CR Blog
Freehand Anonymous
Posted by Mark Sinclair, 20 February 2009, 17:18 Permalink Comments (75)
Detail from I Would Save Freehand print for ifyoucould.co.uk by tDR
I discovered recently that this (allegedly) high-tech industry of ours is populated by a whole tranche of designers who are quietly hanging on to an old, obsolete piece of drawing software writes Michael Johnson. They know they shouldn’t, they get ridiculed for it, but they can’t help it. A piece of software that has been ever-present for decades has proved a tough habit to crack. Like the beginning of an AA meeting where people stand and admit that they’re hardened drinkers, it’s time to stand up and say that “my name is Michael and, yes, I do still use Freehand”...
At this point readers will be experiencing mixed emotions – some will be thinking ‘what an old saddo’. Younger ones will be asking ‘what’s Freehand?’. But, especially in the UK, it seems that a lot of people will be quietly nodding their heads.
Little things started to give it away. I asked Michael C Place for some text from a D&AD project recently and his answer was in the affirmative “as long as I didn’t mind getting it in Freehand”. We discovered recently that Dixon Baxi were still advocates. Some quiet digging revealed a vast array of design studios still using it: Neville Brody, Why Not Associates, Spin, to name a few. The Designers Republic were committed fans and we know there are users at Barnbrook Design, maybe even at North too.
Experiments by Jeff Knowles at Research Studio
MCP declined to contribute to this piece, not wanting to get involved in a discussion about a piece of software, and he has a point. But it seems the choice to use, and continue to use this programme is more than just geekery.
If Quark users have to migrate to InDesign, at least they’re moving to something on a par, and in some cases better. Just ten minutes with Keynote persuades most people to happily drop Powerpoint like a stone, such is the gulf in quality. But Freehand users are coping with a transition to something they see as a step sideways, often backwards.
It was one of the great, original debates of the graphic design business – ‘which programme do you use to draw?’ Battle lines were drawn early between the intuitive, easy-to-learn Aldus Freehand and Adobe’s more technical Illustrator. Malcolm Garrett remembers it well: “There was a sense that if you required a particular kind of precision then Illustrator was the way to go, in the same way that XPress won out over PageMaker. The clue is in the ordinariness of the names, Freehand, and PageMaker, they just don’t say ‘professional’.
Spread from Vogue Nippon supplement by Barnbrook Design
"I remember Erik Spiekermann once saying he disliked Freehand, because it was too, er, ‘freehand’.” He thinks that “designers who felt they were more ‘expressive’ liked the basic feel of Freehand, which allowed them to create in a welcoming environment, more akin to art studio than drawing office. For some reason Illustrator gave the impression that it was more technical and thus less expressive somehow.”
Garrett feels the differences are minimal but hardened users jump straight to its defence. “It’s intuitive and fast,” says Aporva Baxi from Dixon Baxi, still determinedly delivering artwork to printers in Freehand, despite the protests. “We just feel at home and can work very fast using it, allowing us to concentrate on the creative. The fact that you can drag any number of pages around, create a full book, guidelines or presentation whilst still being able to design freely is liberating.”
Logo book designed by Spin
For Spin’s Tony Brook it was love at first sight. “I went from a complete computer virgin, to a happy clapping convert in a matter of hours. I have met so many passionate advocates of Freehand, it is like a badge of honour, whereas your common or garden Illustrator disciple just mumbles and calls me old, which may be true, but if that’s the best they can do....”
A Flock of Words by Why Not Associates and Gordon Young
Spread from Typography Now by Why Not
Why Not Associates’ Andy Altmann reveals that it “was great for designing all the typographic layouts for the environmental projects we have collaborated on with artist Gordon Young. The typographic trees in Crawley [see CR March 09], the entire 320m of the typographic pavement in Morecambe – it would have been really painful to have done it in anything else.” Amazingly, Altmann also admits that all the artwork for the seminal book Typography Now was done as 200 individual pages in the programme.
johnson banks' Mouse identity for Microsoft
Nearly all of its adherents know the writing has been on the wall ever since Adobe acquired Macromedia in 2005, getting their hands on the crown jewel, Flash. The 2007 announcement that Freehand wouldn’t be updated came as no surprise, and Adobe’s position on this is clear: “Adobe has no plans to initiate development to add new features. While we recognise it has a loyal customer base, we encourage users to migrate to the new Adobe Illustrator....”
To Adobe, bouncing a bunch of ‘has-beens’ into switching makes logical sense, and without any apparent fan-base in the States (a US source could only think of one designer they knew still using it) they faced no significant backlash there.
But its impending demise will feel like amputation to some. “For me it basically feels like an additional limb used purely for design, a third arm that understands and knows what I want,” says Nick Hard in Neville Brody’s Research Studios.
MTV2 ident work by Dixon Baxi
Baxi admits they “quietly dread the day we have to install a system update to osx that suddenly conflicts with it”. Tony Brook reveals that “Adobe has finally beaten me into submission. This Christmas I did a day’s course on Illustrator. I still don’t get it.”
For this writer, once a Freehand beta-tester, it’s been ever-present on a 20-year journey. But now my copy won’t let me print out anything containing fonts (bit of a drawback), and regularly needs re-booting/re-installing (not ideal). Garrett criticises this as an inherent inability to embrace change, a sort of ‘I know what I like, and I like what I know’ culture.
I Would Save Freehand print for ifyoucould.co.uk by tDR
He’s right of course, and the news that The Designers Republic has folded should perhaps be the death-knell for their favourite piece of software too. Its central place in British graphic design for 20 years is coming to an end.
