Freehand Has Left My Computer
It’s been almost a year ago that I mentioned Freehand leaving the Macromedia Studio bundle, and after this weekend, I will have officially ended my migrated off of it.
Initially I thought of resisting the change, as I spent more time with Freehand than any other software program I had since entering the profession, but I realized that the change was something I would need to do to stay current, and I would slowly have to start using Illustrator and InDesign more and more if I wanted to keep my system updated.
Over the past year, I got a book on using Illustrator, and read up on the features. I found that the patterns worked better than I expected, but the lack of being able to create multiple page documents is still a giant drawback, and the color swatch pallette has never seemed clunky in comparison to the one in Freehand. Selecting points on a path still doesn’t seem as easy, but there isn’t anything I can’t deal with. InDesign was the great find in this equation, as having to use more of its features to make up for what Illustrator lacked allowed me to learn what the program is really capable of. Unfortunately, it still will not let me make a document with various sized pages in the same document, which was the one feature Freehand has always had that I have yet to see elsewhere.
So this weekend, as I finalize my new letterhead, the last of my regular projects will be moved out of Freehand, and my copy of Freehand will only be there in case I need to open old files before converting them into a different program. It’s amazing how attached one can get to a piece of software. Ten years with Freehand, and it’s been a great ten at that. I can now relate to my professors telling stories of rubylith and stat cams, as I’ll probably still be talking about the good old days of Freehand in the decades to come like they did about x-acto knifes and hand registration.
June 29th, 2006 at 7:25 am
Maaannn, I’m going through the same crisis now, I’ve been using freehand since version3. To me, illustrator could never have competed, even up to now there are features in Freehand that are unavailable in other drawing programmes. I’m dabbling in Illustrator now in preparation for the worst, thing is… I get things done so much FASTER in freehand. Its a sad thought, but as the days go by without any hint or rumour of a freehand upgrade or buyover, the prospect of a switch to illustrator is becoming too real.
I’ve always personally compared the freehand/illustrator battle to the mac/pc battle, with freehand being the Mac
=)
sadly it looks as though in this instance… PC wins..
June 29th, 2006 at 7:30 am
Comparing Freehand to rubylith and stat cameras is a bit much. It isn’t going away but it’s outdated or behind the times. It’s going away because it was the only real competition Adobe had for Illustrator, and they decided to buy it and kill it. You might as well face it–you’re Adobe’s bitch now. Bend over and get ready for your next upgrade.
June 29th, 2006 at 8:20 am
R.I.P. FreeHand
Illustrator may have won the Battle, but you won my Heart. I will always love you.
June 29th, 2006 at 9:50 am
I’ve been using Ilustrator and InDesign for over 28 months instead of FreeHand, but there’s always that client, that printer… that someone that doesn’t have Illustrator and it’s still using FreeHand 8. I keep mine in the apps folder sitting there, bored to death just in case an oldie comes by
June 29th, 2006 at 10:49 am
You know, I’ve just got to disagree with you guys on the whole Freehand/Illustrator debate.
Perhaps it’s because I’m not as well versed in Freehand as in Illustrator, but I think that Freehand is more limited.
I mean, Freehand’s capabilities at quickly rendering some solid shapes is more intuitive than Illustrator, and the multi-page thing is nice, too.
But Illustrator is much more powerful, with its transparencies, gradient meshes, and really solid shaping tools (the palette that allows you to combine, divide, overlap, cut out with multiple shapes). Not to mention the fact that Illustrator dislpays the vector shapes in a more accurate way, letting you see exactly what you have.
Comparing InDesign to Illustrator doesn’t make much sense, unless you’re only using Illustrator to lay out vector art and text on top of raster artwork.
Illustrator has a myriad of drawing tools and translates well to geometrically-precise rendering, as well, and the power of layers in Illustrator is a wonder to behold.
The brush tools are great, and very powerful when utilized and customized to your needs.
I seriously think that the biggest learning curve is going to be for those designers who are now forced to learn Illustrator, after using a more limited program like Freehand.
But that’s just my opinion.
June 29th, 2006 at 5:02 pm
“the lack of being able to create multiple page documents is still a giant drawback”
-AMEN TO THAT!
“Unfortunately, it still will not let me make a document with various sized pages in the same document, which was the one feature Freehand has always had that I have yet to see elsewhere.”
-I am hoping that with the consolidation of Macromedia & Adobe that some of these features become available in Illustrator.
Please, please, please give Adobe your feedback on these (and any other) product improvements. I was fortunate enough to take an InDesign class on the Adobe campus in Fremont (Seattle) and they really do want to know about things like this. Do it here:
http://www.adobe.com/support/feature.html
Love reading the site.
Cheers!
June 29th, 2006 at 7:06 pm
I have always felt that Adobe must have made a business decision for why Illustrator would only allow one page per document, because it forces you to do any multiple page document in one of their other programs, where something like a 4 page brochure or a double sided postcard is sometimes easiest to just do in one program. This is why I miss Freehand the most – it allowed me to do small print projects in just one application.
Matt, I understand that Freehand comparisons to rubylith may seem like a stretch, but in the long run, both are just tools of our trade that eventually became extinct, and will only be known to the designers who follow like they were an urban legend.
June 29th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
Why does Illustrator rock? It’s all about the appearance palette, baby
June 30th, 2006 at 8:56 am
I started with Freehand in school, then CorelDraw, then Illustrator, and just recently in the last year began working with Freehand again. Not in preference to Illustrator, but at the same time, off and on, depending on the project. I’ve personally found I like both programs for different reasons.
I plan to keep Freehand installed for now for two main reasons. First, the sum of the above comments in terms of multiple-pages, ease of use for small projects, and so on. Second, it works perfectly with the rest of the Macromedia suite for web-based work. Occasionally I find I need to create artwork with something more detailed than Fireworks or the tools in Flash, and Freehand is the obvious choice.
