Grafio 4 - Diagram Maker Reviews

No handwriting or sketches allowed? No bueno.

heatherjoflores

I bought this after reading all the great reviews but this thing is super clunky and frustrating. The fonts are hard to set (and you have to do it every time, same with colors etc., which makes creating branded diagrams super tedious and annoying. But the worst part: it will only let you "draw" shapes and lines! You can't jot down notes or make sketches at all! Repeat: this app will not let you scribble on your diagrams! You have to TYPE in every note, and if you want to add tiny drawings to your diagram, you have to create each one in a separate app and import it individually as an image. as such, this app is useless, to me, unless there is some exciting update coming like right now? Otherwise I'm requesting a refund.

Excellent app thanks very much

sarah_Adam

Recommended make graphics never been easier. I use it to write my book Study medicine Do my publications and research This app is beyond excellent I recommend this app by full heart this company is excellent

Love it. Wish for more sharing and export formats.

Guvlem

Love it. Wish for more sharing and export formats.

GREAT STUFF!

ertyuiop[

I love Grafio! It has helped me put charts together and diagrams and I highly recommend it to anyone!

Worthwhile, Ambitious & Improving

InHaloBlack

I am definitely getting my money’s worth out of the Grafio app purchase and I highly recommend it to all who can benefit from visual communication and expression of ideas and processes. While Grafio 3 meets satisfactory expectations in creating diagrams, easily and beautifully, I believe future updates will considerably enhance its superiority as a user-friendly, comprehensive diagram builder. As of this review, I have so far used Grafio exclusively for constructing flow charts from my iPhone, but, having become acquainted with its features, I would recommend using this app for visualizing ideas and processes, but not so much for simply depicting raw data. I do have some (6) suggestions I hope to see in future updates: 1) Shape Substitution -I agree, with other users’ earlier reviews, that allowing for shape substitutions to boxes, without the loss of preformed connections, would be a major improvement. *Tip for new users: Utilize the “lock” mechanic often to avoid accidental scaling of objects (easy to do when zooming while an object is selected) which can irreversibly deform connections, even despite “undoing” the action. 2) Font Underline & Style Variations Per Text Box. -Grafio 3 does not allow for multiple font style settings within a single body of text, nor, strangely, for applying text underline at all. Although the app otherwise offers a generous range of fonts in a standard selection of text formats, including varieties of font weight, size, italics, color, transparency, drop shadow, etc., all format choices are assigned per ‘box’ of text, but can not be applied distinctly to specific selections of text within a box. In other words, whenever the user wishes to distinguish only a portion of the text within a text box, say by making just one word bold, or one word blue, they must create separate text boxes, styled accordingly for those words, and then meticulously layer and arrange the multiple text boxes to appear as one. This is made even more complicated when such text boxes are meant to share a shape, as is often desired when using Grafio. *Current workaround solution: -Layer, arrange, finish, and group all related shapes and text boxes accordingly before drawing arrow paths. Grouping is especially important before drawing or editing these arrow paths since the arrows automatically connect to and from object centers; If left ungrouped, any text layered on top of a shape, near the center, will become the arrow’s automatic connection point, consequently overlapping the targeted container-shape and obscuring the flow chart. Make sure all this layered and grouped content is finished before connecting to your flow chart as any later modifications will be meticulous, verging on catastrophic, depending on your chart’s complexity. 3) Customizable Color Gradients -A feature I find myself wanting, particularly when making color-coded charts, is the ability to apply custom color gradients/transitions, especially to arrow paths between objects of different color. This would enhance, both, the aesthetic potential of Grafio charts, and, perhaps more significantly, the intuitiveness of their visual flow. 4) Shape Annotations -When building diagrams to communicate information and processes visually and concisely, establishing references to context, or deeper exposition, can often become essential. One option Grafio offers is the ‘record audio to shape’ feature which allows for a self-recorded audio sample to be attached to any component of a chart. While voice and audio recording may be preferable in a number of applications, when it comes to exposition, I find myself partial to good old-fashioned text annotations. In this user’s opinion, the option to attach text annotations to shapes, instead of only audio samples, would be a welcome addition to Grafio, allowing for detailed explanations of particular, illustrated processes, without relying on audio samples, nor oral recitations, nor visually bombarding viewers with additional text figures alongside the main diagram. 5) Grid Scaling & Canvas Snapping (for aligning compositions at start, or while in far-zoom) -Perhaps this is less of an issue when using a larger device, such as an iPad, but as a Grafio fan primarily using an iPhone, I find that the grid squares become unusably small after zooming out to view a whole chart, often with the intention of squaring up and centering the final composition, relative to the canvas. Although Grafio does include several helpful snapping features, which can easily be enabled or disabled at the user’s convenience, and are essential in maintaining the relative positioning and scaling of objects to each other during chart construction, Grafio could improve upon the snapping of objects to key points on the working canvas/grid itself (x, y centers, thirds, fourth, etc.) 6) More Practical Clip Art -This is somewhat more of a minor suggestion, and perhaps a bit biased towards the extent of my personal use, but I think a lot of users, especially educators, would benefit from a more extensive variety of clip art within the pictogram library, especially within the themes of general education and scientific or governmental processes. Although Grafio does allow for imports of any user images, I think the clip art library, which stocks clean, simple, cohesive visuals, for expressing ideas, could improve upon representing more general/practical applications, especially considering how many obscure/specific images it already does provide. For example, the clip art library lacks planetary images, without even featuring an earth graphic, but does provide various stock images for specific medical exams, hooking a fish, and mustaches. The app offers ‘paid libraries’ for broadening selection of some themes and layouts; a paid extension for general clip art would certainly suffice. Ultimately, Grafio makes for an effective, valuable, and consistently improving tool for visual expression and learning!

