Lineform 1.3.1

Reviewed by Mike Swope

For a demo of this product: http://www.freeverse.com/download/select.php?name=lineform&platform=osx

Introduction

I’m a freelance graphic designer, creating and massaging images for print and the web. I was interested in reviewing Lineform as a possible replacement to the expensive upgrade to Adobe Illustrator CS2 or CS3 in the near future.

Like many frelance graphic designers, my needs are relatively simple. I need to be able to create logos, import and edit logos and PDFs that have been emailed to me, create and edit simple logos and illustrations, and reliably prepare all final files for offset press or the Internet.

Since Lineform is marketed as an application to create simple logos to complex designs and illustrations, similar to Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand and CorelDraw, I thought that Lineform might meet my modest needs and those of other freelance graphic and web designers. Lineform, however, I’m sorry to say, is not ready to take the place of these more capable illustration packages, despite its strengths.

Getting Started

Installing Lineform is easy. After download, just copy the application to your Applications folder, then launch it. The Lineform download also comes with example artwork, including some outstanding illustrations created by Lineform Contest Winners. These examples are, of course, professional quality, a testament to the potential of Lineform.

Using the Software

Lineform’s interface is simple. Each document window features a customizable tool palette, like other modern illustration software, so your preferred tools are always at your fingertips, as it were, never hidden behind other palettes. That this menu is included in each document window is a simple but nice feature that reduces screen clutter. By default, Lineform’s tool palettes contain 10 common illustration tools: selection tool, edit tool, brush, pen, rectangle, oval, text, zoom, drag and dropper, and also includes buttons to access color and font palettes. To add or remove items from the toolbar, right click on an item and remove it, or choose Customize Toolbar from the menu. Other helpful items to have in the toolbar, for example, are alignment and combine tools.

Lineform’s palettes, called inspectors, are also well designed and implemented. Lineform’s inspectors are both dockable and collapsible, to increase screen real estate, but still accessible with a single click, when needed. Lineform’s inspectors are perhaps its best interface feature because they can be viewed or hidden with a single click and docked together for convenience. They are novel in their simplicity. Unfortunately, the color and font palettes are not inspectors and cannot be collapsed or docked to the inspectors or each other.

Lineform’s features compare favorably to other modern illustration packages, and in some cases surpass them. Lineform supports layers, grouping, combining, clipping paths, strokes, fills, flip, image cropping (similar to InDesign or QuarkXPress), opacity, blend mode transparency, complex gradients, grids (for alignment and snapping), text fill for vector objects, arrows at the ends of lines, artistic strokes, text on paths, outline (make text and strokes vector objects themselves to be filled and edited), rulers, guides, CMYK preview, outline view, numerical transformation, export selection, and more.

Although I do not own the latest versions of Illustrator, Freehand or CorelDraw, I do own the latest version of Canvas. With this in mind, it might be of interest to know that one feature in Lineform that I found particularly unique and enticing is the ability to convert a bitmap image to Bezier and then manipulate it like a standard vector object, including the ability to give it a stroke. A simple thing, I know, but something that I’ve not been able to do before so easily. Ever try stacking a vector rectangle over a bitmap image such as a screenshot just to give it a stroke? How about several bitmap images in a single document? Adding a stroke to screenshots and images of book covers doesn’t get any simpler or convenient, even in Photoshop!

I was disappointed, however, to discover at least three features – Media Browser, Core Image Filters and the ability to parse PDFs – are only available in OS X 10.4, so I could not effectively test these features without upgrading my operating system. The Core Image Filters rely on Apple’s Core Image features in 10.4 to create blur, make color adjustments and halftones, sharpen, and other alterations impossible with native vector objects. The Media Browser provides access to images in iPhoto or anywhere on your hard drives for drag-and-drop insertion into Lineform, but Media Browser is not required to insert files into your Lineform documents, since drag-and-drop from the Finder into Lineform is also supported and functional in OS X 10.3.x. The ability to parse PDFs is only available in OS X 10.4, but even then it is highly problematic (see chart below). If you want to be able to use Lineform to its full potential, you will need to upgrade to OS X 10.4. This is a recommended upgrade for stragglers like myself anyway. Lineform just gives us another reason to upgrade.

No review of illustration software would be complete without real world testing of importing and exporting. Lineform itself is not designed to be used as an import/edit/export tool, apparently, since Lineform’s user manual only lists the file formats it will export: BMP, JPG, PDF, EPS, SVG, PNG, and TIFF. Nevertheless, this is common use for illustration software, so I tested Lineform’s import capabilities for BMP, JPG, GIF, PDF, EPS, PNG, TIFF, PSD and AI(8), the latter out of curiosity. I tested on Mac OS X 10.4.9 (I upgraded my OS to test import/export capabilities) using drag-and-drop from the Finder.

Conclusion

Having used Lineform for this review, I have found it more frustrating than enlightening. Though it has some well-designed and engineered interface features, its compatibility falls far short of replacing Illustrator, Freehand, CorelDraw or Canvas. In fact, I cannot honestly recommend it even for a companion for these applications.

I’ve developed a short wish list for Lineform’s developers. Freeverse appears to be responsive, if their forums are any indication, so perhaps we’ll find a considerably more capable application after a few releases. For future releases, the following features will make Lineform more robust and useful for its target market:

• Stacking order, i.e. move to back and move to front, available by right clicking on objects, not just through menu at the top of the screen.
• Improved PDF parsing capabilities (echoed in the Lineform forums). At least Lineform should not crash when parsing a simple 2” x 1.5” ad.
• Improved EPS export to match other illustration software, i.e. transparent backgrounds.
• Improved JPG export with controls for quality and compression like other illustration software.
• GIF export for web images.

Recommendation

Before spending $79, consider what you really need your illustration software to do. If Lineform meets your needs, Lineform’s the perfect choice. If you need greater compatibility and reliability, as one needs in the professional graphics market, you should put your $79 toward acquiring Illustrator, CorelDraw or Canvas.