John tells me that his info comes from another BA author, Jake Stutzman. I’m sure Jake heard the information from somebody else, but I think we might end up getting a little carried away with crediting our sources. Thanks Jake and anyone else in the chain of information.

I just noticed that K10K posted this information about four hours ago. They have links to Adobe’s and Macromedia’s press releases.

It looks like Jake has already made some hybrid names/logos on his website. Very funny.

Over the last several years, Macromedia has put all its efforts into web apps. And through it all, FreeHand has taken a beating.

As a (very longtime) FreeHand user and college instructor of Illustrator, I know the apps well, and both have their strengths. All-in-all, FreeHand is the superior program. It never had the handcuffs Adobe keeps on AI pushing creatives to InDesign, and the pain of program switching.

FreeHand, for those who have taken the time to learn it, has had many key features that have kept the user community loyal. These include: multiple pages, multiple size pages (I know of no other app with this feature), a logical mask feature, a built-in (superior) autotrace tool, a pen tool more similar to PhotoShop’s, simple single-layer object navigation, simple tint palette, single multi-function arrow tool, intuitive pre-press setup options, smart node joining and adding, easy snap-to-grid/object/guides, and the list goes on. True, AI has ways around some of these features, but they were just that; ways around.

I’m ranting here because I’m a little sad. This is the second time Adobe has bought FreeHand, and it took a lawsuit to force them to sell it as opposed to kill it. There’s hope over in the FreeHand discussion on Macromedia’s site that Apple will buy the application. I doubt it, but I can dream.

Dear Bennet,

Ever put together a graphically-intense, vector-based stationery system in a single document? I have. I did it in Freehand.

The whole dig on Freehand about the preview modes is old news. Besides which, the preview is secondary to usability. Why is it so friggin’ hard in Illustrator to select a single point instead of the entire object? It’s easy to do in InDesign (which, by the by, is a superior — though streamlined — vector art program to Illustrator. Yeah I said it). Illustrator is one great big usability flaw after another. Just like Quark was.

Right around version 4 or 4.1, Quark kicked ass. Actually it didn’t, it was a terrible piece of software from a usability standpoint — we all just became very adept at working around its flaws. Insert Illustrator here. Its interface is about 5 years behind the rest of the Adobe package, especially InDesign.

I think Brian C. put forth my feelings better than I could. I am sad. I was raised on Freehand. Today is a sad day for Freehand lovers. Adobe’s going to make a friggin’ mint off Flash, though.

Macromedia has ignored it user base since version 10 which was an absolute piece-o-crap. I’ve used FreeHand sense the Aldus days (1990) and I also have used Illustrator since version 5. FreeHand is simply a far better work environment period the end. Easier to modify vector paths, easier to change colors.

If they can take the better features from FreeHand and move them into Illustrator I’ll be fine with that but not having multi-page is a hassle. Not for publication production which is always the lame AI users arguement but rather for having multiple design options all within one file rather then just seperate layers.

I’ve worked in art departments with 25 designers and I was the lone FreeHand user yet I could do all kinds of things far easier then the other 24 designers only because FreeHand made it easy to do. There is much I hate in FreeHand that the weasel marketing geeks at Macromedia insisted on doing which no self-respecting designer ever uses. Namely all the hack-worthy pull down menu effects that noobs love to use which make most professional designers cringe yet they refused to fix obvious piss-poor features like lousy color preview for placed tiff images, hinky type of path performance, the ‘Envelope’ tool which worked as precise as a monkey on crack.

So this who merger could be very good news or it could be terrible news. Time will tell. But the fact alone that our primary tools are always changing kind of sucks in and of itself.

Adrian, Dream on. I would bet they will sell a web suite and a design suite like they have done in the past. They still have to maintain the income from both companies, but I guess it doesn’t hurt to dream.

From everything I have been hearing it seems like a lot of their effort will be in some sort of PDF/Flash combo that can be viewed on any platform (cell phone, PC, PDA). Market Place presented these ideas as a breakaway from the Windows’ monopoly. I don’t see the exact correlation, but I like the idea of taking away from Microsoft.

Von, I hope some good comes out of the merger as well. Maybe they will ad some Freehand features that I don’t even know that I need.

Armin over at Speak Up made a good point. How many times do you see Macromedia supporting the AIGA or other design organizations. It is good that Adobe is the one taking over because nobody supports our industry like Adobe. It is time for some of that Macromedia money to get put back into our industry.

I first heard about this at my department’s weekly meeting yesterday morning, and my first reaction was “good—maybe Freehand will finally work.” Adobe seems to correct bugs rather quickly, while it seemed forever for Macromedia to release 11.0.2, or 11.0 for that matter. I agree with Von—Freehand went downhill starting with version 10.

Nate, I thought I was the only person who had trouble selecting a single point in Illustrator! I always figured it was my lack of experience—and maybe it still is. When I already have selected a path with the black solid arrow, and try to select a point on that path with the white arrrow (or Cmd+click with the black arrow) I can’t until I deselect. Only then am I able to select a point with the white arrow. Am I missing something?

I’m utilizing Freehand’s multiple pages right now. I’m creating a poster-sized detailed illustration, and have various versions/comps, each on a separate page. Other sketches are just hanging out on the edges/pasteboard. I can quickly print, for example, versions 3-8, 12, and 16. Whereas in Illustrator, I would have to have a big big page and change my print area, or use layers I suppose.

Anyway, when the dust settles, I think I’ll be happy with Adobe. I have great respect for them, partly because they DO sponsor the design industry. Since I don’t use Macromedia’s web products anymore, I suppose that enhances my bias for Adobe. Or maybe it’s my love for InDesign (which isn’t perfect, but is great to use). Or maybe none of this matters since I can’t choose which programs I use anyway …

Bennet and Kyle have it right. It’s difficult to understand if you’re from a single document workflow just how wonderful this feature is. All popular software at onetime was limited to single documents (maybe not Quark, but Pagmaker if memory serves me). But most have evolved, AI has not.

At the risk of sounding like a complete moron, how exactly would Flash and PDF be merged? Would PDF have animations embedded within? I’m not a huge PDF user, and I don’t use flash at all, so maybe someone can clue me in as to how this is useful.

I’m just hoping that they take their time in merging and releasing new suites. I’m still smarting from the fact that Adobe wants me to pay $550 to upgrade to CS v.2 when I only bought v.1 back in October.

Bad for competition, but good for standards!

I hardly ever use macromedia software, any web work I hand code and I categorically hate flash!

However, flash does have its uses, as I work a lot in motion graphics, and it’s the best around for vector graphics animation, even if it’s a b** to use. Therefore, this might mean better interoperability between flash and adobe’s excellent AfterFX package (something I’ve been after for years).

Finally a geek point of view:

Adobe have historically been much better at implementing and developing open standards than Macromedia; If the flash format was opened up, this might make it a lot more pervasive online, and better for accessiblity, semantics and other web-based hot potatoes. If the next version of flash had the option to kick out .svg files instead of .swf (svg is the nice, healthy, open version of flash - heavily supported by adobe) this would be even cooler.