Review: Deneba Canvas 7

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by Don Herion

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Making Life Easier
One of the big questions I wanted an answer to was how well Deneba integrates these diverse capabilities. Overall I must say I am very pleased. The 'Docking Bar' is a big part of this smooth integration. By clicking tabs, designers can get access to Canvas's full potential. These tabs can be torn off the bar and onto the document.

Click tabs on the 'Docking Bar' to access tool palettes

There is also an editable 'Status Bar' at the bottom. Here you can set what types of information you want to see, such as mouse position, layer info, object size, and more. However, no print manual is provided with the SE (Standard Edition) version of the program. You have to settle for a 650 page Acrobat version. This is not acceptable for such a complex program.

Final Thoughts
Deneba Canvas has started something that I believe Adobe and Macromedia will do in the near future; merge their suites of powerful graphic and Web creation tools into 1 or 2 products. Canvas 7, as an all in one master graphic design program, is still a work in progress. Canvas kicks @$$ in vector art, bitmap editing and page layout design. But it comes up wanting in the Web design arena. For the moment I would recommend purchasing the Canvas SE version rather than the 'Professional' release. The SE version can be purchased for around $100. The SE version does surrender some features (professional color matching, some powerful vector manipulation tools, and a number of import/export file types) but it can still be a potent tool for your design studio.

Estimated Street Price:

Canvas 7 Professional - $375
Canvas SE (Standard Edition) - $100

System Requirements:

Windows 95/98/NT/2000
Pentium class processor (Pentium III recommended)
32 Megs ram minimum (128 recommended)
80 megs hard drive space
16 bit color or better
800 x 600 resolution or better

Mac OS 8.5 or better
Power PC processor
32 Megs ram (128 recommended)
80 megs hard drive space
16 bit color or better
800 x 600 resolution or better

Learn more about Canvas at www.deneba.com

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