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Chris Winters asks for recommendations on a drawing program.  As a working
cartographer, I endorse FreeHand.
 
My mail today also includes a message from Graham Allsopp, sent to the
CARTO-SOC list, that includes the statement " There are many cartographers
using FreeHand - it's definately taken over from Illustrator as the
application of choice for most cartographers."
 
Not only is that true in my own case, but it's the perception I have from
talking to cartographers at the NACIS conference each year.  Illustrator
has more adherents among graphic designers, but FreeHand is superior for
cartography and is available on both Mac and PC (Illustrator for the PC is
several versions behind the Mac version).  Corel's devotees often seem to
be there by default, stuck in places with "no-Macintosh" policies (Corel is
coming to the Mac this summer).
 
The two big reasons that FH triumphs for cartography are support for raster
images (finally offered by Illustrator in version 6.0) and styles (which
Illustrator still doesn't have).  Although I started with Illustrator, I
feel that FreeHand is a little easier to learn.  Although FH occasionally
has things in odd palette locations, Illustrator does some things (like
masking) in ways I find counterintuitive.
 
The subject of Mr Allsopp's message, by the way, was a product called
MAPublisher, from Avenza Software, that will provide a bridge between GIS
and the PostScript drawing programs.  It has attracted a lot of attention
among cartographers.  It's available now for Illustrator; the FreeHand
version is nearing completion.  That might be an excellent complement to
the drawing software with so much data coming from GIS.
 
Incidentally, other MAPS-L subscribers may be interested in CARTO-SOC.
CARTO-SoC is a discussion list for all aspects of cartography.  Anyone may
subscribe.  Like the Society of Cartographers itself, is primarily aimed at
practicing cartographers. The Society of Cartographers is open to all
persons currently employed in cartography, cartographic
production/reproduction and the care of maps.  Membership stands at around
250, two-thirds of which come from the United Kingdom, the rest worldwide.
Their web site is well worth a visit to http://www.shef.ac.uk/~sc/cartosoc/
 
To subscribe to CARTO-SoC:
send a message to: [log in to unmask]
and in the BODY of the message type: subscribe carto-soc
 
 
 
 
 
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Dennis McClendon, Chicago CartoGraphics      [log in to unmask]