Those accustomed to MacDraw or MacDraft should have little trouble making the transition to Cricket Software's Cricket Draw. The program offers familiar tools such as line, rectangle, and oval, and the methods for drawing, moving, and resizing objects are comparable to those of MacDraw... But unlike MacDraw, Cricket Draw takes advantage of many of PostScript s capabilities. For example, you can rotate text or objects in 1-degree increments, viewing a readout of the angle of notation as you do so. You can fill shapes with linear, logarithmic, or radial fountains, smooth transitions from one gray to another. While a fountain effect can be attained in Illustrator by layering shapes of different shades, Cricket Draw produces gradient fills automatically.
Cricket Draw's text-handling capabilities are impressive: the program lets you mix fonts and styles in a single block of text. In addition, a special command lets you bind text to a curving shape or line. In the text-effects department. Cricket Draw has Illustrator beat in many respects.
Finally, Cricket Draw's transfer modes let you create dot or line screens for printing halftones or creating color separations. Unfortunately this capability isn’t mentioned in the manual. You have to refer to the semiannual technical titles that are sent to registered Cricket Draw owners, or find out for yourself by word of mouth or by accident (to access Cricket Draw's transfer modes, hold down the Option key and click the object fill control box in the lower-left corner of the screen).
Why choose Cricket Draw? Graphic designer John Odam uses both Cricket Draw and Illustrator, and finds Cricket Draw more appropriate for sketches and illustrations that he wants to produce quickly. “With Illustrator," he says, “you must have a firm idea of what you want before drawing; Cricket Draw is better for freehand drawing.” In Odam's opinion, “Illustrator is designed with the professional in mind, while Cricket Draw is for both professionals and amateurs.” His main complaint about Cricket Draw is its inability to combine lines and curves into a compound object.
Designer Michael Singleton also uses both Illustrator and Cricket Draw. He considers Cricket Draw an extension of MacDraw, with added features for graphic artists. Singleton cites Cricket Draw's text capabilities and ability to display angles and coordinates as pluses over Illustrator, but found the program’s curve-handling limited. In addition, he found little use for some of Cricket Draw's tools, such as the starburst and the diamond. He finds Cricket Draw appropriate for projects such as organization charts and schedules, pointing out that the grate tool is excellent for creating tables and other forms with parallel lines.
I talked to several more users, and the consensus was that Cricket Draw is easy to learn because of its MacDraw-like interface, is a good choice for producing freehand drawings that include PostScript special effects, and is accessible to amateurs as well as professional artists. It is also, incidentally, cheaper than either of the other PostScript graphics programs.
Nielson, Erfert. (January 1988). The PostScript Difference. Macworld (pg. 139).
Cricket Draw
Cricket Software
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
53 / 
2014-04-14 / 
6e3524610151d664a556e25774a45d0e2a6db48d / 
/ 
2017-12-15 / 
Cricket_Draw_1.1.1.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Mini vMac
