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There have been quite a few graphics packages for the Spectrum releases for the Spectrum released in the last few months, what with The Artist, The Art Studio and a mouse each from Kempston and AMS. And with all that graphic activity going on this slightly more modest utility from Audiogenic seems to have been overlooked. Admittedly it's not as sophisticated as some of its recent competition but it's the only one with a price that's not in double figures which makes it at least worth some consideration.

The name Icon Graphix is a bit of a giveaway, since it tells you straight away that the program is controlled by a series of icons. These, along with the patterns available for the Fill and Spray options, are very conveniently arranged around the border of the screen so that they surround the drawing area like a frame. Most of the commands that you would expect are available for drawing standard shapes such as lines, boxes, rectangles, circles and ellipses, although there is no quick way of drawing triangles other than to join three straight lines. A 'push page' command allows you to move the picture around the screen so that you can see the areas normally covered up by the icon area border.

These operations aren't performed as quickly as they are in a program like The Artist, but that's not necessarily a bad thing since I've often found both that and Art Studio getting a bit out of control before I can figure out what I've done wrong. On the other hand, the movement of the cursor around the screen can be irritatingly slow at times and it can also be a bit tricky to control since the choice of control keys (Caps Shift, Z, X, C and V) is a bit odd. Fortunately there is an option for joystick control and, very sensibly, a microdrive-compatible version of the program on side two of the tape. Not so sensible is the bug (?) which causes the program to return to Basic whenever you press any of the keys on the bottom row (other than the control keys). Since these are so close to the cursor keys I found myself dropping in and out of Basic like a yo-yo, though this doesn't affect what you've drawn and can be remedied simply by typing RUN.

Other features include the now obligatory Fill and Spray routines with about thirty pre-defined patterns and a facility for defining your own pattern if desired. The Pen option allows you to choose from sixteen types of nib and some of these can also us the standard patterns for shading effects, which can be quite useful.

What is missing is some of the fancier refinements such as being able to Cut and Paste areas of the screen, text handling and reflections. How indispenible you consider these to be is very much a matter of opinion, but at least the lack of frills is reflected in a price that's only about two thirds that of most graphics packages. I think that's about the best way to sum up Icon Graphix - a 'no frills' package that provides all the basics that you might need if your pocket can't quite stretch to £15 for one of the other programs or if, like me, you're a doodler rather than a dedicated screen designer who really does need a state-of-the-art utility.

There is to be an enhanced version of the program for the Spectrum 128 though, and that could be well worth looking out for.