A CAD app.

ImageWell is a $20 lightweight CAD app which I have been using for ages to upload images to this blog. It stores the path for the image which is simply dragged and dropped on the app, resized with a couple of key strokes, one more click adds the drop shadow, and off she goes to the server.

But this small app offers far more than image upload. With a very undemanding learning curve you can create charts and technical drawings of remarkable sophistication. Case in point my 12 year old son had to prepare an earthquake evacuation drawing as part of an earthquake awareness class. Now while this is somewhat reminiscent in utility value to those ‘nuclear safety’ newsreels of the cold war, which showed children hiding under desks for protection from Ivan, the project was a lot of fun and he emerged an ImageWell expert. With a minimum of tuition he was able to produce this:

This took him about an hour, including learning time.

Adding text to images is equally simple. Drag and drop the image, insert a text box and you are done.

ImageWell is highly recommended for Mac OS X users and bloggers, and will also do nicely for all but complex CAD projects. If you are making technical instruction manuals, it’s hard to beat photographs annotated with text using ImageWell.