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Things like Paste Inside, easier blending, and a more intuitive bitmap trace. Yup, FreeHand rocks!
With time, FreeHand only becomes more outdated and ultimately irrelevant. If things like bitmap tracing are what you base your vector apps superiority on, you have some serious issues. FreeHand WAS a good app, back when it was competing with the likes of Illustrator 7, but it’s time has passed. Suck it up and move to Illustrator. This is like the Quark XPress users who fervently proclaim it’s superiority over InDesign simply based on one or two functions. Forest for the trees, peeps…
Please spread the word FH users. I believe this is a worthy effort!
Well. So far as I am concerned, FreeHandMX is unusable. The marketing geeks evidently had to mess with it before the company sold itself to Adobe. I’m still using version 10 (Which may not have made the leap to OS X gracefully, and is buggy, but it launches and seems to run on an Intel Mac running Snow Leopard. Not bad for a program that was superceeded in 2003.) The tools no longer work the way they are supposed to, and the interface has been so messed about that you cannot find anything.
You would think those clowns would have learned something from the debacle of FreeHand 4. It was FreeHand 7 before users who had bailed came trickling back.
Illustrator still has no multiple pages at different sizes within one file. What’s with that? Just one other major reason FreeHand is superior to Illustrator. Get with the program Adobe.
I get a chuckle at comments by Illustrator users who say things like “suck it up and move to Illustrator”. It’s such a bias that assumes the switch is a no-brainer. Or that their are no differences in tools and workflow between the two apps. Here’s an analogy for you: InDesign is bought out by Quark and demands you switch or go obsolete. Think you’d have a problem with that? Would you simply “suck it up”?
I am an Illustrator user and a Freehand user. I’m not giving up either. AI has many benefits like Live Trace and Effects but it’s bloated too. Freehand is my choice of vector apps as it is way more streamlined for my workflow but it needs an upgrade. Which is why I say “God bless you FreeFreehand.org”
If this organized movement can publicly challenge Adobe to make some changes, it could benefit Adobe and Freehand users. As of this date, I see there are 2500 Freehand users signed up for an upgrade of FHMX to make it solid on Snow Leopard. As an example, take those 2500 users each paying an upgrade price of $199. That isn’t chump change and worthy of Adobe’s bottom line.
As for Freehand AND Illustrator. . . I’ll take em both.
freehand is still my Vector graphics tool of choice, it just works, no fuss, no long winded working methods, it just does. Wouldn’t it be great if someone like Apple bought the rights and created something along the lines of iDraw as part of the iwork suite… Heaven. Until’ then I’ll soldier on… don’t get me started on illustrator.
I find it curious how many people endorse the idea of “suck it up, and move to Illustrator.” Why would ANYONE be content with one business who has a monopoly over vector illustration for designers? Freehand is still my favorite vector app, and it’s many great qualities forced Illustrator to remain competitive. Competition fosters innovation. Bring Freehand back from the brink!
I love Freehand, and I been using it since 1994, since it was Aldus Freehand. I would love to hear that someone somewhere gives a fresh breath of life to it.
I want FreeHand to have a future. I need FreeHand to have a future.
All my designer career (starting from 1991) is saved in FreeHand files and I need to access them, and natively.
Every time I start a new design job I launch FreeHand. I can’t even think to launch Illustrator or anything else. Just it’s natural to me, as it is switching on my Mac when I enter in my office. I rely on it and my job relies on it, too. I will support any action aimed to make FreeHand survive and, hopefully, evolve.
Andrea Gambedotti
Turin, Italy
“Are You Serious” I’ve been reading this same comment, word for word, on other comment sites. I’m sure this poster is a shill for Adobe and has a stake in Illustrator domination. It’s my opinion that those who do not understand those who prefer Freehand have never used the program. If they have they would know how intuitive Freehand is and how Illustrator is not. Let’s get some competition going between vector programs. I can’t imagine who would be against this except maybe those who hold the monopoly.
It was the best tool in the whole land
But the software was sold
To Adobe the bold
And Freehand was soon no more at hand.
(by Douglas Bonneville, https://bonfx.com/15-top-graphic-design-limericks-for-your-amusement/ )
Nothing to add.
I (still) love Freehand.
Freehand is like a Ferrari, fast sleek and sexy. illustrator is like a tank, OK, it has more features… But. It guzzles gas is slow as treacle on a cold day and costs a hell of a lot more than FH…
I agree Apple should own and develop FreeHand. Frankly I don’t trust Adobe to do a good job even if they were forced to, or even wanted too. Their code programing well what can I say….
Even corelDRAW is a better programe than Illustrator in real world use. How embarrassing is that ! Zara studio is interesting and Even 3DS-MAX is easier to use than Illustrator!
Photoshop is fairly good, but even that has some obvious dumb aspects. Adobe Ha… Shape UP !!!
What I don’t understand is how Adobe got away with mothballing Freehand and giving themselves a monopoly. In 1994 Adobe bought Aldus who had originally published Freehand in order to get their hands on Pagemaker. As part of that deal they were required by law to sell Freehand so they wouldn’t have a monopoly on vector design software. What was different about the Macromedia purchase? Why didn’t they have to sell Freehand when they bought Macromedia?
