Lineform 1.3.2 is a refreshfully unsubdivided drawing program whose user interface is interchangeable enough to Illustrator ’s ( or CorelDraw ’s , or other vector art programs ) that experienced illustrator will intuitively discover its key drawing tools . Lineform ’s importing and export potentiality allow cheeseparing collaborationism between it and other more advanced illustration programs .
Lineform ’s default drafting environment is almost shockingly sparse , giving you only Selection and Edit dick ( the latter similar to the Direct Selection pecker in Illustrator ( ) , Paint and Pen instrument , Rectangle and Oval putz , a Text tool , a Zoom putz , a Grab instrument , and a Dropper creature that works like the Eyedropper Tool in Illustrator or Photoshop ( ) . Despite this simplicity , experienced illustrators will find out that 90 percentage of the draftsmanship they do is ease by these 10 tools .
Lineform ’s inspector ( the eq of panels in Adobe products ) , provide likewise well-off access to feature of speech like fills , cerebrovascular accident attributes , level dominance , effects , and filter . I particularly enjoy the intuitiveness of the charismatic snapping capability , which make it gentle to attach these inspectors to each other . The syllabus ’s Media web browser inspector gives you access to your iPhoto program library and other image folder on your toilsome drive .
The heart and soulfulness of any drawing program is the power to give Bézier curves , built around what Adobe Illustrator calls anchorman point , and Lineform calls nodes . Lineform ’s Pen tool does a precise , control line of work of draw Bézier bender .
Will Lineform ’s stripped down user interface make it easier to cross the span from far more popular and accessible raster editor in chief ( like Photoshop ) to transmitter design ? Yes and no . get the hang transmitter graphics still need conquering the Pen tool , and learning to believe in terms of counterintuitive control points rather of dots on a page . But Lineform helps beginner by displaying prompt below the toolbar for selected tools . And , for founder struggling with the concept of vector graphic , Lineform wo n’t bog you down with an intimidating user interface .
Illustrator file exchange
Given that Illustrator is , and in all probability will remain , the prevalent vector nontextual matter tool for professional fashion designer for the foreseeable future , the viability of Lineform will reckon to a significant academic degree on how well it supports importing and exporting single file to and from Illustrator . Lineform approaches this challenge by support both the general EPS ( Encapsulated PostScript ) data format and Adobe ’s SVG ( Scalable Vector Graphics ) formatting . Championed for several years by Adobe , the SVG format never really caught on as an choice to Flash for displaying vector image on the entanglement . But Adobe Illustrator admit SVG as one of the three support single file formats ( in gain to Illustrator ’s native AI format and PDF ) .
import and export SVG files work much better than trying to utilize the EPS formatting as an intermediary between Lineform and Illustrator . That ’s because EPS files imported to and exported from Lineform do not check as much information as Illustrator files and some graphic are thus reduced to individual ( and severe to edit ) discrete line .
I make several complex file in Lineform ( containing essence , shading , and other elements ) , exported them as SVG files , and was able to open and edit out them in Illustrator with no problem . As expected , Lineform ’s filters and force — which are essentially proprietary scripts for rearrange curves — did not at once translate into Illustrator effects and filter . Instead they export as individual , editable curves .
Lineform was able-bodied to afford complex Illustrator files using the SVG format . As was the case when I exported to Illustrator , proprietary filter and effect translate simply as assembly line and fill , but they were fully editable lines and fills when opened in Lineform . For example , I create a globe in Illustrator by generating a 3 - five hundred effect from a dewy-eyed hemicycle . After export from Illustrator to SVG , and then importing the SVG file into Lineform , I get an editable ball , but not the power to reduce that sire effect back to a hemicycle . That ’s because Illustrator assigns effect assign to curve that make a hemicycle wait like a globe . but the actual , editable element in Illustrator is a simple curve . So , in Illustrator , you edit out the globe by editing the curve that the effect is built on . All this gets constrict into a simple drawing off when imported into Lineform .
Lineform 1.3.2 has enclose SVG Gaussian blur living , and I was able to easy hold this filter to artwork . More interestingly , I could export that artwork in SVG formatting and start the illustration in Adobe Illustrator CS3 with the Gaussian blur filter put on and editable – meaning the Gaussian blur effect can be further edited ( or remove ) in Illustrator . This is a useful , if not exactly substantial expansion of the SVG exportation / importee capability between Lineform and Illustrator , and it suggest a path by which Lineform can carry on to enhance integration with Illustrator .
Lineform can export single file to PDF , which intend that just about any pressman , and any background publishing program ( like Quark ( ) or InDesign ( ) can render and print Lineform illustrations . Support for editing import PDFs in Lineform however , is very modified . Lineform 1.3 have you import PDFs and feature a Parse function that enable illustrator to make minor modification to a PDF file . But even with the improved PDF parsing for gradient and text in version 1.3.2 , this feature is still too primitive to allow serious text editing of PDF files . As it stands , you may make single file in Lineform and transmit them to guest or printing machine who work with Illustrator EPS or PDF files . But if you open files created in Illustrator , you wo n’t have access to Illustrator ’s outcome , which rules out high - level collaboration on projects with other Illustrator room decorator .
Macworld’s buying advice
If you ’re looking for an wanton - to - function , affordable vector lottery package that can create EPS and PDF files , it ’s hard to imagine a skillful deal than Lineform 1.3.2 . If you want to collaborate on projection with illustration professionals , you ’ll require the more robust exercise set of tools that come with Adobe Illustrator .
[ David Karlins has indite a half dozen books on vector graphics includingAdobe Illustrator CS2 How - Tos : 100 Essential Techniques(Adobe Press , 2005 ) andIllustrator Gone Wild(Wiley , 2005 ) . David teaches an on-line Illustrator course for San Francisco State University ’s Multimedia Studies Program . ]
