----------------------------Original message---------------------------- 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 :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Dennis McClendon, Chicago CartoGraphics [log in to unmask]