Drawing online with Google Docs (video)

I have just discovered that Google Docs has a new addition - you can now easily create drawings online - no need to install anything - just use your browser - http://docs.google.com/

Of course, it is not Illustrator and I am sure they are not worried about Google Docs yet. If this software evolves I think they should get really worried. Should I say that Corel should be worried first? :)

The good

The interface is clearly presented - the icons are clear and you can figure out what tool to use in about thirty-seconds - of course, there are not too many tools to choose from but still, they are nicely arranged.

You can insert many predefined shapes and create your own. However, you cannot work with points - just the whole shapes.

It is fairly easy to create flow charts - there is a large selection of lines, shapes, arrows with customizable arrowheads, etc.


The bad

As I said above, having no way to edit the shapes makes Google Docs less desirable for graphic designers - I wish one day I could quickly edit some logos online.

When you create your own shapes you have no option to combine them in any form - no grouping, no boolean operators, nothing. You can overcome this for basic stuff by placing white filled shapes on top of the shapes you want modified. It can get really ugly when using too many objects.

And the ugly

Layers are, in my opinion, the ugliest thing so far. First, because they are not visible - you can order objects in the document but you cannot see those objects in an organized way. Second, because even for a drawing with just a few objects, it can get really difficult to select some of the objects in the back and layers or at lease a way to view the hierarchy in the document could prove really useful.

My experiment

Using the new google docs drawing features we have reconstructed our logo. Take a look at it.

Since our logo is not very complicated I have tried to recreate it using Google Docs - you can see above how well I have managed to do it. Feel free to reply with your own Google Docs drawings.

Conclusion

Google Docs with its drawing feature is not an Illustrator replacement but it can be useful in certain situations. It seems it targets the business users rather than the creative folks. I will refrain from giving it a rating but I will definitively check the status of this project quite often.