Google Docs has a new feature called Insert Drawing that can be used to create and insert four-color drawings into documents, presentations and spreadsheets.

Google's talking about line drawings, freehand scribbles and text labels and is offering a bunch of shapes that that can be resized, rotated and adjusted. It says users can customize the shapes and fiddle with line widths, fill color, arrowheads and font sizes.

The widgetry initially came from the start-up Tonic Systems that Google acquired in 2007 but Google says the feature actually relies on a relatively new capability in browsers - the ability to render vector graphics - and uses the SVG (scalable vector graphics) standard.

It says "only recently has the performance and ubiquity of such technology enabled us to deliver what we hope is a delightful feature."