At least there’s a glimmer of hope. It seems that Adobe has (finally) acknowledged that Illustrator could do with some of Freehand’s best bits (like multiple, different-sized pages in a document, and even simple old ‘paste-inside’).
Perhaps they’ll send me a copy of CS4 and I’ll be a (slightly late) beta-tester? But in the meantime, I have a logo to do by this afternoon, I think I’ll just knock out a few quick ideas in a programme I know well....
All projects shown were designed in Freehand.
Michael Johnson is design director of johnson banks and editor of the johnson banks Thought for the week blog. This article appears in the Crit section of the CR March 2009 issue.
75 Comments
I never got into Freehand. I tried, but I was already too entrenched in Illustrator (which was what we learned to use in college in the mid 90s).
2009-02-20 18:47:12
thanks for that post!!
2009-02-20 18:58:29
Now the ball's rolling, maybe it's time to admit it. I still use a pencil sometimes.
2009-02-20 19:51:15
I never used freehand, I did however use Fireworks, yup it's funny. But never for print or at least anything that was for work. Some personal things but that was more of a learning/hobby. Now I am set on really understanding illustrator. It really isn't that hard, it's intuitive.
It's funny you mention 'why not' and Erik Spiekermann, (Edenspiekermann). A friend of mine and myself are interning for both companies respectively this summer. It should be good!
Nice article.
2009-02-21 00:57:26
I'm not a designer - just an interested civilian - but I use Illustrator for my very occasional forays into design work.
I really miss the fluidity of the old '1.bit' paint programs of yore. SuperPaint from Silicon Beach Software died in the early 90s, but it was fantastic for rapidly developing ideas, particularly logos and stuff, as a basis for vector work later on. It felt 'kinetic', like a sketchbook (yay Pinky!), and the 'fast and dirty' feel just reinforced the sense of feedback I got the first time I used a Mac. I really miss that, actually. Illustrator feels clinical and 'cognitive' by comparison...
2009-02-21 01:11:21
You can't beat a Freehand job.
2009-02-21 13:26:41
Viva Freehand. I have no issues running an older system in order to continue using Freehand. Rinzen are, and will always be Freehand users. The endless system and program updates only burn holes in our pockets. Ultimately its more about the ability to realise our ideas than having the latest and greatest. Freehand is logically superior and suites our needs perfectly.. Some habits can't be forcibly removed.
2009-02-21 14:10:52
AI for me. But while Illustrator is a fantastic piece of software, Freehand's tools and ease of use are more than enough for a lot of people doing graphics and illustration. As I work with CS3 I'm even facing an even more bizarre reality: for a greater number of times than you would expect, I've had to convert the file so the printer can actually open it in Freehand. I bet a major percentage of Printers in Portugal still uses it. If it works and the job is great, why pay more? I have to admit: sometimes I miss those quirky béziers…
2009-02-22 01:46:31
I too use FREEHAND MX. And I have to say that I LOVE IT! I feel that illustrator (any version) with all the extras and tools, is still not as-user-friendly as Freehand. And the turn-around time vs. Illustrator is also an advantage. I can crack a design in seconds with Freehand, and in illustrator it takes extra steps when I am doing a simple basic design. Just a basic line art piece in Freehand is way better then illustrator, it flows alot easier for me. I do have illustrator cs3 installed but I only use it for the extra effects, but all the graphing,vector,tracing and light 2d rendering, are done with freehand. I really wished they continued with newer updated versions. Although the last Freehand version is still AND will withstand the test of time for quiet some years to come. Especially if you don't like to get complicated and just want to crack some basic designs fast.
The overall comfortable feel with Freehand I will never get with any version of Illustrator.
2009-02-22 10:48:39
I suppose it's like using a tool you have owned for years and are familiar with. I have to confess, it was a massive task for me to change from Quark to InDesign when OS X came out, but I'm glad I did.
2009-02-22 17:23:15
From New Zealand I smiled all the way through this. I have stubbornly refused to use illustrator till now but was recently gratified to see CS4 has a new feature to "simulate the Freehand interface". Is this a new dawn for us users?
It will be interesting to see if it works, but at least Adobe are acknowledging we exist! And yes Freehand is still much easier to do everyday tasks and things like font deconstruction and reconstruction for identity design.
2009-02-22 21:34:51
Only briefly gave Freehand a go, so I am not sure on the benefits over illustrator... but any additional functionality to improve workflow gets the 'thumbs up' from me.
2009-02-23 09:17:25
In uni many years ago I sat down in a computer lab and spent hours getting to grips with Freehand and Illustrator. I took to Illustrator like a duck to water. Freehand's drawing tools seemed to get in the way and stop me designing. It was like holding your pencil in your fist not your fingers to draw. I've tried Freehand in the intervening years and have always hated the drawing tools. The same way I've always hated them in Flash (even though I use Flash all time, I virtually never draw in it).
I am glad to see multi-paging in Illustrator now though. That was always the one thing that Freehand had over it.
I shan't bemoan the death of Freehand, though it will be one less thing for designers to argue about ;-)
2009-02-23 09:19:28
havent adobe added most of the useful features to illustrator now with the live paint/trace stuff(though these are a bit clunky)? I can't think of one person I know who uses it, i'd never even tried it until I got the full mx suite. I think its fair to say that no-one will mourn the death of the abomination that is Quark. I wasted so much time with it to the extent that i completely hated page layout, then as soon as i'm out of uni indesign happens
2009-02-23 10:07:18
This is a story I know pretty well myself and has been on my mind lately coincidentally, as it is the same here in South Africa.
