LightningDraw/WEB by Lari Software is the latest solution for those of us who want to create vector graphics quickly and easily using software that doesn't cost a fortune. For the graphically challenged, vector graphic applications are drawing programs which are object-based and not pixel-based like painting programs. However, LightningDraw/WEB also contains many painting tools (paintbrushes, pencils, etc), but treats their effects like objects once the specific task has been completed.
Lari succeeded, in my opinion, in creating an application which is excels at vector graphics while keeping the cost down. At about $99, LightingDraw/WEB is in just about everyone's price range and eliminates the need to steal buttons and the overall look and feel from other web pages (you know who you people are). This software allows you to customize your page through its many features, a few of which I shall mention below.
My Impression
 
Some tasks which can be a pain in the butt to do in
other applications can be accomplished quickly and
easily in LightningDraw/WEB. I especially liked the
multigon tool — it allows you to create stars and
polygons easily by picking the number of points or
ends as well as the angles. Using a simple five-sided
star, one of the supplied gradients, and a system
font, I made this graphic for our editors at Apple
Wizards so that they know that their hard work isn't A simple graphic
forgotten. This graphic took about 30 seconds and a made in Lightning
few more minutes could have resulted in a much Draw/WEB. Check
more impressive 3D star with a custom gradient and it out yourself!
other such cool features.
 Creating and using gradients in
LightingDraw/WEB was a snap too. It
comes with 32 gradients — the most
usable are the metallic white to black
fades which come at several different
angles. I created this gradient in about
a minute but notice how I can adjust
the spacing of the colors, how they will
LightningDraw/WEB's Gradient fade, if one color will dominate the
Editor is pictured here. others and what angle I want the gradient fill to be at. Using the rainbow gradient that I created and the bezigon tool, I created a neat little joke based on the recent disputes between Apple and the clone manufacturers [Editors Note: Apple "acquired" Power Computing on 2 September 1997, so the 'joke' is even more fitting :-) ]. Isn't it cool?
 
LightingDraw/WEB has loads of powerful features including special ink features such as transluscence, reverse, masked, etc. It also has the ability to edit and create new inks and even gives you the option to use your favorite format like RGB, CMYK, CIE, HLS, HSB, NTSC/PAL, and others. By choosing colors, sources, destinations and transluscence, you can easily make custom features for your document. Here's a quick demonstration of the given transluscence ink at 50%, 30%, 
and 10%. So many neat little features like
these make LightningDraw/WEB a lot of
fun to use. Other features include:
•A Reshaper™ tool to edit the points of your vector graphics
•Basic tools like scale, rotate, flip, skew, and perspective
•Effects like twirl (works great with text), contract, and roughen
•Ability to save as a bitmap (JPEG or PICT format) or in Quicktime 3.0 format (when it's released) and to decide on the level of smoothing you would like when saving.
Check out the website for more information. My favorite part of the website is the art gallery at http://www.larisoftware.com/Art.html where you can see how real artists use this application (as opposed to myself and my cheesy graphics). This brings me to my final point — this is the most impressive thing of all about the product: everyone, from putzes like me to professionals as seen on the above URL, can use LightningDraw/WEB.
Summary
Just about everyone can benefit from using this product. LightingDraw/WEB is available for a 30 day trial period and can be downloaded from Lari Software's website at http://www.larisoftware.com/. There you can also find online manuals as well as a downloadable manual. LightingDraw/WEB is available in 68K and PPC formats. On a side note, using it on my Performa 630 (33 MHz 68040), I got decent performance with slowdown coming only when I was working with many layers and many fills. I would bet that it flies on Power Macs and PPC clones. I plan on using LightningDraw/WEB more often to spice up my web site. Editors Note: Marc will soon be getting a 6500/300, so we're sure it will be just a teeny bit faster on his new machine :-).
