Both applications are excellent for prepress print. FreeHand has even the advantage that you can connect it with a film development device and print out films for prepress directly.
However, most ad agencies and print shops work with Illustrator, not because it is better, just because they're used to it and FreeHand doesn't convert to Illustrator very well, and the other way around.
So my advice would be: Use them both.
Another thing about the article: FreeHand MX is not so compatible with Flash MX as you would think. In fact, I was quite shocked at the diffence of colour from one app to the other, making sure that I worked with rgb colours.
Submitted by Xdesigner on Mon, 04/21/2003 - 22:16.
Since the release of Adobe Illustrator 9 i was very worried about the lack of creative innovation on Freehand 9. I was waiting with hope that Freehand 10 offered all the transparencies, gradient mesh, the same kind of colour management with proof colour, overprint previews and other stuffthat is present in AI. Illustrator 10 pushed further more with warp distortions like gradient mesh, lens flare, etc.
With the release of FreeHand MX i've found more good stuff but its still lacking the creative capacities of Illustrator 10 and soon became a disappointment. Mx has the new raster effects but its poor comparing with AI. No blending modes like multiply is not a good thing. Raster effects looks strange in MX when we magnify up things.
I make a question:
Which of the two produces the best printed results with the transparencies, blurs, drop shadows, feathers, bevels and stuff like these?
I think that now is a very good time to make a comparative degree with FH Mx and AI10. I'm a long time Freehand user (not ever AI user) and i'm a little disappointed with the "graphic design for print" offer provided by Macromedia (that seems looking only for web graphics). I'm now looking very deeply to change to only Adobe apps, which still looks for the print graphics way.
A. Paulo Ferreira - Portugal
FreeHand versus Illustrator
Both applications are excellent for prepress print. FreeHand has even the advantage that you can connect it with a film development device and print out films for prepress directly.
However, most ad agencies and print shops work with Illustrator, not because it is better, just because they're used to it and FreeHand doesn't convert to Illustrator very well, and the other way around.
So my advice would be: Use them both.
Another thing about the article: FreeHand MX is not so compatible with Flash MX as you would think. In fact, I was quite shocked at the diffence of colour from one app to the other, making sure that I worked with rgb colours.
FreeHand MX becomes again very competitive with Adobe Illustrato
Since the release of Adobe Illustrator 9 i was very worried about the lack of creative innovation on Freehand 9. I was waiting with hope that Freehand 10 offered all the transparencies, gradient mesh, the same kind of colour management with proof colour, overprint previews and other stuffthat is present in AI. Illustrator 10 pushed further more with warp distortions like gradient mesh, lens flare, etc.
With the release of FreeHand MX i've found more good stuff but its still lacking the creative capacities of Illustrator 10 and soon became a disappointment. Mx has the new raster effects but its poor comparing with AI. No blending modes like multiply is not a good thing. Raster effects looks strange in MX when we magnify up things.
I make a question:
Which of the two produces the best printed results with the transparencies, blurs, drop shadows, feathers, bevels and stuff like these?
I think that now is a very good time to make a comparative degree with FH Mx and AI10. I'm a long time Freehand user (not ever AI user) and i'm a little disappointed with the "graphic design for print" offer provided by Macromedia (that seems looking only for web graphics). I'm now looking very deeply to change to only Adobe apps, which still looks for the print graphics way.
A. Paulo Ferreira - Portugal