There are many graphic designers here still clinging to Freehand. I myself, started and continuing using Illustrator.
Regardless of the two, I still desire initiative type control on all applications. I always feel as though I'm mangling and wrestling with type.
2009-02-23 10:18:35
Hand up here for Freehand!! I was chatting to a colleague the other day about why I still use it. Its probably just familiarity, but we did discover that you can move a shape and an individual point with the SAME pointer tool. I can't seem to replicate this in Illustrator, if anyone knows different...
2009-02-23 14:38:34
Alex Trochut still uses it...
2009-02-24 08:14:33
Illustrator, we just don't get it?
Too complicated for it's own good!
Freehand has a glorious simplicity.
2009-02-24 11:42:31
I Love Freehand.
2009-02-24 13:21:17
This article arrived in my mag the day my CS4 upgrade pack did. After some 15 years I gave in and decided I needed to see what this illustrator jive was all about. I have felt like a design pariah throughout my later career, a dirty secret that left me at the mercy of my Ai endorsing peers.
Then I read this, and last i feel I can come clean and admit it too. I love Freehand and I am secretly very proud of it! This was the first package I leaned on the mac, and I have been using it ever since. I use MX every day and find no limitations, but then I am not one for getting excited about more whistles and bells. The point is Freehand is intuitive, direct and uses common sense - from what I have tried of the other one, this doesn't apply.
In another way, if i have to think about the mechanics of a pencil before I made a mark on some paper- then I cannot communicate freely and the mark looks laboured - the same goes for drawing on the mac. I will give CS4 a look as I've bought it now, but there will always be a freehand in my tool bar.
2009-02-24 13:30:36
Count me as another US user. So now, apparently, there's two of us. Every time I have to use Illustrator I yell, throw a few choice words around, grin and bear it. Freehand is just easier and quicker for me. Time = money. I lose both using Illustrator.
2009-02-24 13:39:12
Back in 1990 I was given a copy of Freehand and of Illustrator 88.
I'm completely self taught from back then, and I found Freehand a doddle to get to work, where as in those days, you couldn't draw in colour in Illustrator. You had to do everything in keyline and then "publish" your work to look at what you'd done. It was awful and clunky and by no means user-friendly. So developed my love affair with Freehand.
I then moved jobs and the work we were doing from 1991 onwards could only be achieved in Freehand, as Illustrator didn't allow us to set up the artwork we were doing with what we called 'negative grips'.
Freehand has been a part of the whole of my adult life, It's like an extension to my left arm and I'm not ready to loose it yet - however hard the battle is becoming.
2009-02-24 13:54:49
Everyone should start with a pencil and paper, where they go from there is up to them.
It's like choosing between McDonalds or Burger King...they're both frustrating and unhealthy in the long run, but short term they fill a gap.
2009-02-24 13:55:14
yea! Freehand! I have been using FreeHand since its inception... then it was owned by...I think it was by Aldus... It is so intuitive and uncomplicated...even though the complexity levels have gone up during Macromedia's reign.
To this day I prefer to think and work out my ideas in FreeHand for myself...FH is a natural...whereas Illustrator tries too hard... and can never replace FH
cheers from India
Long live FreeHand!!!
2009-02-24 13:55:16
Great blog . . This really touches a chord as I have been extolling the virtues of Freehand's interface and ease of use compared to the more complex Illustrator. My colleague and I are often heard having super heated debates over this very topic in the studio. Needless to say I am of that certain age and my colleague is 20 years younger - which might explain the problem. I have however progressed with the technology juggernaut but do sorely miss the old friend - I'm so glad there are plenty badge holders still out there.
2009-02-24 14:18:50
Two things win over AI which are different document pagesetup/multiple pages and auto trace. I haven't used CS4 so can't comment if they have introduced the first. Auto trace is still to me better than current AI.
2009-02-24 14:33:40
Half the hypocrites here will at another time tell you, with profound paddling pool insight, that it doesn't matter what technology you use.
2009-02-24 14:39:14
I've used Freehand ever since college and we used it at Blue Source. It was only when I changed jobs in 2006 that I was forced to learn how to use Illustrator.
It's taken me 2 years to feel comfortable with it, but even now, if I get a new brief I automatically start work in Freehand... it just gives me more freedom and feels more intuitive.
There is stuff in Illustrator that is great though, and I feel lucky to be comfortbale using both.
If Illustrator does introduce multiple pages and other bits of Freehand common sense then that will probably be the day that us old die-hards finally migrate.
2009-02-24 14:41:04
I use it for my invoices. I always have for years. PDF exporting wasn't round back then on, you would have to buy a plug in!!! But freehand I could export PDF's. Which worked for me.
I'm always up to try new software, but there is a lot of bells and whistles that I don't need. Freehand never needed anything extra for me.
Each upgrade on the OS I did, I would check to see if Freehand still worked. It's is still going strong today.
Mind you, Excel exports PDF's now and it can add up the prices for me. Mind you, If it isn't broken, don't fix it!!!
2009-02-24 15:25:09
Freehand is evil... you know it is.
2009-02-24 17:38:50
First off, I'm sort of not in the design game anymore, having decided to run a lingerie business with my wife, and I'm loving it, I get to learn new things, embracing change on a daily basis, and I get to run my own business whilst still being able to keep my hand in with graphic design, which I still LOVE!
