Create Adobe Illustrator-Style Vector Graphics with Free Creative Docs .NET (Windows)

Regular Business Hacks readers know that the go-to freeware for Adobe Photoshop-style image editing is Paint.NET. What you may not know is that there's also a freeware application that can take the place of Adobe Illustrator: Creative Docs .NET.

Available for Windows only, Creative Docs .NET (yeah, weird name) is a vector-based graphic design tool for creating illustrations, manuals, flow charts, icons, and the like. It offers advanced features like Bezier curves, styles, convert-to-curves, and curved-path text. In short, it's an extremely robust application, one that's being actively developed (several updates have been released in just the last couple months).

Still not convinced? Check out the sample gallery of illustrations created with Creative Docs .NET. Needless to say, this program offers some serious graphics power. Hard to believe it's free. [via CyberNet]