Fancy script or chicken scratch - Lineform handles both.

Lineform is the yin to EazyDraw's yang, replacing the latter's mind-bending complexity with a Zen-like simplicity. But although its tools appear spare at first, Lineform packs a lot of functionality into them, and it's much better than EazyDraw at imitating the interface conventions of other drawing apps. The tools do pretty much what you expect, although figuring out how to perform complex operations may take some experimentation. For example, there was no documentation on how to join the endpoints of two objects - a fairly simple and common task in other apps. (A visit to Lineform's online forum got us a quick and thorough response.)

Lineform's bare-bones interface makes knowing key-command equivalents especially useful. Fortunately, the app often provides several methods of doing something: There are three ways to edit anchor points on a line, for example. Your first few minutes with Lineform might lead you to feel that it's underpowered, but stick with it. The power's there, it's just not always obvious.

Once you've gotten used to it, Lineform can truly sing in an artist's hands. The 16 artistic strokes immediately give the simplest line drawings an air of handcrafted warmth, while the giant collection of Core Image effects (which require Mac OS 10.4 or later) is simply dazzling. We also found that the minimal controls created a sort of psychological tabula rasa that forced us to concentrate on the artwork, undistracted by the app's twiddly bits.

The bottom line. If you have an artistic bent, Lineform can help you express yourself.

COMPANY: Freeverse
CONTACT: www.freeverse.com
PRICE: $79.95
REQUIREMENTS: Mac OS 10.3.9 or later
Elegant interface. Screen space well used. Responsive. Universal binary.
Highest filter resolution is 300 dpi. Some features are hard to find. Incomplete documentation.