Custom SF Symbol Icons

EazyDraw Version provides support for creating custom symbol iconography for your Apps. EazyDraw automatically recognizes SVG templates exported from the SF Symbols App, then creates EazyDraw layers with the correct content for your guides, notes, and editing. When exporting SVG, the format of these crucial layers preserves template integrity for accurate and precise icon specification in the SF Symbols app.

Use EazyDraw to design compatible SwiftUI artwork with a few simple steps: Find a similar icon in SF Symbols and choose Export Template, open the template in EazyDraw and create the vector preview wireframe, Export from EazyDraw, and drop the new SVG drawing into SF Symbols

The screen shot above shows the EazyDraw editing window and tools used to create our minor grid icon. The EazyDraw complete artboard template is seen behind and above the drawing window. The artboard is the template exported from SF Symbols. EazyDraw maintains the accurate position of the guides imported on their isolated layer. The SF Symbols app is seen on the left. The work-flow includes XCode which we use on a second screen.

The working window shows the EazyDraw Layer inspector on the left. The window shows the SF Symbol icon at 100-Point size viewed as a wire frame. The full suite of EazyDraw shapes and Bezier editing tools is available for efficient convenient vector editing.

Convert typeset text to Bezier curves

Your modern macOS uses Outline (also called Vector) fonts that are based on Bezier curves. EazyDraw is a vector based drawing application with advanced Bezier curve editing. You can take advantage of this convergence of technology with one click on the convert menu. Typeset text is precisely converted to fully editable individual Bezier curves.

Notice the stylized "7" in the screen shot. The designer started with the "7" glyph obtained directly from the font family character set.

The converted Bezier curves can be edited, they have stroke and fill, they will accept gradient fill and patterns, -- no limitations. EazyDraw doesn't even know that you obtained the shapes from a typeset font.

Drop Shadow

Add soft drop shadows to text. Easily add a shadow to any text content. Then adjust the color, transparency, blur, and offset of the shadow. Independent setting of outline - stroke and fill color for any font face. And these convert to Bezier with no degradation of appearance.

Vector shadows too. Notice the faint shadow near the bottom of the design page, this is a vector shadow which accepts a full Affine transform, just a couple of controls to flip and distort for the effect.

Flow Text Around Other Graphics

The paragraph align settings (left, right, center, or justify) have an option to flow text around other graphics. Useful for Page Layout projects, automatically get the professional "magazine" typeset appearance.

Attributes Bar - a great "short-cut"

When text is selected the contextual attributes toolbar presents a convenient arrangement of the most commonly used text tools such a stepping font size, of setting alignment. These are available for quick use without a menu-walk or opening of a special palette. A great time saver.

Notice there is a traditional font menu to compliment the full font palette. This is seen near the top of the drawing window in the screen shot - the smaller row of tool buttons and popup menus.

Spell and grammar check

Rotating text is done with one interactive editing handle. Text is fully typeset respecting kerning, alignment and paragraph settings at any angle. Works with linked text too.

Easily rotate text

typesetting text flow across the two (or more) text boxes. Live resize will push or pull text between all linked text boxes. Use this for multi-column and multi-page story page layout. Text linking may be combined with text - flow - around.

Punch Text

The stylize menu has several options including the "Punch" capability. One menu command will set a solid background and with the text transparent to provide a punched out stencil look that allows background graphics or images to be seen through the individual text characters.

Advance tab stops

The EazyDraw Tabs interface provides numeric or interactive on-screen setting of tab stops and their format. Add a tab leader, several formats provided (solid, dots, various dashed lines). You can even add Arrow heads to the leaders. This is the kind of capability found when a drawing application is used to design with text, compared to trying to "draw" with a word-processor.

Control stroke position

EazyDraw allows you to control painting order of the stroke (path or outline) relative to the fill (interior color) of any graphic. This makes it easy to apply pleasing stylizing effects to text by placing the stroke behind the fill, its normally drawn on top of the fill and can look jaggy or pointy. This technique is often used by logo designers.