I have fought the corner for Freehand ever since Illustrator came on the scene many moons ago. Freehand is much more than a nostalgic piece of software. I've tried Illustrator many times (or have been forced into using it due to picking up on another designers work), it is a frustrating and overly complex piece of software for 99% of the jobs I need to perform. The name says it all - 'Illustrator' - I am not an illustrator. I do not want to create multi-layered images of girls with butterflies coming out of their backsides. I am a designer that wants a tool that enables me to be 'Free' and that is 'Handy' to use (OK, that's a bit dodgy). Something that can create clean, powerful and intuitive marks (or 'logo's') in an environment that I can use as swiftly and easily as a pencil - Freehand does (or did) this, I love the way you need to work with Freehand, to understand how it's faults can be made to be a benefit, those happy mistakes that create great design. I LOVE the simple interface and speed at which you can make things happen. I don't care if it's old or 'out-of-date', so are pencils and film cameras, but creatives still love and use them, because they bring a special something to a finished piece of work. Design is not about software, it is about great ideas, expertly executed - by any means necessary. I'll probably have to buy a crappy old mac just to run an old version of Freehand on, and protest like Dixon Baxi to printers to get them to work around the problem... Or alternatively, do less design and ask nicely for someone else to do those things... which is probably more likely.
2009-02-24 18:20:11
Im so glad CR brought this up iv got AI but i never use it FreeHand is so much better and easier to use!
viva Freehand!!!
2009-02-24 18:26:29
I still use Freehand and have loved it since FH3 when I was an instant convert. I was weaned on Illustrator 1 in the eighties and don't really feel it ever improved much. My pet hate - editing bezier curves in Illustrator. Contrary to the views here I would say Freehand is by far the more technical package and has always been faster and less buggy. Maps and complex illustrations grind to a halt in Illustrator where they are happy in Freehand. Precise dimensions (numerical) have always been easier in Freehand and printing is a wheeze. Illustrator CS4 just needs a redesign and simplification of the interface - all we ever get are more bells and whistles. There's nothing I can't draw in either package - it is just that only one of them is still a joy to use!
Anatole
2009-02-24 18:51:38
PS - I have invested nearly 20 years mastering Freehand, it is second nature to me. Please can Adobe pay for all tuition up to the same level of ability in Illustrator as I am not prepared to foot the bill for their decision.
Ta Muchly.
Scott Parker
2009-02-24 19:17:22
Can't imagine a world without FreeHand! I have over 2000 of my airliner illustrations done in MX, I've tried to get used to Illustrator but I just can't, the past inside ability is superb for my type of illustration. I worked in Spain and it is still numero uno there! Viva FreeHand.
2009-02-24 22:31:36
I am going down with the ship!
long live freehand.
2009-02-24 22:43:16
What a sense of empathy I felt while reading this article. I have been an ardent user of Freehand ever since I started using a computer and have enjoyed the simple, intuitive interface and the flexibility of the software. I tried illustrator and admit that when it comes to complex illustration techniques, it is unbeatable. But when it comes to designing - and using text, pages, illustration and photography, all combined, Freehand is amazing. It's irreplaceable. The news of Adobe buying over Macromedia was so disheartening because it meant that Freehand had only place to go- into oblivion! That's the tragedy. So far, Freehand works fine with all the upgrades of OSX and I will keep using it till that happens. After that, who knows?
2009-02-25 06:22:57
I set off on my design journey 15 years ago, with Aldus Freehand, as it was then known.
In order to learn its ropes, many a phone call was placed to my drinking buddies at The Designers Republic, Mr Place being my phone support operator of choice. I'm sure it drove him mad having some upstart clicker asking him how to rotate and colour the words and shapes for my fanzines and flyers.
It paid off though, I was taken on at TDR a few years later and my love of Freehand found the perfect home amongst my fellow designing republicans and their staunch advocation of the software. Illustrator was practically a swear word in that studio.
I too dread the day the new OS arrives which kills off our beloved FHMX (and its coming soon I believe, Snow Leopard arrives this year, gulp!).
I guess we'll have to engage a slower gear for a while as I take on Illustrator, (spit!).
Misery / anxiety ensues...
2009-02-25 09:27:34
Freehand Rocks! Used it since 5.0 (13 years ago)- what’s the big idea trying to wind it down so ooooooo the big bad illustrator takes front seat (cant even have multiple pages in one file – need I say more?……Yes!)- The new illustrators are for lazy folk especially 'in design' its for quick fix - "designers" with no ideas, “I know chuck a lens or too on it that will make my already crap idea better” lenses and all that rubbish give me 3ds Max , Photoshop (any version) and freehand 8 onwards and there is nothing I cant achieve. Come on chaps use the old grey matter don’t rely on your software to make your designs look good.
I am not biased, 15 years ago when I came from the days of lick and stick I had a clean mind slate as to which software to use all where available too me, tried them all (Quark – what a joke I thought). Photoshop – well that’s a given, mmm.. freehand or illustrator – all I had to create was a simple window corner flash tried illustrator first took me ages to create the bloody triangle (admittedly I couldn’t be arsed to read the manual). How ever a voice from the other side of the studio said try freehand and the rest was history – piece of cake – 10 mins later popping out of our Agfa Elan 500 and off to print – never looked back since.
KEEP FREEHAND ALIVE!
2009-02-25 10:17:30
Great blog. Captured the feelings of the die hard Freehand folk. Me, i love freehand. Now that i'm not the only one using it i'll definitely start using it more than ever. I loved the intricacy of it, the control, the super quick EPS export feature (which didn't give you a white background) the pathfinder menu (now added to illustrator), the page layout feature and its speed and simplicity.
Im pretty much up to speed with illustrator but still dont get the control and simplicity as I do with Freehand MX. AI has way to many bells and whistles for its own good.
