Google Draw Photoshop Add on
Google Drawings isn't at the forefront of Google's productivity tools; the limelight is reserved for Docs, Sheets, and Slides. When you click "New" on the Google Drive homepage, you'll find more options beyond these if you hit "More" down at the bottom.
We've borne witness to the usefulness of Google Forms. Now, it's time to appreciate the versatility of Google Drawings.
Cool Things You Can Do With Google Drawings
Google Drawings is the freshest among all Google Drive tools. It's not a full-blown image editor like MS Paint, but, rather, a real-time collaborative application. At its most basic, it's an online whiteboard. At its most advanced, it can do so much more.
Let's look at some of its creative uses.
1. Use It for Collaborative Post-It Notes
Google Drawings can be used as a collaborative whiteboard that you can add Post-It notes to. Start your own, and then share your thoughts with others using a URL. The above virtual Post-It note was created in 5 minutes using Shapes, Google Fonts, and an image search for the "pin".
When you can't all be in the same place at the same time, a quick Google Drawings board share coupled with a Hangouts chat is an easy solution. Anyone in the team can add comments and other Post-It notes to the virtual office wall.
2. Create Your Own Graphic Organizers
Graphic organizers are diagrams that help organize information visually. Some are called concept maps, entity relationship charts, and mind maps.
With a graphic organizer, you can get a bird's-eye view of your thoughts. For instance, a spider diagram can be used to group ideas, a flow chart can be useful for sequencing a process, and a fishbone diagram can be used to show cause and effect.
Use the library of templates to take a shortcut (e.g. a flowchart template) or create your own from scratch. Google Drawings has the shapes, colors, and fonts to help you create memorable spatial structures quickly. The above diagram is a simple spider diagram illustrating the shortcuts you can use to create a graphic organizer.
3. Design an Infographic
Using Google Drawings to create infographics is one of our favorite Google Drawing hacks. If you have an idea and the data to back it up, you're already halfway there.
These two key ingredients to a great infographic can be supported with shapes, images, text, charts, graphs, tables, and colors to create more visual impact. Hyperlink your data to external resources to create a more dynamic experience.
To get started:
- Research the data that will go into the infographic.
- Resize the Drawings canvas to a long rectangle. Alternatively, go to File > Page Setup and enter the appropriate page dimensions.
- Use a background color or find free textures to use for the background. If you choose a texture image, go to Insert > Image to upload the texture file. Resize the texture to fit the background. To set a background color, right-click > Background.
- Create graphics by combining different shapes and grouping them together; you can create the shapes off-stage and then drag them into the canvas. Grouped graphics can be colored with a single click.
Google Drawings includes Snap to Grid and Snap to Guides so you can align objects to the Google Drawing grid and draw them to the same size with more precision. Go to View > Snap To > Grids / Guides.
Below is a starter video for anybody interested in creating their own infographics using Google Drawings.
4. Make Custom Graphics for Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides
This is perhaps the most obvious use of Google Drawings; it is the most accessible tool for inserting custom graphics into your Google Drive documents via the Web Clipboard. Here are some things you can do:
- Create your own clipart library of reusable clipart.
- Make your own unique vector picture bullets.
- Customize a digital signature for your email.
Note that copying a drawing to a different file creates a copy of the original drawing. Edits made to either the original or the copy do not automatically apply to the other.
5. Screen Design With Wireframes
Wireframes are blueprints for any screen design—think simple shapes without any color or frills. They help designers focus on how content will be laid out or how a prototype design will function. For simplicity, collaboration, and accessibility, Google Drawings soars high above the rest.
You can easily create your own wireframing kit with Google Drawings. The wireframing kit can be made up of the basic starting blocks you'll need for any design. Leave the elements in the gutter (the space next to the canvas) for quick access on any new project.
The video below gives you an idea of how the process works.
6. Understand Relationships With Database Schemas
Using Google Drawings to plot database schemas is not our original idea. The Web Development Group demonstrates this simple Google Drawings hack.
Database schemas are logical groupings of objects such as tables, views, stored procedures, and other things of that nature. They describe how a database is structured and the relationships between the objects within them.
Think of a database schema as a roadmap: it lays out the overall process, visually demonstrating where information is coming from and where it is going.
Google Drawings can be used to show entity relationships. Couple it with real-time collaboration and you've got a useful tool for creating schemas.
7. Annotating Screenshots
Annotating images can help you express what an image is all about. Again, you can choose from a wealth of web annotation tools. Google Drawings is one excellent selection.
Annotating an image in Google Drawings is simple:
- Use Print Screen to take a screenshot (or upload an image directly to Google Drawings).
- Use the Crop tool (Format > Crop Image) on the toolbar to isolate the section that you would like to show.
- Use the Shape and Line tools to highlight points on the image. Google Drawings has a variety of shapes and arrowheads to help you stylize these annotations.
- Insert text annotations (with the Text Box) and format with font, style, and size. Also, try Shapes > Callouts.
- Go to Format > Image Options for any color corrections.
- Go to File > Download as for the finished PNG or JPEG file. You can also share the annotated image via Google Drive.
8. Create Hotspots on Images
Think of a world map. Clicking each country takes you to the country's Wikipedia page.
Think of an idea. Explain it better by breaking down the idea and linking each part to external data clarifying each aspect of it.
With the help of an image map or image hotspots, you can convey a lot of information with just a single photo or drawing. Google Drawings can help you easily craft neat image maps like the ones described above.
To begin, insert or draw an image on a blank Google Drawings canvas.
- Go to Insert > Line > Polyline. Use the Polyline tool to draw around the clickable area.
- Go to Insert > Link (or Ctrl + K) and add the external webpage or another Google Drive document to the hyperlink box.
- Make the bounding polygonal area vanish by setting the Shape and Line color to transparent.
- Share the Drawing, embed it in your blog, or download it as a PDF file.
A Canvas for Your Ideas
Like any other drawing tool, exploring the possibilities available here is half of the fun. From explaining multi-step processes to brainstorming collaboratively, Google Drive's oft-forgotten drawing service could become your new favorite creative web app.
Tools like Microsoft Visio might be more convenient for more complex charting jobs, but few can beat Google Drawings at what it does best: real-time collaboration at the fantastic price of free. What's not to love?
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About The Author 
Saikat Basu (1526 Articles Published)
Saikat Basu is the Deputy Editor for Internet, Windows, and Productivity. After removing the grime of an MBA and a ten year long marketing career, he is now passionate about helping others improve their storytelling skills. He looks out for the missing Oxford comma and hates bad screenshots. But Photography, Photoshop, and Productivity ideas soothe his soul.
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Source: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-creative-uses-google-drawings-shouldnt-ignore/