet, and Component instead of Canvas, and none of them are double buffered. Here is the code I used to debug this problem:
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Test implements Runnable
     JFrame f;
     JScrollPane scroller;
     JPanel panel;
     TestCanvas canvas;
     Thread runner;
     BufferStrategy strategy;
     public static void main (String[] args) {
          Test app = new Test();
          app.init();
     public void init() {
          f = new JFrame();
          f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
          panel = new JPanel();
          canvas = new TestCanvas();
          panel.add(canvas);
          scroller = new JScrollPane(panel);
          scroller.setWheelScrollingEnabled(true);
          f.getContentPane().add(scroller);
          f.pack();
          f.setSize(300,300);
          f.setVisible(true);
          canvas.createBufferStrategy(2);
          strategy = canvas.getBufferStrategy();
          runner = new Thread(this);
          runner.run();
     public void run() {
          int x = 0;
          while(x != 65536) {
               Graphics2D g = (Graphics2D)strategy.getDrawGraphics().create();
               g.setColor(new Color(x%256,0,0));
               g.fill(new Ellipse2D.Double(0,0,600,600));
               strategy.show();
               x++;
}Any suggestions?

The main culprit is that you are mixing AWT components with Swing ones.
In addition, your are doing so many of useless things and wrong things in your code.
Swing components are defaulted for using double-buffering.
See: http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/painting/index.html
Try and study this code.
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import java.awt.image.*;
import javax.swing.*;
public class Fox1229{
JFrame f;
JScrollPane scroller;
TestCanvas canvas;
int x;
Timer t;
public static void main (String[] args) {
    Fox1229 app = new Fox1229();
    app.init();
public void init() {
    x = 0;
    f = new JFrame();
    f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
    canvas = new TestCanvas();
    scroller = new JScrollPane(canvas);
    scroller.setWheelScrollingEnabled(true);
    f.getContentPane().add(scroller, BorderLayout.CENTER);
    f.setSize(300, 300);
    f.setVisible(true);
    t = new Timer(50, new ActionListener(){
      public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e){
        canvas.setOc(new Color(x % 256, 0, 0));
        canvas.repaint();
        if (++x == 1024){
          t.stop();
    t.start();
class TestCanvas extends JPanel{
Color oc;
public TestCanvas (){
    oc = new Color(0, 0, 0);
public void setOc(Color c){
    oc = c;
public Dimension getPreferredSize(){
    return new Dimension(600, 600);
public void paintComponent(Graphics g){
    super.paintComponent(g);
    Graphics2D g2d = (Graphics2D)g;
    g2d.setColor(Color.blue);
    g2d.fill(new Rectangle(0, 0, 600, 600));
    g2d.setColor(oc);
    g2d.fill(new Ellipse2D.Double(0, 0, 600, 600));
}

Canvas direct text input (TextBox alternative)

Surprisingly little info on this on the net, so wonder if anyone can help:
Rather than opening a native javax.microedition.lcdui.TextBox, I want to be able to detect user input directly on a canvas (with the keyPressed() method).
I'm creating a generic MIDP2 midlet, and the main problem I'm going to face is detecting when the user has entered a space (as it could be possibly, the '0' key, the '#' key, the '*' key or the '1' key).
Is the best solution to just treat any of those key presses as a space, or is there a better way? Has anyone already got the code?
Cheers,
James

Thanks James
Your post inspired me to create my first canvas, haven't got around to text input yet, but made a color picker... maybe by next weekend I'll try text input but I don't think I'll be able to even activate the on-screen keyboard from the canvas... lets see.
I'll post only when I have a specific problem like yours, there are too many people (read: college kids trying to get their homework done for them) posting inane requests for help they could find with 2 minutes on Google.
Also it looks to me like there isn't any way you can identify the default space button/key, maybe this will be incorporated in a future spec.
Wish you luck, Darryl

I would appreciate any input on alternative for Book production to suit my worklflow?