Group hug everyone!
2009-02-25 10:57:48
I use both, but first choice every time is Freehand. Simple drawing, line and node editing make things so quick and easy to get what you want. In illustrator I have constantly found this clunky and over complicated and hence frustrating and time consuming.
Why can't the these good and better ways be brought into illustrator, remember it was a Merger with Macromedia, Adobe couldn't implement the same ways of working before due to copyrights and patents, so now surely this is no longer an issue.
Artizan Communications
2009-02-25 14:12:16
What's the point of using Adobe Creative Suite!
Some printers will only accept Freehand files. So why upgrade to an all-signing-all-dancing Creative Suite?
There is no doubt that using Adobe Creative Suite has HUGE advantages. It does everything that Freehand used to do (the past tense is deliberate - it surely can't survive forever), and a whole lot more... plus more and more.
We moved over to Creative Suite five years ago as most of our work is for the UK, and Indesign was giving Quark a run for its money. Illustrator, Photoshop and Indesign make a great team - and since all artwork could be proofed with Acrobat Pro - our artwork time is a tiny percentage of a job.
We're now doing a lot more South African work, and specifically packaging. We create our all-singing-all-dancing designs and impress the pants off our clients. We check our plates and colours in Acrobat Pro - and all is OK with our artwork and ready for print.
Understandably, the label or packaging printer needs to do some technical production on the artwork specific for their machines (step-ups, bleeds, dot gains etc). But because they have been using Freehand FOREVER, they want everything converted back. Not because Illustrator or Acrobat can't do what they need, but because they just don't know how to use it... yet.
Now I can guarantee one thing (and I've proven it)... If the artwork process takes an hour in Adobe CS, it will take 4 to 8 hours in Freehand. Hence older agencies having to have large artwork departments! Freehand is like a blinkered horse when it comes to artwork - it only has one way - and you can't cheat like you can in CS.
"Is your file PostScript friendly" the printer asks. Of course it bloody is! Adobe invented PostScript!
"Your PDF is corrupt, it has blocks all over it" they say. Turn on your overprint preview (and read the Acrobat Pro manual)... and whilst you're there... check out those amazing plates in the output preview (no printing hundred of pages to check plates)!
Can't the printers see the benefits?
Who is going to teach the production departments of printers that Freehand is not the only program that can do what they need?
When printers start using CS as well, design agencies can start to produce better work and stop wasting time with friggen Freehand.
2009-02-26 05:59:31
It does it's job when creating pieces relaying on vector graphics, which I'm fine with...but for making multi-page, copy and image-based layouts it's a complete joke. Please, please, Freehand-users, please use InDesign. I find taking on a big Freehand file takes about 5 times longer to manipulate or edit, than an even more complex document in InDesign would.
Freehand is so far behind and clunky it's unbearable.
2009-02-26 10:20:59
I was a Freehand user from when it was under the Aldus banner right up to the final MX version. The killer feature for me was the multiple page feature which meant you could create a complete suite of POS all in one document all at different sizes. This is something thats really lacking in illustrator.
Unfortunately after dealing with many third parties who had been brought up from birth with Illustrator I had to make the move and I have to say I have become a Illustrator fan, although I do miss paste inside feature from Freehand rather than all this mask business.
If you can still getaway with using Freehand carry on regardless, after all in these days of PDF workflow as long as you can write a print quality PDF does it matter? But you have to be realistic that you'll have to make the move eventually.
In fact use Corel Draw...............mmmm maybe not.
2009-02-26 15:03:58
I know Freehand has a huge base in Europe but the USA has it's strong support. I encourage all who are reading these comments to voice their opinions on this Adobe FH website thread:
ADOBE LATEST FREEHAND MX UPGRADE, WOULD YOU PAY?
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/categories.cfm?forumid=17&catid=199&entercat=y
In fact this blog article was listed on the Adobe Freehand forums and I came to check it out. Wonderful read!!
2009-02-27 23:23:20
I guess it's a left brain, right brain thing or something. FH is so much more intuitive than AI. And it's not encumbered by such a ridiculous number of tools (how many tools do AI users need to make a selection for heaven's sake?)
I sometimes must use Illustrator of course, but my heart belongs to FH. It strengths far outweigh its shortcomings. If Adobe were brutally honest, they would do a complete rewrite of AI and incorporate the things that FH does best and throw out the needlessly complex, convoluted crap that seems to compound with every AI release.
2009-02-28 01:40:43
Hello from Daytona Beach, FL.
Consider me another happy USA user. When productivity is important, Freehand shines. I too am frozen in time at OSX 10.4.11 as Jaquar doesn't play very well with fonts. Such a shame that Adobe has to do this to it's loyal users. Most of us already own Illustrator and would gladly pay for a Freehand upgrade if they would only do it. I plan to continue to use Freehand until the bitter end....
BTW... the latest Java update from Apple kills the haxie "FontCard" so your WYSIWYG menus are history if you update.
2009-02-28 03:47:35
god-damn f'n A Right,
Freehand kicks ass, ill challenge any AI user anytime to a design show down right in Adobes office
2009-03-02 07:08:14
I wish Adobe would have incorporated the better parts of Freehand into Illustrator.
For instance, the paste inside and the better selection too. Going back and forth to the between the two selection tools is a waste of time and effort.
in freehand, all you needed was one, unless you were working paste inside.
Illustrator is clunky, but they won.