I own Illustrator CS3 since I have to convert files that are going to vendors who never have Freehand. I’ve spent time with Illustrator and found it bloated and non-intuitive. I’ve heard CS4 is an improvement and offers multiple pages, so will look into that eventually. I should state that I don’t feel that way about Adobe’s other standard bearer, Photoshop, so what’s with the interface and fluidity issues with Illustrator? I’d hoped that Adobe would would create a killer program using the best that each had to offer, but sadly that didn’t happen. I’m thrilled that FreeFreehand.org is around to carry on the fight to get our software up to date, and fervently hope they succeed with all our help.
I simply cannot understand why you ADOBE won’t listen to the many numbers of designers still using freehand.
adobe have been trying to convert us and make it harder for us to use freehand for years now, and still we decide to use freehand…does this not tell adobe something about how strongly we as freehand users feel towards this magnificent product?
adobe have isolated a large section of designers around the world by trying to force them into using a program that quite simply isn’t good enough yet!
Believe me, and I know I speak for tens of thousands of fellow designers! illustrator is just not good enough for those of us who like to work creatively and efficiently! so why should we start crawling again…when we had already learned how to run!
ADOBE, IF YOUR OUT THERE…LISTEN!
THE OPPRESSION MUST END! AND DEVELOPMENT MUST BEGIN!
loyal freehand user,
mark
I have been using Freehand since the Aldus days and when Adobe bought Macromedia I moved over to Illustrator. Though Illustrator has slowly become a little better Its still very clunky to use. Things like paste inside, selecting through objects, showing grouped objects with just corner points…I could go on for a looong time.
I recently installed Windows 7- 64bit and thought I’d try to install Freehan just to see if it worked…and it did!
Working with Illustartor for several yearsI had almost forgotten how good Freehand was.
Now I’ve switched back and my productivity just went up some 400%. Good ol’ Freehand.
Adobe buying Macromedia was very much like if Microsoft had bought Apple.
Anyone who has a wide software / hardware knowledge can Imagine the utter disaster that would be…
Well of course it could not happen, it would not be allowed !
Excellent stuff!!
In Freehand ‘world’ I take my freshly laundered shirts to my Bedroom Where the door opens ‘Star trek style’ Swish ! I walk in, the main room light Pings to life via a sensor. As I approach the cupboard it to slides effortlessly open automatically. I deposit my crisp clean shirts therein and they automatically align themselves in the center of the draw, which snaps shut with a smooth soft action. I turn and walk back across the room, door swishes lights deactivate door closes job done…
In a parallel universe somewhere far far away called Illustrator land this happens:
Some poor soul approaches a door, the door remains closed. What to do the shirts are clean, the floor is not.. Nowhere to place them, none thought of that… hmm OK I will try to hold the shits in one arm and open the door with the other. Whoops ! there go the shits on to the grubby floor, meanwhile the door creaks open slowly. The shirts are once again safe ? in hand but Ah, wheres the light switch ? fumble fumble, whoops there go the shirts again damn ! adding a little more dust and dirt… Suddenly a strange figure appears. Would you like those shirts embroidered or perhaps a monogram Sir ? or perhaps tie-dyed ? No No NO, I just need to get on with things I have a lot of other house work to do, frankly you are in my way ! Just as suddenly the odd figure vanishes… OK now where is the cupboard ? It is in the corner still flat-packed you have to make it first… O. M. G. I give up !
Avon Xzavia
Listen Adobe, this program is not going away. And neither are we. Recent reports indicate that FreeHand MXa breaks yet again with the latest Apple OS update (10.6.2). Your first Snow Leopard fix (which took several months to arrive) is of no use without an ongoing commitment to support FreeHand–which you still sell! Adobe, imagine the oven was just warming up last summer. Now we’re at about 200 degrees. 300 and 400 is coming, then full broil! Step up and do the right thing before you get burned.
Used Freehand for 20 years and still the most intuitive vector graphics software, despite Adobes best attempts to neglect it into a slow death… looking forward to the re-birth
I agree completely to this article and hope Adobe will realize that we need an updated Freehand.
Klaus Mengler, Hamburg/Germany
An OpenSource version of Freehand would provide some competition for Illustrator. Which in the end would help both programs develop features and ease-of-use that benefits all users. When there is no competition then in the end you get stagnation as there is no incentive to spend time and money developing better software. Case in-point, Quark XPress vrs InDesign, Quark sat on their laurels, Adobe continually developed InDesign and one day Quark woke up to the fact that people were switching to a better program. So they responded. Be good to see that happening with Illustrator and Freehand. No matter what Illustrator users say, Freehand, despite not being developed for over 6 years, still does some things better (eg multiple pages in one document, text handling / spacing). How can that be…? No competition…?
I don’t get it – I’m most certainly am NOT going to buy a whole new program and relearn Illustrator (I last used it in 1990 when I found Freehand) so I will just slowly close down my business.