Hi
I'm trying to get into photo-book production to document my holidays, wildlife trips, etc., and I've become very frustrated with the available tools and techniques that seem to be commonly promoted. As Lightroom is the basis of nearly all of my photographic workflow, I thought that I'd see if anyone here has any experience / ideas on alternative tools / suppliers / techniques that can fit naturally with my workflow, and produce the sort of book that I want?
As I see it, the basic drawback of everything that I've looked at is that they are based around the idea of page templates, with pre-determined cells into which you drop the photos. This seems to me to be hugely constraining.
What I have at the end of my LR workflow, is a 'make book' collection containing the photos that I want, sorted mainly chronologically, but with some user sorting to group related photos. As far as I'm concerned, these photos are 'finished' - I'm happy with how LR has got them, and I don't want any other bit of software making further changes. In particular, they are cropped to a whole variety of shapes and dimensions to suit the subject matter, and ideally I will export them at the size that I want them to print in the book (at 300dpi or whatever is required) so that they don't need to be re-sized a second time.
Maybe my thinking is stuck in a rut, but what I think I want is something that gives me a blank page sized canvas, onto which I can drop the photos at the right size and shape, and position them to give the layout that I want - which will probably differ in some respect for almost every page! Plus I need to add text - captions on some but not all photos, headings on some but not all pages, and occasionally blocks of free form narrative.
I spent quite a bit of time with Blurb's Booksmart, but found that I needed to go into the rather clumsy template editor for almost every page - very tedious and frustrating. I've looked at most of the obvious European competitors - Abelli, CEWE, Bonusprint, Photobox, etc. - and they are just as constraining, if not worse.
When Adobe originally announced a Book module for LR, I was hopeful that this might be the answer, but as lots of others have pointed out, It is even more constrained.
The closest that I have come to getting what I want is actually the LR Print module, producing whole page JPEGs. I can drop the photos onto a custom template with no cells defined, and pull them to the size and position that I want - sizing is slightly fiddly, but very flexible. The big problem is text - no ability on custom layouts, and very limited in any case.
So - what am I missing? Is there a technique, or a tool, or a supplier than can do what I want? Any thoughts or comments gratefully received!
Environment:
Lightroom 4.2
Windows 7 64 bit
Canon EOS 7D - 100% RAW
Current Workflow:
(Entirely LR apart from very occasional foray into PS for edits that LR can't do)
Import all RAWs into LR (Copy to a new folder named with date and shoot id).
Pass 1 - initial sort, rejecting rubbish and duplicates; assigning categories (colours); ratings (5 = worth a large print, 3 = small print, 1 = keep but don't use).
Delete all rejects; rename all keepers (date, shoot id, sequence); backup keepers.
Pass 2 - all develop adjustments; crop to whatever dimensions suit subject matter; revise ratings.
(very occasional detour into PS for complex edits)
Pass 3 - select and create seperate collections for web, slide show and book production.
Print 5 & 4 star pics.
Upload web gallery.
??Make book??

If the Mac came pre-installed with Mavericks you can't downgrade. Have a look at mine and den.thed's comments here:
https://discussions.apple.com/message/23946758#23946758

Flash CC Canvas project - No longer able to set the export Linkage?

Now that Toolkit has been integrated into Flash, it appears a Library Linkages have been somewhat removed...
You can no longer right click and set a linking for an object in the Library, yet you can mannually edit the Linkage box and it works. It worked when tool kit so why has this been disabled? Having to dump everything onto the stage in order to get access to the object is no the best way of doing things, you have to then mannually enter an 'instance' name for everything, before you could right click all the items in the library and select export. It would hten use the library objects name as the linkage.
Will this feature return, I see no reason for it to be removed?

Hi thanks for the fast reply.
I still don't see why it was removed. By removing the feature it does simplify the process but it also hampers the process...
In my example, say I have 100 movie clips, all of these have animations and timeline code; 'stop()', gotoAndPlay()' etc etc.
So under the new "simplified" system, I have to add all 100 clips to the stage, distrute them so I can select them and then manually give them all instance names so that I can interact with them in code, otherwise they become instance1, instance2 etc which i unreliable. Alternativly, I have to edit the Linkage label for each clip in the library manually. I don't think anyone would enjoy this either of these tasks.
The other alternative would be to use the 'export linkages' in an "ActionScript" project but if I were to then copy them back into the Canvas project, all my code would be commented out. I would then have to go through all 100 clips re enabling the code, again another horrible task.
Comparing this to the old way; I would select the 100 clips in the library, right click and tick export. Simple.
This is pretty annoying and I think disabling this feature has not been truly thought out.
I would love to see it return and can only hope it will in a future update.