2009-03-02 09:25:02
I just wish I could still use Deluxe Paint IV …
2009-03-02 13:26:50
FreeHand is still used here on the West Coast (USA). Many designers and pre-press agents request FH for project files. In truth, they are just different tools. FreeHand and Illustrator are left-brain, right-brain. FreeHand let's me work fast to simply create. Illy makes more work of the same and asks for detailed thoughts.
.
Yet after using CS2, CS3 and now CS4 in the day to day workflow I STILL do the best and most productive work in FH 11.02. Multiple pages, better drawing tools, vastly superior color specifiers and rock-solid performance make FreeHand my favorite vector program. Perhaps the best part about FreeHand not continuing in development is the lack of associated "bloat" laid into Illustrator. FreeHand runs lean and fast.
.
As for OS upgrade issues... refer to the FH Forum at Adobe.com for shared work-arounds. That's all from me.
Cheers,
Jeffery
2009-03-03 04:44:03
Illustrator is over hyped, over-weight and well over-priced
I'm a former designer now employer, I have twenty design staff. They're proper artists who can work with butcher-paper crayon if need be.
My artists love Freehand- grumble over CS4. OF course! They're artists not IT guys!
I cannot vehemently disagree that Illustrator more is quicker or n anyway, superior.
I have had Coreldraw X4 (great interface, very intuitive lousy vector control and endlessly buggy (X3 was very good)) and gone from CS2, to CS3 and now CS4.
CS4 (not mentioning InDesgn's unjusitifable price tag) is not only unrealistically expensive- and lends easily to rampant understandble piracy).
CS4 is far too expensive and surplus to requirements for most designers, especially the business' most outrageously talented- independents.
The licensing runs into the tens of thousands- better re-invested in something more intelligent than planned obsolescence software
Illustrator takes forever and a day to design something quick.
If you're actually an artist (eg can draw decently with pen and pad)- Freehand leads by miles. It truly feels like an extension of the hand.
CS4 is full of tricks and bells and whistles, but that's about it.
A decent artist can visual most of these ticks and duplicate them in the more primitive Freehand.
And an artist truly worth his salary will be able to work by hand if push really comes to shove (scarily more common than you'd imagine) so that negates many Illustrator add-ons.
If artists fulfill the task quicker by hand- what's even the point of Illustrator?
How many hours have I paid into salaries of people clicking undo or negotiating cryptic Adobe help forums?
Most printers request the CS4 gimmickry, shades, transparencies, gradients, etc dumped so the poor fellow printing doesn't get lumped with useless files that never print properly.
IN the real world of huge projects, complex engineering designs, book publishing etc- we often have to outsource to two, often more simultaneous printing firms- which means keeping things as simple and future-proof/FUBAR free as possible to get jobs done on time as promised.
I find the vector precision of Freehand far superior.
The GUI is a bit crap- but a knowledgeable coder should be able to help out.
Inkscape has come along way- I think if Freehand code ever becomes open (fingers crossed)- Illustrator will lose out big time.
Remember Michelangelo's David, the Mona Lisa and Chippendale.
Master craftsman with primitive tools make masterworks.
Freehand is handtools Chippendale.
Illustrator is Ikea.
2009-03-05 19:16:06
Yeah I had the choice of using either Freehand or Illustrator when I started using a computer as an illustrator in 1991, decided on Freehand. Loved it since and have no intention at the moment of upgrading to an OSX that'll thwart my freehand working. I find it fast, simple and does everything I want it to except colour blend lines. I also find the consistantly unfriendly lack of consideration to freehand users from Adobe in the way one cannot convert illustrator documents to freehand, plain non-co-operative and ugly. Sure its business, but what about supporting the industry generally?
2009-03-08 11:39:29
Bonjour,
Est-il envisageable que Freehand puisse "renaître" en logiciel libre ?…
Des milliers d'utilisateurs redoutent de devoir se résigner à passer sous Illustrator (encore maintenant).
Existe-t'il un forum consacré à la sauvegarde de FreeHand ?
Pouvez-vous me répondre en Français SVP …
Merci,
Jean-Yves
2009-03-08 16:32:18
A great read, all these posts...
I vacillate between a variety of emotions in regards to this topic. It's encouraging to see and hear all the FH fans resolutely standing by this all-time-great program. But is it anything more than a painful indulgence? By all counts the continuance of FH isn't realistic--Adobe has said as much, the heartless troglodytes. Confronted with despair and desperation at having to abandon FH (my reliance on it for making a living notwithstanding. yes, insert all the usual stuff here: I prefer FH by an incalculable margin, have sufficiently mastered AI and ID to speak with authority on the debate, etc.) but now approaching this like the 5 step grieving process. Then I swing wildly back to outrage and defiance: all right then, I'll keep my G5 & G4 machines going, resist future updates, deny Adobe my upgrade funds, and maybe more...(but what?)
For now anyway I'll reiterate what the post above already pointed out: Adobe needs to hear directly from the community of FH users who feel as (most) on this blog do--especially if FH has a strong international following. Incidentally I don't agree with what the article asserts: "without any apparent fan-base in the States (a US source could only think of one designer they knew still using it) they faced no significant backlash there." I don't think that's accurate, from what I gather talking to like-minded designers in the Seattle area. It could be there is a stronger following on the west coast vs east; I seem to remember hearing something to that affect.
make yourself known:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/categories.cfm?forumid=17&catid=199&entercat=y
2009-03-24 19:55:35
I must say I passionately hate FreeHand, though I'm not an artist so perhaps I'm the wrong target audience. We've generally used it to import images, add labels, then export each image/label combination as an EPS. There are problems with alpha channels in TIFFs, greyscale or spot colour exports sometimes turn themselves into CMYK, the pages panel is hugely fiddly and the magnification changes each time you switch page. Some of the text attributes use your measurement setting rather than points, so you see the leading in mm for example. When exporting, the 'export selected objects only' tickbox is unticked even when you have just selected some objects, making it easy to accidentally export every single page. On the Windows version at least, it uses more and more memory until eventually you have to restart the computer. If you don't, the file becomes corrupt.