OR – and this is where I don’t understand Adobe’s position – I can give Adobe money now and forevermore for Freehand updates – I win, they win, even my clients win – and we all love Adobe again. DO YOU GET IT, ADOBE??? Income from updates (and full versions for new users) is far superior to NO INCOME because we don’t want to buy your crappy so-called alternatives.
I’m a Freehand user since version 3.1 and i still use freehand (MX) i also have CS3 bundle but i still use Freehand when it comes to vector! Even the conversio of PDF to Freehand Adobe took…
The filters in Freehand don’t work well but those in Illustrator don’t work better even in a program that is being upgraded since freehand end!!!
Illustrator its a good program to print digitally or web but prepress workers live a living hell everyday trying to print what designers using Illustrator create!! Its good to use the filters and all the suff (on booth programs) but they are not usable!!!
Photoshop for that its a superior tool!!!
That’s why I’m still running Mac OS X version 10.5.8.
FreeHand is more important to me than Snow Leopard. Even if I buy a new computer, this one will remain frozen in time like this just to be able to run FreeHand. And I also use Illustrator.
I’m a AI user (by necessity, not choice) but i keep an old Aldus Freehand copy running in Classic for professional projects (many illustrations in my website are created with FH3)
http://www.jzarracina.com)
A 15 years old 1mb app. has much better precision, selection tools and features for complex vector drawing than the 300 mb, clunky illustrator.
I dream either that Adobe catch up or that some company develops a modern, streamlined vector tool. Adobe, wake up!
(subject taken from # 20 above)
the article and related website make a very good argument for keeping FreeHand alive. I have a couple thousand important files I *need* to be able to open and use in the future without having to basically redraw half of them just because Adobe want to kill the competition so as they dont have to work so hard to improve their own product. It’s really a shame (for Illustrator) that Adobe doesnt have real competition. I ‘upgraded’ to Illustrator from FreeHand lately. Installed it (Windows XP machine) – it broke my photoshop install, it installed a huge amount of crap for which there was almost no info as I installed. It was basically much slower at drawing (hey, that’s what it’s all about innit?!). Anyways, it messed up my system so much I ended up having to restore a previous version (i.e. I removed it). Will do a bit of research before installing again but maybe I’m getting off-topic, or am I…
LOL – see comment number 19 “Flat Earth”
yes,
I think it’s ease of use (or lack of same) that’s the problem with Illustrator and one of the main reasons many stay with Freehand (me included).
I don’t use Illustrator because it usually has to go make a cup of tea and have smoke before it decides to turn up to work. Looking at the stats it’s no wonder. It sits on my desktop hogging almost 800MB of office/desktop space. If my Mac were an office block, Illustrator would take up an entire floor
https://www.10on12.com/index.php/notebook/freehand_v_illustrator/
More here…
Throw it back at Adobe, State: ‘it is not fit for purpose’ and get a refund ha ha Like to see the look on their faces. This is your statutory right (they cannot refuse in the U.K. anyway) not sure about elsewhere. If you paid by credit card stop the payment!!! and ship it back to them via recorded delivery (important)… So you have proof of sending.
If you bought ANY other product so deficient and shoddy you’d do it wouldn’t you ? :oD
Comments of “Illustrator-philosophers” really suck! Dont always bring that topic down on a “philosophers-quarrel” … thats propagandistic opinion-killing.
Freehand is simple and ideal to concentrate on your brains business. As a creator my work is to have ideas and try to bring them into life, to realize them, not to choose possibilities a program offers me and then say, tey `re “my ideas”.
A program has to be a tool with the purpose of realization and make money with by giving my clients a product they can use and handle.
Adobe llustrator is so complicated and rich on possibilities, its usage is rather more for its own sake han anything else.
I use Illustrator since many years … but at all the costs of its updates and time, one needs to learn to handle it again and again, I cant say it ever amortized it so called value.
GL
I think, Adobe insists on Illustrator instead of Freehand because including some features of FH to Illustrotor means to admit, they’ve done a very bad job with AI.
Takes a big person, or in this case corporation to admit that they are wrong. Everyone on both sides knows it, everyone also knows that the admission itself would be respected on all sides. but does it happen? Of course not… Like I said takes a big….
…I’ve worked for bloated organisations in the past they are pretty much all alike. Directors who work tirelessly to maintain the Status Quo, because innovation is ‘to risky’ to their position, options or pension etc. Innovation and excellence are very often the area for smaller leaner younger companies…
From Adobe’s Freedom of Choice web page: ( https://www.adobe.com/choice/ )
“At Adobe, we believe that the open flow of creativity, ideas, and information should be limited only by the imagination. Innovation thrives when people are free to choose the technologies that enable them to openly express themselves and access information where and when they want.
“Openness is at Adobe’s core. Our first technology was an open standard that liberated publishing from proprietary printing systems, and soon afterward our PDF technology eliminated barriers to sharing documents across platforms.
“We believe open markets that allow developers, publishers, and consumers to make their own choices about how they create, distribute, and access content are essential to progress.”
*For Adobe products like FreeHand, GoLive, Live Motion, Pagemaker, etc., their belief in Choice is hypocritical.