This is a fairly lengthy diatribe. Actually, it's mostly a copy of a letter I sent to ACD a while ago. But it may give you a few useful ideas of how to enjoy Canvas. I certainly do.
I operate an advertising consultancy and moved into computer graphics in the early days.
I first purchased Canvas version 3.5 in 1995, after seeing some ads with a competitive upgrade offer in a graphics mag from the USA - and I‘ve owned every version since. The combination of sophisticated vector drawing, painting and bitmap and text editing in one program, in one file, in place, on the same page, was irrestible. All on the same layer, too, if that's what you prefer to do.
With version 6 Canvas became my absolute first preference for the production of newspaper & magazine ads as well as brochures, booklets, labels, tags, signs and all the rest. Other capabilites of Canvas that I found very useful were slide presentations, web pages, flow charts and technical drawing.
Then, of course, Canvas introduced Sprite Effects, which were (and still are, in my opinion) the most sophisticated yet easiest to use set of transparency effects available.
To me, I guess the overall most important Canvas bonus is that I can keep all graphic and text objects right in my document file - and I can create and edit them right there using Canvas itself. No need to keep track of linked objects or special editing programs. This greatly simplifies daily work and also prevents a lot of the headaches associated with long term storage and retrieval of older documents.
Advertising agencies produce vast numbers of files. For example, each new press ad may be required in multiple shapes and sizes and resolutions to suit various publications. A piece of cake with Canvas when all elements are right there in the original file. Just save as a new file, adjust and edit as required. Job done in minutes.
When outputting files for press reproduction, Canvas is ideal for the PDF revolution. Both the Canvas "save as PDF" filter and printing with the Adobe PDF print driver (using Distiller) produce great results.
I usually stick with Adobe PDF Printer because Australian Newspaper and Commercial Print prepress departments are obsessed with Distiller and demand its use. Most issue their own unique Distiller Settings file, which they insist be used when supplying PDFs to them.
Also the Canvas print filter automatically converts any embedded TrueType fonts it finds, so that they show up in the PDF as Type 1 subsets. Some Canvas users seem to be under the impression that it‘s Distiller doing this conversion, but Canvas does the same thing when printing to any PostScript file. This feature can sometimes be a lifesaver.
Because the vast majority of my work is graphic, rather than publication style, my default Canvas mode is Illustration. I have developed my own methodology, for print jobs like booklets, which I have found to be very efficient and the results have convinced printers to quote me very low prepress costs.
Each page (sheet) in the Canvas document is a double spread including bleed. For the initial design stage the pages are Reader spreads, so my client can view them, too. When happy with the result I create a set of Printer spreads, dragging and dropping data to new files. For example, a 32-page booklet will become 16 separate files which will be output to PDF and sent to the printer.
This may seem complicated, but its surprisingly quick and cuts costs at the printer end.
No need for me to worry about color separations, or even registration marks. The printer is free to handle prepress imposition in the most efficient way for his printing press and imposition software, using whatever registration marks, halftone patterns etc are preferred to achieve top results.
Now as to what Canvas features I find particularly useful - I like 'em all, but I‘ll try to pick a few.
1) Sprite & Transparency Effects.
It's not just the simplicity of applying these tools in Canvas and their variety that impress me. It‘s the fact that I can mix vector and bitmap transparency effects in an overlapping group of objects and then convert the whole conglomeration into one clean image object in seconds, using the Render tool. You can see the final result right in the document and be absolutely sure that output to print will be perfect.
2) The Render Tool
Converts any Canvas object or group of objects - image, vector and text - to a simple bitmap, right in position, in the document. Guarantees that even the most complex effects in your Canvas document will reproduce perfectly, every time. See previous item.
3) Text Effects
Canvas handles text a bit differently to other programs and has been criticized for that. Canvas text handling has a graphical edge. Where other programs often seem to convert text to graphic outlines when applying distortion effects such as binding to curves, Canvas retains it as editable text. I find this extremely useful. A good example would be when creating a series of look-alike press ads with different headlines.
4) Overall Flexibility
Canvas users are free to work the way they want to. You can create by painting images or by drawing vector objects, or both. You can edit both vector and image objects right on the page. You can use multiple layers if you want to, but you're not forced to (sometimes they‘re nothing more than a memory-wasting nuisance). Canvas creates all objects and text in complete documents from scratch and gives you method choices in just about everything you'll want to do. I don‘t know of any other graphics software that can say the same.
5) Professional Output
Canvas is ideal for commercial printing work. It outputs faultless PostScript when used sensibly, has its own excellent PDF export filter and also teams perfectly with Acrobat and Distiller. I send out hundreds of PDFs from Canvas every year to media and commercial printers.
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