Illustrator could do with a lot of improvements, but overall I prefer it. Unfortunately it doesn't support multiple pages or selective export or cropping of imported images, all of which we need.
2009-03-26 15:54:27
i always use this program an i hate that :))
2009-03-31 08:59:14
Having been in the printing industry for forty years and among the first to adapt to desk-top publishing using a Mac and most of the software available. I know first hand from experience that Freehand still is the best software program for creating artwork. I own and operate a Print Shop, 99% of everything I print is either scanned into photoshop or re-created using Freehand. Directly imaging to plates and printing on a itek/ryobi 3302 twin tower offset press.
I recently up-graded from a dual G4 to a dual G5 PPC. I still use Freehand version 10 and Mac OS 10.5.6 which I prefer over Freehand version MX. I always convert my fonts to paths prior to making PDF's or printing. I'll not switch to Illustrator as Freehand is still better than Illustrator and PageMaker/InDesign combined. I print Pantone color separations, and CMYK from Freehand. Adobe to me is still a font company. Aldus had the talent to create some of the best production software for the commercial printing industry.
Long Live Freehand ! ! ! !
2009-05-01 23:13:14
What a delight to read your blog! I have been a Freehand user as an architect since the days when Aldus produced it. I had a need for a graphics programme to present my designs in the early 90's and I trialled Illustrator and Freehand.
I was a director of my company and often had long periods away from the 'drawing board' but when I needed to get back the situations required I be highly productive. I avoided programmes like AutoCad with huge learning curves and chose instead an easy to use programme called Pegasys which has now evolved into TurboCad. In those days you had to train your own staff to use CAD and the downtime for learning was significant. I applied the same reasoning to our graphics programme and Freehand won hands down for the ease of use and short learning curve.
There was no comparison then and there is still no comparison today for ease of use and being highly productive quickly, and yes I am still using MX.....I have pondered migrating to Illustrator [CS4] but I am looking at alternatives.
What surprises me with all this is that no software manufacturer has taken the hint and created a replacement for Freehand. It seems to me there is a large unsatisfied demand out there and these posts illustrate the point [pun intentional].
Viva Freehand!
2009-05-06 01:08:11
I had no idea our numbers were legion!
This blog has given me the courage to finally come out:
MY NAME IS ROB, AND I HAVE BEEN AN ARDENT USER OF FREEHAND FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS. I DON’T LIKE ILLUSTRATOR AND I AM NOT ASHAMED TO ADMIT IT!
However, now I’m using an Intel Core 2 Duo Mac with 10.5, I can’t open Freehand in Classic mode or use Freehand MX, so have been forced to use Illustrator; a programme I find far less intuitive to use and far too complex for my requirements.
I resent Adobe buying Freehand then refusing to support it, forcing users unwillingly into the arms of Illustrator. To quote the Adobe site:
“No updates to FreeHand have been made for over four years, and Adobe has no plans to initiate development to add new features or to support Intel-based Macs and Windows Vista.”
If anyone at Adobe sees this blog, then please reconsider your decision not to port to Mac/Intel and Windows 7. What this has illustrated is there’s a loyal user base who could be supported for very little effort. I for one would buy a Mac Intel copy of Freehand tomorrow if it became available and it’s obvious I’m not alone.
2009-05-13 15:02:45
I had no idea our numbers were legion!
This blog has given me the courage to finally come out:
MY NAME IS ROB, AND I HAVE BEEN AN ARDENT USER OF FREEHAND FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS. I DON’T LIKE ILLUSTRATOR AND I AM NOT ASHAMED TO ADMIT IT!
However, now I’m using an Intel Core 2 Duo Mac with 10.5, I can’t open Freehand in Classic mode or use Freehand MX, so have been forced to use Illustrator; a programme I find far less intuitive to use and far too complex for my requirements.
I resent Adobe buying Freehand then refusing to support it, forcing users unwillingly into the arms of Illustrator. To quote the Adobe site:
“No updates to FreeHand have been made for over four years, and Adobe has no plans to initiate development to add new features or to support Intel-based Macs and Windows Vista.”
If anyone at Adobe sees this blog, then please reconsider your decision not to port to Mac/Intel and Windows 7. What this has illustrated is there’s a loyal user base who could be supported for very little effort. I for one would buy a Mac Intel copy of Freehand tomorrow if it became available and it’s obvious I’m not alone.
2009-05-13 15:03:22
I had no idea our numbers were legion!
This blog has given me the courage to finally come out:
MY NAME IS ROB, AND I HAVE BEEN AN ARDENT USER OF FREEHAND FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS. I DON’T LIKE ILLUSTRATOR AND I AM NOT ASHAMED TO ADMIT IT!
However, now I’m using an Intel Core 2 Duo Mac with 10.5, I can’t open Freehand in Classic mode or use Freehand MX, so have been forced to use Illustrator; a programme I find far less intuitive to use and far too complex for my requirements.
I resent Adobe buying Freehand then refusing to support it, forcing users unwillingly into the arms of Illustrator. To quote the Adobe site:
“No updates to FreeHand have been made for over four years, and Adobe has no plans to initiate development to add new features or to support Intel-based Macs and Windows Vista.”
