Replace FreeHand with Freeverse’ LineForm
Whether you’re mourning the news of Adobe EOL’ing FreeHand (in favor of Illustrator), or just in the market for a great vector graphics application, Freeverse is throwing you a nice, juicy bone. Until June 1st, you can use the coupon code, “freehand” to knock $30 off LineForm’s $79.95 price tag.
If you’re not familiar with LineForm, go ahead and acquaint yourself with the free trial. LineForm is a terrifically intuitive and powerful vector graphics program. Don’t let the relatively cheap (compared to Illustrator) price point fool you into thinking it’s unable to hang with Illustrator either. While it probably won’t satisfy the hardcore graphic artists, the weekend warriors out there will get a screaming deal at $50.
To see some of the art that’s been produced with LineForm, check out the gallery here.
Via MacUser
#1 jtbandes says:A great (free and open source!) vector graphics alternative is Inkscape. I’m not sure if it lacks any features of LineForm, but it’s pretty nice, and runs on all operating systems. http://www.inkscape.org/
#2 j2d2 says:While I haven’t tried LineForm extensively, what I do know is that I love that it takes less than 3 seconds to fully open and be ready to work. Illustrator is so jam packed with Adobe extras that 80% of users simply never use, that it bounces in my dock at least 12 times (dual 2GHz G5) before slugglishly opening. Why can’t Adobe learn a trick or two from these smart shareware Mac developers?
#3 Frank says:This looks great. Is there something similar that’s a lightweight version of Photoshop? Something nice and simple and Cocoa-y, without all the feature bloat of Adobe’s product?
#4 rfrancis says:@Frank - Try GIMPShop (http://plasticbugs.com/?page_id=294), which is a reorganized frontend to the wonderfully free GIMP (http://www.gimp.org). GIMP isn’t entirely stripped down, but it definitely isn’t as overburdened as Photoshop.
You can also try Seashore (http://seashore.sourceforge.net/index.php) which is a Cocoa app based around GIMP.
#5 Quix says:I tried the trial versions of both LineForm and Intaglio, and found Intaglio (personally) to be a better product. Worth a look.
http://www.purgatorydesign.com/Intaglio/
#6 MCJEvans says:I second Inkscape, especially after adding the .Xmodmap file so I could use the Command key.
#7 Niles says:Canvas for OSX is also dead. Mark Franklin, executive vice-president of ACDSee, the company that now owns Canvas, posted this a few days ago:
“While we will not be incrementally releasing new versions of Canvas for the Mac platform, our R&D department is exploring opportunities to develop new cross-platform products that support and streamline our users’ workflow.”
http://forums.acdsystems.com/index.php?showtopic=3845&st=20
#8 Nemo Domi says:@Frank:
http://www.pixelmator.com/
#9 Gary Burns says:If you want a lightweight alternative to Photoshop I’d suggest Pixelmator . It is a beautifully lightweight and quick-opening app. I use it a lot in conjunction with iWeb for basic image editing and resizing. Though, don’t be fooled, it has many filters and effects and image editing applications. Plus a few transitional effects and polygon throwing that Photoshop won’t do without specialised plug-ins.
Like Lineform, (which I love too by the way, who needs Illustrator?!) one bounce of the dock icon and it’s there - ready to do your bidding.
I rarely use Photoshop and Illustrator, only now and then for very specialised tasks. Simply because these two great, lightweight apps are all most people will ever need and much more besides.