Disappointing

applenicknamejoel

I purchased this app specifically for the shape recognition and shape library features assuming they’d make it quick and easy to prototype diagrams. Instead, I found the shape recognition to be useless. No matter how many times I try to draw a square, it auto corrects to a weird rhombus and circles end up turning into skewed ovals. I’m not an artist by any means, but I can draw a basic shape. The shape library is equally disappointing because it’s absurdly slow. I have a 2019 iPad Pro and using the shape library is grueling due to the amount of lag. Ultimately, this experience is bad enough that I wouldn’t recommend the app if you want a workflow that utilizes these features.

Good app, but some stuff missing...

Dimyel

Very smooth and nice app. You want to draw ur ideas in a nice way... this is ur app Easy to use, very User friendly and nice user experience. Some stuff are although still missing: - keyboard shortcut to go from draw tool to select tool - predesign organigrammes... - the draw a line is still to be enhanced and notably when to draw a narrow without linking 2 figures Hopefully v.4 to make it even better.

Simple to use, with many great features

Geoff Canyon

I've used Grafio for years. I think I bought it when it first came out. I don't need to draw often, but when I do, Grafio does the job.

More canvas and shape size control please?

Sceadugenga

I would give all five stars, but 3 small points hold that last one back for me: * No SVG export (seems they are working on it though) * When using the resize handles on shapes, they don’t snap to the grid. This makes diagrams of nested objects a little harder to plan out. * Unit options are only in points. No inches or centimeters. Makes some guesswork when you want to make a diagram that will be in printed documentation.

The more I use it, the more I love it

PatriotUSA

This app has become my go-to for creating flowcharts and diagrams. I used to use PowerPoint but this is far better for my use case. It works great with the Apple Pencil on my iPad Pro 10.5. The main thing needed is the ability to select objects and have them auto-align/auto-space. The “smart guides” work great, but it is still a little difficult to get the spacing right sometimes in the flowchart.

Grafio 4 - Diagram Maker Reviews – Page 7