If anyone at Adobe sees this blog, then please reconsider your decision not to port to Mac/Intel and Windows 7. What this has illustrated is there’s a loyal user base who could be supported for very little effort. I for one would buy a Mac Intel copy of Freehand tomorrow if it became available and it’s obvious I’m not alone.
2009-05-13 15:05:29
I miss Freehand... When is illustrator going to have the flexibility for setting up documents of various sizes in one file?
2009-05-13 23:41:46
Thanks for this post !
I still have and use Aldus Freehand 3.1 in an old machine and still find some of its 15 old-years functions unbeatable and reliable in deadline situations (I export to illustrator to send to the clients)
I find Adobe monopoly on vector drawing unsettling.
A violin it is not a guitar- and we should have the option to keep using the instrument that we chose to master.
An idea: Could we inspire a programer to adapt the Aldus Freehand code (now abandonware) to Intel OSX and keep using it?
2009-05-20 01:36:45
I've been a graphic designer for 19 years. Started on Ilustrator, moved to FreeHand and then was forced to migrate back to Illustrator. To this day I reather use FreeHand... not only because I KNOW it, but because I believe Illustrator is stubbornly user-unfriendly. I doubt 2 people on the software developing team were designers. If there were, they would have mentioned that you sometimes need to use 2 different size pages in one document... or that 'paste inside' in an essential. Or that one sometimes needs to ungroup down until all you have are nodes. I have never had to click so much to get anything done as I have with Illustrator. Maybe the royalty at Adobe can put their egos aside some day and incorporate some very useful features FreeHand has? One can only hope.
2009-08-20 12:05:50
According to this and other forums, almost everyone who doesn't like Illustrator started out on Freehand and couldn't adjust. That's what they are used to. I started with Illustrator 88 and only tried Freehand recently. I found it far more difficult to use than Illustrator. So perhaps it's just what you already know. Illustrator CS4 seems to have fixed everything else Freehanders liked.
2009-08-20 19:53:08
Gerard said: "According to this and other forums, almost everyone who doesn't like Illustrator started out on Freehand and couldn't adjust. That's what they are used to. I started with Illustrator 88 and only tried Freehand recently. I found it far more difficult to use than Illustrator. So perhaps it's just what you already know. Illustrator CS4 seems to have fixed everything else Freehanders liked."
Sorry, I have to disagree. I've run Illustrator and Freehand parallel to each other since '95. Freehand is superior in execution time due to far less steps required in many of the tasks that both programs are designed to handle. Freehand also has remained more compatible for export to Photoshop and InDesign (go figure!) without the need to tweak document settings prior to exporting, and also more compatible with our studio printers. I've run the trial of CS4 and for me at least, Illustrator still has not satisfactorily emulated Freehand enough to warrant the upgrade to CS4 or the surrender of my Freehand licence.
2009-11-05 07:21:25
Freehand is the best
I can see why Adobe want to kill it - why sell one package that does almost everything when you can sell 3 or 4.
It's a perfect graphic design environment - pisses all over Illustrator.
2009-11-05 09:37:28
Save your Freehand, join now:
http://www.freefreehand.org/
2009-11-12 08:35:54
Freehand is the Bomb-diggy!!
2010-02-03 15:45:40
I have used freehand since 93. Was in my third year natal technikon graphic design course when we had a two week instruction module on freehand. Have not looked back since. I have had to learn illustrator(cs3) but it just is so left brain long winded unintuitive. I deal with it but really, it sux! I still do my heavy lifting on freehand and then export to illustrator. Ha.
I have 11.02 running on 10.6.2 but sometimes it goes through a crash cycle. Then it's fine for a while.
Haven't tried 10.6.3 yet. Seriously. People you need to support the freefreehand foundation!
Why hasn't anyone filled the freehand void is what I want to know! Just give us speed and the Basics with a built to layered option of more tools etc. According to professional preference. Now that would be sick!
" from my cold dead hands" or something like that! Ha.
Freehand rules !
2010-03-31 05:31:34
Freehand is great stuff for design...
web Design
2010-04-28 08:48:20
There are problems with alpha channels in TIFFs. :)
2010-11-06 01:11:02
YES! Judge Koh approves Free FreeHand for Trial and rejects Adobe's Motion-To-Dismiss! /// All current + former #Freehand users unite. @FreeFreehand http://bit.ly/mvC46s are 1 step closer to save Freehand—> http://bit.ly/zdityR
2012-01-15 13:45:10
Freehand was the BOMB! Now we have Illustrator which sucks Big Time. Erik Spiekermann doesn't know what he's talking about. Freehand was THE programme for true graphic designers. Fast, uncomplicated, precise. Then came Adobe...
2012-01-17 12:37:40
Get the RSS Feed
Related subjects and keywords
Subject:
Keywords:
Most recently commented
| Romain Gavras directs promo for M.I.A.'s Bad Girls (10) |
| Range Rover v Hadron Collider (9) |
| Fishing for customers (7) |
| Jerzy Treutler's Polish posters show (2) |
| John Whitney, Catalog, 1961 (1) |
Most read
| Farrow designs Format for PSB |
| Wordplay in Selfridges' windows |
| The £25 logo |
| VW: The Dog Strikes Back |
| BBC unveils redesigned Sport site |
Subjects
| Advertising | (1034) | |
| Art | (388) | |
| Books | (248) | |
| Digital | (407) | |
| Graphic Design | (1120) | |
| Illustration | (624) | |
| Magazine / Newspaper | (196) | |
| Music Video / Film | (706) | |
| Photography | (355) | |
| Type / Typography | (247) |