Large Canvas Sizes

I recently purchased a product called Roots Magic for an upcoming family re-union (Sep 13th). This program produces a Family Tree Wall Chart with a canvas size of 10.6" x 396.9" (1' x 33'), and growing. I have pictures within the chart so you can put a face to the name. I am trying to get some format that a local printer can produce a reasonably readable chart. The Roots Magic generated chart is great in format, quality and size of lettering.
I can only export it as a .EMF file as the other options cause RootsMagic to crash.
I can't use Adobe Illustrator, Design, or PDF (which are the preferred formats of the local printers) because their largest canvas size is 227". I tried importing partial EMF files, however, their print size was too small and I couldn't scale the objects without blowing the canvas limit again. Besides, genrating the tree and printing it in pieces, seems to alter the flow of the generations.
Adobe Photoshop has a larger canvas size, I think, however, it does not import EMF files.
I have most of the Adobe products, but I can't seem to find a way to produce something for local commercial printing. Muliple PDF pages, scaled to the same size, appears to be an alternative but I can't seem to find a way to produce this. RootsMagic does not have a lot of alternatives.
My options seem to be:
a) find some way to breadown the resulting object intio mutiple canvas sizes
b) buy my own printer/plotter.
To make matters worse, the chart is growing daily as I receive added updates.
Does anyone have any suggestions?

Ian,
Realistically, the folks who come to mind who can output anything 33-feet long are the folks who would make large banner or perhaps some billboard and vehicle graphics stuff, and resolution is probably not going to be satisfactory. Also note, that a Dead Seas Scroll is awkward to handle unless you have a wall to unroll and tack it to. Also note that the graphic file size could exceed 1 GB.
>buy my own printer/plotter.
Forget about purchasing a printer that can handle this unless multiple pieces are acceptable. For example, an Epson 13" printer (figure spending several hundred dollars) can handle roll-cut printouts, but only up to 44" wide. But if you have to print out more than one or two sets, you're going to be spending a lot of time with this; and a lot of money on ink (and paper if you choose something better than the rather miserable, non-stable 28 lb or 32 lb inkjet bond). But then again, if you have a production house or printer output this for you, you may be spending $10-$12 or more per square foot.
>I can only export it as a .EMF file as the other options cause RootsMagic to crash.
Get tech support to figure it out, so that if multiple pages is a reasonable option, you can chop the art down and place each segment on a page of a page layout document, such as InDesign or QuarkXPress, if you can save to a compatible format, such as .pdf, .eps .tif or .jpg.
Neil

HTML5 Canvas issue with iOS Safari

I am trying to build a painting application in HTML5.
I have an HTML5 Canvas in a div. This div is masked with an SVG file using -webkit-mask.
On iOS Safari and in iBooks Fixed Layout: When you zoom the page by gesture, the mask suddenly stops working revealing the entire canvas and the contents of the div.
1. There is no problem if the contents of the div is an image. Problem is only with Canvas inside.
2. The problem seemed to happen when the zoom crosses a mark - possibly 50%. I.e, if you have already zoomed over 50% and refresh the page, there is no problem until you zoom out below 50% and vice-versa.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Hello Corey,
I have been trying to work on this issue, but I haven't made much progress
Breaking up the project into several small chunks seemed to help for the iPad, but it's not ideal.
I'm seriously struggling with Android tablets though. Android doesn't support flash anymore, as HTML5 is the "future". Google Chrome on Android tablets has problems with synchronizing animations and sounds cutting out (works fine on a desktop or notebook). FireFox on Android didn't have the sync or sound issues, but it crashes at random times. I think the root cause behind all this is HTML5 and the browser. I couldn't figure out the difference between chrome on desktops and notebooks -vs- tablets. I went to html5test.com and compared the two browsers, and there is definitely a difference between the two browsers.
When you look at authoring alternatives to Captivate, it seems like their customers are having similar issues.
I'm still looking for a workaround. I'll let you know if I find anything

How to increase width of canvas in xcelsius?

How to increase width of canvas in xcelsius?

