Since I switched to the Mac over a year ago, I’ve been using Canvas 8 as a replacement for the much-beloved Xara that I used under Windows for years.

I’ve struggled with Canvas: it’s not an intuitive product in many aspects, and there are many annoying bugs and inconsistencies. For example, often the result of an export will not look like the design: there will be small differences, and type can appear wonky. Part of this might be due to “operator error,” but I could never find solutions to these problems, and the Deneba help (which is web-based) and support system are anemic.

So this week, faced with a series of print jobs over the next month, and unable to stomach using Canvas, I downloaded the 30 day trial of Freehand MX. After using it for 5 days, I can say without reservation that it is a truly wonderful piece of software, and using it makes using Canvas seem like using a Model T Ford to drive to Toronto.

I’ll have more to report once my jobs have hit the press, but for now, if you’re struggling with Canvas, you might want to give Freehand a look.