Macromedia FreeHand
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"Freehand" redirects here. For the Australian production company, see Freehand Group.
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 FreeHand MX on Windows XP. |
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| Developer(s) | Macromedia |
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| Stable release | MX (11.0.2) |
| Operating system | Mac OS X, Windows |
| Type | vector graphics editor |
| Website | Adobe FreeHand |
Macromedia FreeHand was a computer application for creating two-dimensional vector graphics (use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons to represent images, also known as geometric modeling), oriented to the professional desktop publishing market. It was available in versions for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.
FreeHand was very similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to Adobe Illustrator. It was created by Altsys and licensed to Aldus, which released versions 1 to 4. When Aldus merged with Adobe Systems, because of the overlapping of market with Illustrator, Adobe returned FreeHand to Altsys soon after the merger (after some legal wrangling, and intervention by the Federal Trade Commission). Altsys was later bought by Macromedia, which released FreeHand 5.0, 5.5 (Mac only), 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11/MX. In 2005 Adobe acquired Macromedia, thus returning the FreeHand product to Adobe.
A flexible application, it was used for page layout (especially since version 4 which was based on Altsys Virtuoso for NeXTstep and had multi-page capabilities) as well as the creation and editing of vector graphic files for print and the Web.
Its last version, FreeHand 11, was marketed as FreeHand MX, which showed its integration with the Macromedia MX line of products, which also includes Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Macromedia Fireworks and more.
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[edit] Future
Freehand was a stand-alone application which when used for graphic design to go to prepress, used to be a very strong software application. Some interesting features of Aldus Freehand versions 2 to 5.5 gave the user the ability to print high resolution gradients with high resolution color TIFF files. Macromedian versions 7 through version 9 allows the user to export .gif, .jpeg, pdf, .eps, .ai, and Photoshop files from artwork created. Current use for eBook publishing allows the writer to change high resolution TIFF or EPS image to low resolution jpeg files when creating adobe PDF files. Freehand also had the distinction of being the first major graphic design application to offer layers and non print work areas around the artwork page. Many users are still producing artwork in version 9.
Macromedia did not significantly update FreeHand for Studio MX 2004 and did not include it at all in Studio 8. Many believe this is because Fireworks is intended for web development while FreeHand was not intended for the Web. Others believe that because most of FreeHand's vector imaging features were integrated into Macromedia Fireworks, there was no need for both programs (however, Macromedia had continued promotion of FreeHand after Studio 8 was released would seem to suggest otherwise). Fireworks' inability to make vector-oriented .eps or .pdf files suitable for print should confirm this.
Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia also cast doubt on the future of FreeHand, primarily because of Adobe's competing Illustrator product. Adobe initially announced in May 2006 that it planned to continue to support FreeHand and develop it "based on [their] customers' needs".[1] However, one year later on May 15, 2007, Adobe declared that it would, in fact, discontinue development and support of the program.[2]
As of Adobe Creative Suite 3 collection, FreeHand files can be directly opened with Adobe Illustrator CS3 and then saved as Illustrator files. However, not all features from Freehand will be imported.
While some users of the program were voicing their concerns, hoping to see Adobe continue to support and develop the package,[3] the company decided to provide tools and support to ease the transition to Illustrator instead.
These concerns from users are mostly based on some perceived feature differences between FreeHand and Illustrator, such as flexible multipage management (where pages can be resized and rearranged over a virtual table when drawing over them), and window list of styles and colours.
Even though Adobe has stated that Macromedia FreeHand does not support Windows Vista, FreeHand has been reported to run under Vista without much trouble.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ macworld.co.uk Adobe: GoLive and FreeHand development continues
- ^ blogs.adobe.com/jnack FreeHand no longer updated; moving to Illustrator
- ^ enrichdesign.com
[edit] External links
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