Hi
The simplest way is to go to File > Document Properties> Document and check Custome Size. You will then be able to set the width and height in pixels.
Alternatively if you want to widen the canvas as your components already go over the edge you can use the Fit Canvas to Components icon on the toolbar along the top.
Hope this helps.
Paul

Alternative ways of displaying image from database?

hi - I'm working with some legacy/inherited/already-written Forms that just use block triggers to 'select values into :Fields..' to populate the text boxes on the canvas.
Whenever I've managed to display db-based images before, it's always been on blocks that are based just on the table, and Forms shows the image okay.
These forms I'm using at the moment though aren't based on tables, they just get populated from the trigger.
I don't believe you can select into a blob/image, or at least I haven't been able to get that to work.
Are there any alternative ways of populating an image place-holder, with a blob field from the database? (other than using a table-based block)??
thanks.

May be you can separate the image item to a DB block with primary key of the table and create a relation between two blocks. So when the first block is populated through trigger, it would fetch the image on 2nd block automatically.

Alternative for TouchBegan ,TouchMove & TouchEnd ?

hi.....Every one.
I want to know about alternative for Touch Began ,TouchMove ,TouchEnd for Events .
I need this requirement in my application .
I am working with TouchBegan &TouchMove & TouchEnd in my Project.
but i dont want to use thse Methods in everytime when ever i required.
Example like............
I have an object that is SELECTED or not .how can i acheive this
Is it right way what i am asking to yours ?

I came across this at one of the forums.
http://www.html5canvastutorials.com/labs/html5-canvas-animals-on-the-beach-game-with-kinet icjs/#comment-35389
I'm just not too sure how to adapt it for Adobe Edge. Someone ever had this problem before?
Thank you.

Software - Canvas no longer available for the Mac

I am looking for someone's experience - I use Canvas - a remarkable little program for drawing, word processing and almost everything including photo manipulation - ACD Systems have stopped developing and updating the program for Mac, which is a great shame (and very short sighted on ACD's part in my view) - does anyone who knows the program know of a replacement which IS being updated for the Mac? I'd really like to find a developer who is in the same space as Canvas

Hi,
I too am a long-time user of Canvas (3.5) and have been looking for alternatives. The problem I am finding is that Canvas has so many different tools, there is no one application that has all of the versatility of Canvas.
I feel I need to change apps soon because I am wary that the latest OS X version of Canvas won't work much longer in OS X (as updates continue), and I need to convert my Canvas docs to something another app can read (maybe PDF?).
I recently found an article that looks at several OS X native drawing applications, some of which I was not aware of. Perhaps one of these applications might suit as a replacement. I'm checking some of these out to see if they will suit as substitutes for the purposes I employ Canvas (mostly drawing diagrams, maps and figures).
http://jonwhipple.com/blog/2008/05/25/drawing-conclusions/
Cheers,
Rob

Selection tool / infinite canvas / gradient color picker

Selection tool:
Select the objects that are fully enclosed by the marquee (instead of
selecting all the objects that "touch" the marquee).
Why: the actual implemented selection approach doesn't work fine in
many cases and slow down the overall design. It is not a matter of
religion..the corel draw way is the best one. I design software's UI
(mockups with many icons, buttons, images, texts and shapes) and, with
the current Ai's selection approach, I have to deselect (**** + click)
too many objects in many cases. With the "corel draw" selection method
I usually have only to drag the marquee in the right way (to fully
enclose only the objects I want to select) and the need to deselect
something ( shift + click) is very rare.
How to implement the feature: the user can activate this option
selection method in the prefs panel. In that way the selection tool
will remain the current one and the switch to the new selection method
is provided as an option.
Infinite canvas size:
Having an infinite canvas size to host artboards.
Why: with an infinite canvas size the user can add artboards without
any limits and using any layout (grid, left-right, top-down, etc)
Gradient color picker:
The color picker panel can be opened from the gradient panel.
Why: The actual gradient panel doesn't let the user to visually pick
up a "precise" color for the selected gradient stop
How to implement the feature: the user can open the color picker
double-clicking the color thumb (icon) of the selected gradient stop
in the gradient panel.

Hi Argol,
I comletely agree with "all of" your features requests for cs6.
Regarding the request about the selection tool, I want to precise that it is shared by a huge number of people and we all hope that adobe will listen its customers. Here is an example of how is important to enable the alternative selection method (that is the one used by corel draw and many other tools). A simple selection like this is a kind of nightmare with illustrator (it involves many de-select clicks). Also, in real case scenarios, things are more and more complex and we all know how things can get frustating! :-)

Alternatives to Canvas?

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