Back in 2007 Google acquired the San Francisco company Tonic Systems, whose expertise lay in products for creating presentations in Java. That expertise was put to good use within Google and this week we can see the fruit of their labors with a new feature addition to Google Docs. Google has added the ability to enhance your work with drawings.
They can be added to documents, spreadsheets, and presentations and are accessible via the Insert menu. This brings up a new window and a blank canvas on which to draw. The tools available to use include:
- Line
- Arrow
- Scribble
- Text
- 113 predefined shapes and WordArt
You also get the expected fill color, line color, and line thickness editing abilities as well as being able to change the order, rotation, alignment, and grouping of the shapes in your drawing. Drawings can be created on your own or through collaboration with others turning the feature into a nice brainstorming tool for online meetings.
The reason it has taken so long to add drawing capabilities to Google Docs is down to performance according to the Google Blog post. In it Tony Glenning, Drawings Team Lead, says:
The drawing feature that we’ve built relies heavily on a relatively new capability in browsers: the ability to render vector graphics. We use the SVG (scalable vector graphics) standard to accomplish this in most browsers and VML (vector markup language) where SVG is not available. Only recently has the performance and ubiquity of such technology enabled us to deliver what we hope is a delightful feature. As browsers continue to improve, we can deliver more and more useful cloud-based functionality.
Reference : http://www.geek.com
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