But I find I use Illustrator more often. While it is a resource bear (double click icon, go get coffee, return hoping it’s started), it is more powerful than Freehand for vector work. I look at the Adobe suite as each part being a different part of the process. Illustrator for vector work (logos, illustrations, etc.), Photoshop for images, and InDesign to tie it all together.
I can sympathize with the problems converting. I swtiched from CorelDraw years back, and the changes in the tools, functions, and converting artwork was long and felt like it would never end. I hope it’s some consoltation to those going through it with Freehand that looking back now, it was worth the work. After I adjusted to the new tools and not being able to use one program fgor everything (vector and multi page layout in one), I realized it wasn’t that bad and I didn’t miss Corel after a while.
Note on the above: I’m not comparing Corel to Freehand. Just drawing on my own experiene in converting. I just hope Adobe keeps Fireworks, which I find to be the best for web-based work, and not do anything too drastic with the rest of the suite.
June 30th, 2006 at 9:15 am
Kadavy, that’s really amazing. I haven’t gone very in depth with the Appearance palette, but I think I’m going to have to dig in now. Pretty cool.
July 1st, 2006 at 5:15 pm
Re: Kadavy’s link and JonSels comment I have to agree. Exploring the uses of the Appearance Palette is a must after seeing that.
Re: Illustrator. I’m just surprised anyone would even want to use anything else other than Illustrator. I’m not saying it’s flawless but the fact that it takes forever to start up, for example isn’t a problem with the app it’s a problem with your cpu. Upgrade your computer or get better RAM.
July 3rd, 2006 at 6:31 am
@ Andy C.
If it was my computer, I would gladly upgrade the hardware.
I use Illustrator on two machines. My home PC starts Illustrator quickly. The one in the office is much slower. It’s no dream machine, but it’s not at the low end of the bell curve either. My opinion is I still feel Illustrator is very demanding on resources in the slow startup on that machine (plus often a lag in switching back and forth to it from other programs) is partially based on the fact that of all the software I use on it (including the rest of the CS suite, PageMaker on occasion, Macromedia suite, and even Visual Studio) it is the slowest to respond. Yes, the machine could be faster, but if Photoshop fires up in a reasonable time, why not Illustrator?
I do prefer Illustrator and agree it’s the best vector based software available. I will still use Freehand on occasion though simply because (a) it’s not a bad program, regardless of how much better illustrator may be and (b) it clicks better with FireWorks and Flash (easier/less problems transferring clipboard, files, etc.). YMMV.
July 4th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
Sorry, I know that comment came across a bit blunt. I just find that most problems I had with Illustrator or Photoshop and running multiple apps were easily fixed by increasing my computers RAM.
But you’re right, Illustrator is a huge demand resource wise on anyones computer.
July 8th, 2006 at 5:38 am
“You might as well face it-you’re Adobe’s bitch now. Bend over and get ready for your next upgrade”
my quote of the week!
July 8th, 2006 at 5:38 am
“You might as well face it-you’re Adobe’s bitch now. Bend over and get ready for your next upgrade”
my quote of the week!
July 11th, 2006 at 1:27 pm
I thought I was the last Freehand user on earth. Started with verson 1 and at this point I am still trying to work in that space. I think the vector paths are much easier to deal with in Freehand. I can draw and bring it into illustrator.
I will need help with vector paths, page sizes, multiple pages, the color palette, the fireworks integration and probably more..
and the size of illustrator files! whats up with that bloat? Reluctantly I move on.
Good book suggestions and tricks are welcome.
July 11th, 2006 at 1:37 pm
I find the Visual Quickstart Guide is a good book to use when learning Illustrator. Since they seem to break each feature down to a 2 or 3 page section, you can easily skip over the parts of the software you already know, and easily look up the one feature you forgot how to use.
July 28th, 2006 at 7:47 am
Here are some great plug-ins that make Illustrator a little more palatable:
http://www.hotdoor.com
There is a multi-page plug-in that simulates the ability to have multiple pages (layers) in a doc but they are still all the same size. You could set up crop marks on each page (layer). I have done this manually but the plug-in give you the interface to navigate between pages similar to InDesign. Also there is a great printing feature to print each page (layer) to a PDF in one step.
Keep plugging away at it. Illustrator has a bunch of key commands that are not easily found unless you read the documentation.
Hope this helps.
August 11th, 2006 at 2:57 am
Well seeing as Adobe now own both programs won’t some of Freehand’s features start creeping into new versions of Illustrator as Adobe develops it and woos die-hard Freehand users into the CS fold?
We could end up with an Illustrator version with all the best features of both, that would make the whole process pretty worthwhile…
®
August 12th, 2006 at 7:10 am
I found that this plug-in brings some of freehand’s ease of path selection and manipulation to Illustrator. I don’t work for the company, just wanted to pass the info along to other Freehand fans now using Illustrator.
Called Xtreampath
http://www.cvalley.com/products/xtreampath/index.html
March 3rd, 2010 at 10:05 am
I’ve been using Freehand for 15 or so years. I’ve also been using Illustrator, but I’ve always found Freehand to be the best illustration software for me. It’s much more intuitive and I get things done fast with it. Illustrator on the other hand has always been annoying for multiple reasons. And so I have a modern Mac sitting here just barely running the last version of Freehand and I’m thinking how much longer can I continue to use Freehand? I reckon the 2000 era Mac will still run it, and I do have hundreds of files created with Freehand, and so I’ll keep my old Mac and use it when need be, or I just can’t stand firing up Illustrator on my modern Mac. Adobe should update Freehand, sell it or give it to the open source community.