Customer Reviews

Serif DrawPlus X3 Graphics Studio [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am surprised by the reviews above. I found this program to have a lot of bang for the buck and very easy to learn. I would recommend it anyone who wants to draw on the PC without spending a lot of money for the software.

I bought this product about a week ago, and at first I was a bit disappointed.
I thought it was a program that would enhance my artwork, boy was I wrong. I'm not an idiot, but learning how to operate this program's features, made me feel like one.
I went into the "Start new drawing" feature. This frustrated me the most, because the program was just as difficult as the others.
Each time I'd click the pencil, paint brush, or choose color feature to draw, a zillion tiny box-shaped graphic covered my drawing. When I finally figured out how to create a work of art without those tiny kill picture graphics covering it, the save feature wouldn't save it to my local file. :(
"The design template" feature was difficult in the beginning, yet great to play around with once figured out. I don't think your finished creation can be uploaded to your webpage. On the other hand, maybe it can, I'm still learning.
The online introduction is nothing more than a short commercial. The quick video doesn't show you the features to click, in order to create the effects they're allowing you to see.

I do like the animation feature though. However, it is a stop frame animation, and can be difficult if you're not familiar with it. Once you get the hang of it, it can be fun. I only recommend this software for those who are familiar with programs like it, for comparison.

Having used Adobe products, and now being comfortable with X3 and now X4, I can say that this is an excellent application for the money. It is bit clunky and sometimes limited when trying to manipulate existing photos to use in new artwork. (I would recommend purchasing their photo studio if that is more your need.) But I have to say it is equal, if not superior, to its competitors which are in the many hundreds of dollars. Like any piece of complex software, this one takes some time to get to know. If you know how to take advantage of layers an overlays, it will allow you to do some amazing things.

Rather than continue to respond to the ridiculous comments this review keeps getting, I will simply edit it. My original review is below. I have been told in the comments that I didn't "understand" how this program works when I bought it. With that I agree. I expected to be able to edit graphics. Apparently I'm too stupid to understand that a program called a "graphics studio" will not allow me to do that.

Let me quote from the box the installation CD came in:

"A complete graphics package and a value for the money."

"The all-in-one studio for professional quality creative design."

So, from this, I was supposed to infer that editing existing gifs, jpgs, etc, was not going to be possible?

I suggest to anyone thinking of buying this "graphics studio", and seeing all the unhelpful votes I got, that you consider it was the employees of the company that makes this software who gave me those negative votes.

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I agree with the previous reviewer about everything.

I bought the program because of some of the cool shape options it had, which I needed to create some new images for a website. Fine.

Since it's a graphics program, you might expect that you could, for example, open a GIF or JPG file with it for editing, right? -- grab part of the image so you could move it a few pixels, that kind of thing? Nope. I even went to the Serif DrawPlus users forum when I couldn't figure out what I was "doing wrong", and was told "No, you can't. It opens everything as a bitmap."

Truly, I could not believe what I was hearing. A graphics program that doesn't let you edit graphics.