To start with today I was using Vector Designer, which is another simple vector app which I had lying around as it had come as part of a software bundle. However I was finding it to be a touch limiting and when I was looking to align nodes in a path I couldn’t find a way to do that. Hitting that block made me think of Lineform and so I instantly downloaded the demo to give it a spin.

Overall, Lineform has a lot finer grained controls for vector objects and I found it’s also very intuitive – the gradient tools in particular are wonderful. It also follows mac interface conventions well which always makes one feel at home. Whilst I also like Inkscape (which is an open source vector application) I do find it’s interface quite clunky in comparison. Additionally it only currently runs under x11 which makes it less that ideal on a mac. Whilst Inkscape is clearly extremely powerful in the right hands (definitely not mine!) there’s a lot to be said for stripped down interfaces that help you get what you need to do done. It’s in this department that Lineform excels. That being said Inkscape is well worth a look as an alternative – and it’s free so you can’t say fairer than that!

The one downside I found with Line form is that the control over type seems slightly limited in some specific areas (I particularly found there doesn’t seem to be an interface which provides control over horizontal letter spacing). Despite this I would say it’s a very compentent app for getting vector work done efficiently, especially considering how much it costs. The current price is a reasonable $79 and if like me the low value of the pound is biting hard then there’s currently a $30 discount if you enter “lineform30″ at the checkout.

For more details of the app or to try it out go to freeverse.com

The only issue with this is deciding who gets the space-bar!

By Michael Sholk Design via I love typography

For example, you might find a gorgeous site which hits your design sweet spot. Whilst the graphical design is stunning, as soon as you bump up the text a couple of notches (Ctrl + on firefox) the design explodes across the screen to reveal a heavy reliance on one single background image set-up in such a way that the design only works at default text sizes.

Another example would be to see a tasty design that has a bad case of ‘divitis’ as soon as you peek at the source. It quickly becomes clear that the author has no idea about what elements are at his or her disposal and has instead just put everything inside divs.

Now before anyone jumps to the comment form, blood boiling to deliver me a steaming diatribe please read on and understand the point that I am making.

What I am concerned about is that a newcomer may be swayed by the shiny lights of the highly popular CSS showcase sites and be lead to believe that “John Smith’s blog as featured on CSS wardrobe” is a good example of web standards just by the virtue of it being featured on such a site.

I am not saying that CSS showcase sites are bad but their prime focus is to showcase graphical design talent but not necessarily to advocate web standards. As long as the visitor understands this then they won’t go far wrong. But I reckon that some people have an association that assumes that all CSS designs == web standards which is not the case.

So what’s the solution

If we want to see designers creating quality standards websites then we need to make sure that we are getting a message across that promotes all of the many facets of web standards development of which graphical design is just one. Sites like CSS Zen garden, Stylegala, CSS Beauty and all of the other CSS showcases have attracted designers to learning CSS it’s up to the rest of us to take them beyond the graphical.

The beauty of these designs is that they all make perfect repeating patterns, just the ticket for CSS background images.

All of the images are 200px square and in PSD format, feel free to make use of them in any way you see fit, a link or a tip of the hat would be nice if you use them in a live project.

Download Azulejos Backgrounds

In any case there seems to be a large amount or really nice sites popping up (or is it that I have only just become aware of them?