Shapes for Mac

Many applications used to create diagrams and graphics are costly, especially for small businesses and individuals. Shapes for Mac's basic features leave much to be desired, but could work for some basic uses.

The program's free trial version restricts the ability to save created diagrams. To unlock the full version, a payment of $4.99 is required. While Shapes for Mac states it supports product updates, it does not appear that there is active technical support. Instructions were not available and would have been welcome, but some users will probably be able to work with the menus as designed. Users can create the desired diagrams by clicking on shape and line menus along the program's left side and dragging them into the main window. Digital photographs can also be placed into diagrams through a drag-and-drop option. These can be altered for shading and other basic changes, but there is no support for advanced editing. Unfortunately, the basic shape and line options lag behind other, more advanced drawing applications. During our testing, the program did function well and there did not appear to be any glitches or program bugs.

While functional, Shapes for Mac lacks many of the features of more advanced and useful drawing programs.

Editors' note: This is a review of the trial version of Shapes for Mac 3.2.2.

• NEW: Resolution Control - Edit the DPI of any document in the "Edit Canvas Size" sheet.
• NEW: Export Selection - Main Menu > File > Export Selection…
• NEW: 10% Zoom Scale option.
• FIX: Control-clicking objects on the Canvas for activating the context menu now works properly again.
• FIX: Improved canvas rendering performance.