The slogan 'as used by professionals' conjures images of a package which will work wonders but the maxim does not hold true for the Psion Q Draw.

The package is apparently based on a utility used by Psion artists to design screens for QL Chess and Match Point. Looking at its capabilities they would have been better off using GraphiQL, from Talent, or even Sketchpad from Sigma Research. It is capable of pixel plot and line drawing - using rubber banding - but does not include circle, arc or ellipse facilities which most other QL and Spectrum packages contain.

It is, however, possible to define a shape, such as a circle, and store it, on microdrive or disc, as part of a library of such designs. Shape drawing mode is entered using F4 and then drawing the outline of the shape using a cursor.

When the outline has been defined, a number of options are open to you including colour fill, moving the shape to another part of the screen, replicating the shape, and dropping a shadow from it.

Once defined, shapes can be incorporated into screen displays which, in most cases, is faster than having to draw each shape by hand each time you need it. Inclusion of an arc command would, however, have been useful.

Q Draw does not have the power and versatility of GraphiQL and is less useful than Spectrum packages such as The Artist, from The Edge, or Art Studio, from Firebird. No company can be expected to have a winner with every new launch but with a bit more attention to detail Q Draw could have been on its way to Classicdom.