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OmniGraffle

Score9.7 out of 10

52 Reviews and Ratings

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What is OmniGraffle?

OmniGraffle is a wireframing tool for Mac users.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about OmniGraffle.
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OmniGraffle is a perfect tool for our uses

Incentivized
Verified User
C-Level Executive (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

OmniGraffle has tons of uses, not least of which is as an image and graphic design tool. Not needing major graphic design software in-house (we outsource that work when it's needed) we use OmniGraffle to design graphics and images as needed. We also use it to work with vector images and stencils in order to create details for construction documents as needed. OmniGraffle just has so many fantastic uses, probably many of which we haven't even begun to utilize to the fullest.

Pros

  • Importing image files (jpg, pdf, png, etc.)
  • Resizing images
  • Exporting newly created and edited images and files

Cons

  • I'd love to be able to keep more than one of the different tool tabs open at a time.
  • The stencils are amazing. Would be great if a whole lot more of the free ones came standard as opposed to having to download them from Graffletopia or other sites.
  • Built in tutorials would be great.

Return on Investment

  • I've created multiple OmniGraffle template files that I use constantly. I create covers for our proposals in OmniGraffle with pictures of the the client's buildings or sites. All I need to do is drag and drop the image into the template, change the title and client name and address accordingly and it's ready to go.
  • Using templates in OmniGraffle has saved lots of time.
  • Using OmniGraffle to design drawing details for construction documents has allowed us to land projects, purchase orders and new clients to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Other Software Used

Project.co, Getscreen.me, Vectera

Perfect Diagram and Chart Development Application

Incentivized
Rene Sabillon
IT Manager in Information Technology at American Textiles & Apparel (11-50 employees employees)

Pros

  • Easy to use, drag and drop tools.
  • Multiple pre-designed templates for fast access.

Cons

  • OmniGraffle is a chart development application, it does amazing for chart development. No complaints.

Return on Investment

  • Excellent diagrams and charts for presentations.
  • Time saving in diagram and chart development.

OmniGraffle — The sweet spot for diagramming and visual tech communications

Incentivized
Jeff EatonView profile
Senior Digital Strategist in Professional Services at Lullabot (51-200 employees employees)

Pros

  • For us, mapping and content model documentation are Omnigraffle's sweet spot. It has enough presentation/styling control to ensure a clean, consistent look that's compatible with the rest of our corporate branding, but lets us focus on the core challenge of communicating complicated relationships and processes to stakeholders.
  • For wireframing, a few specific features make OmniGraffle particularly useful. Its "sketch" line and fill styles make it easy to throw together some boxes-and-lines mockups that convey basic layout and priority decisions about a new design without implying a particular stylistic treatment. For higher fidelity mockups, it supports a large library of free and commercial UI shapes for OSX, IOS, Android, Windows, Bootstrap, and generic Web sites. Building out a set of shapes/components for quick wireframing and sharing them across an organization is easy, too.

Cons

  • Although the large library of reusable "shapes" makes it possible to build stuff like entity-relationship diagrams, flowcharts, and UML diagrams, it lacks Visio's ability to alter a shape's appearance/behavior by adding metadata to the shape itself. (I.E., changing color when a shape has a particular tag added to it). It is possible to add metadata to shapes, and OmniGraffle's advanced scripting support makes it possible to make custom plugins that automate color/style changes, but baking data-driven features right into the app would be a welcome addition.
  • Import/Export has improved dramatically over the past several versions, but export in formats like SVG and DXF is still a little too fussy to use for precise CAD work. If you need to spit out PDFs, PNGs, and occasionally import/export simple Visio files, it's fine.
  • Although OmniGraffle has a solid iPad version, exchanging files between the desktop and iOS versions requires "OmniSync," a passable but clunky file-sharing solution that's specific to Omni* products. I understand that Apple makes it difficult for non-App-Store products to use iCloud effectively, but it's still disappointing.

Return on Investment

  • Standardizing on Omnigraffle for our internal diagramming (and at least some of our client deliverables) has made it possible for consultants and technical architects to produce high-quality support materials even when designers don't have time to produce "final" versions.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Visio and draw.io

Other Software Used

Dropbox Business, Slack, PhpStorm

Easy way to outline concepts you need to communicate to others

Incentivized
John RougeuxView profile
VP Marketing, North America in Marketing at Skyfii (11-50 employees employees)

Pros

  • Mind mapping. You can easily link ideas together and OmniFocus can automatically arrange them in a presentable format.
  • Wireframing. If you're working on simple design concepts, it's a great way to show ideas to designers.
  • Outlining process flows. If you're outlining a process, such as marketing automation, it's perfect.

Cons

  • No support for team collaboration. I would really like to see a way to share files to iCloud so that others can access and edit.
  • Better print settings. If you're trying to print a document across many pages, it's not easy to make this happen.
  • No ability to pre-configure settings. For example, I have to manually change the unit of measure from "inches" to "pixels" when I create a new document, would like the ability to change that fundamentally.

Return on Investment

  • Helps speed up the process for communicating concepts.
  • Allows me to think through ideas more thoroughly.
  • Great for expediting idea exchanges with design teams.

Other Software Used

OmniFocus, Balsamiq, Evernote

OmniGraffle is simply the best choice for modelling on the Mac

Incentivized
Ash SharmaView profile
Director in Professional Services at ERP Solution Advisors Ltd (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

  • Ease of use and time to adopt software
  • Multi-device support
  • Scripting capability
  • High-end modelling product

Cons

  • More templates stencils and samples
  • Data integration

Return on Investment

  • Low-cost of adoption means every consultant has their own copy
  • Migration from Windows/Visio to OmniGraffle has been seamless
  • Support for iOS is a real bonus

Alternatives Considered

Visio, Lucidchart and SmartDraw

Other Software Used

Teamwork Projects, OmniFocus, OneNote, MindManager