Programs like Inkscape for Mac?

[davoush]

Hello,

I have recently switched to using a Mac. I had previously relied on Inkscape to do most of my mapping and found it to be a great program. It doesn't run so well on Macs, and I was wondering if anybody could recommend a similar free (or reasonably priced) program? I liked how easy it was to edit paths and add grids and layers, etc. but I haven't been able to find anything with similar functionality.

Many thanks.

[ChickPea]

It's not free and I'm not certain how it compares to Inkscape, but perhaps Affinity Designer might be worth a look?

[Voolf]

Agree. Affinity Designer is one of the best choice for mac right know if you are willing to spend some money. Its a powerfull tool like Adobe Illustrator and comparing prices Designer is super cheap.

[Mouse]

Affinity is on my shopping list too, and I'm a Windows user

[kacey]

Because of this thread I just spent the majority of my evening looking into the Affinity software. Affinity photo looks like it may even be able to replace photoshop, it seems promising from what I can see, and they have a free trial for both Affinity photo, and Affinity designer. When I have a little more free time I think I'll do the trial version just to see...Thanks, this may save me some money in the long run if it works out, the monthly subscriptions start to add up After a while.

[Voolf]

Just a heads up for Affinity Photo.

AP on windows is still a BETA for most people. Though it had its launch and release a version that is not tagged BETA, it still has huge amount of bugs. The most important one for map makers is that AP has an input delay with some Wacom tablets as well as it does not draw perfecly nice circles yet. You can see angles in a curve (like made from straight strokes). I have my copy of AP for 4 month now and they haven't solved that problem yet. I am using Wacom Intuos CTL-480, but i know other Intuos have same problems.

Now this is only for Windows. Mac versions are better because they were in development far more time, but i cannot say anything about whether Mac has bug like that or not.

Edit: To better explain what i mean here are some screens

angular curve
post-41861-0-24876300-1486975976.jpg

Input lag creates straight stroke at the beginning
post-40801-0-75243600-1482374364.png

[Mouse]

That's very interesting information Voolf. Have you notified Affinity of this issue?

[Voolf]

Yes, they know about the problem, but it seems they have very hard time identifying the issue. They just have released new customer beta yesterday with 200+ new fixes (so they say) and it still didnt fix my problem. The odd thing is, that some Wacom Intuos works like charm, other not. More than half people use AP for Photo enhancement so they dont care about that, i would say that in AP forum there is just handful of us - who wants to use AP as a drawing software... maybe we dont have enough stomp power for Serif comapny to make this a priority. Anyway, they excuse is that they are a small team of developers and everything takes time. True, but they should not release so flawed software in my opinion. Including beta tests i am wating almost 5 months to test AP for my maps but i cant because of that Wacom problem.

Problems aside. AP has exellent Brush Engine with a super texture brushes set from start. When they fix the tablet i guess in right hands it can makes wonderful maps.

[Mouse]

I have the same problem with GIMP - if I forget to plug the tablet in before I open GIMP. Its as if there's a basic communication problem if GIMP doesn't pick it up on opening - some sort of handshake thing between tablet and GIMP?

When you use your tablet with Affinity, do you open Affinity and then plug the tablet in? (I'm just wondering if its the same problem as the one I have with GIMP)

[Voolf]

My tablet is always pluggled in. But i did check it with unplugged first, as well as many other potencial solutions, but nothing worked. I even installed AP and my tablet in different PC and it had same lag as on mine.