This post is like a quick tip, but it focuses on helpful Illustrator features. Did you know Illustrator can convert Freehand multi-page documents into multiple artboards? Pretty handy if you are a Freehand user moving to Illustrator or opening old Freehand files. Anyone even still using Freehand?
Huge discussion about freehand here.
http://www.creativereview.co.uk/back-issues/creative-review/2009/march-20091/freehand-anonymous
Still use Freehand daily. Still superior for the everyday stuff. Lacks a lot when it comes to textures / filters but still lightning fast and so useable. The freefreehand.org have been trying to force Adobe to release the code, can’t see it coming to much. There’s also been talk of a kick-starter project to develop something similar as the original team who coded freehand are fairly supportive.
There a bit of background here.
http://www.10on12.com/notebook/freehand_v_illustrator/
Yeah I have worked with a couple art directors and designers who still swear by it. I have used it in the past but I still prefer Illustrator. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. It is bothersome that Adobe bought and buried a good art program.
You need a $150 plugin for Illustrator for a feature that was native in Freehand and even Flash.
For Adobe not to integrate this somehow sucks…
Xtreme Path Plugin is what I’m referencing to.
Yes, still using FreeHand. I’ve used FreeHand since Aldus days. Adobe Illustrator is better in some things but not in the ease and speed of drawing vectors. I’m forcing myself to try to stay in Illustrator but printing Images in various halftones for Screenprinting FreeHand is superior. I keep a ancient Mac running System 9 for FreeHand to feel at home. You kids ever hear of System 9? A person could still do great work on a $50 Mac and a copy of FreeHand 9.
Maybe I should look into a $50 Mac and Freehand to see what I’m missing!
HEY, could explain me how to do that ” halftones ” in freehand, please.
Ah! good old days… I’m still keeping a Performa Mac running Sys 9. Many things changed since those days. I was saying “Once a Macker, always a Macker” and used to hate that Olivettis invading around. Now I see that I can build a PC for the money I’d pay for a Mac, AND THAT PC WOULD NOT FALL ON THE GROUND IF I THROW IT THROUGH THE WINDOW 🙂
I gave up my My Mac addiction, but I will stick to Freehand till death make us apart.
Cheers all…
Here in Dominican Republic Freehand is most used than illustrator in any print shop, but for me, freehand is good i still use it, because it doesn´t use a lot of ram, but illustrator got a few things much easier to do than freehand, that´s all i want to say.
Yes, i still use freehand, and is too hard to use illustrator, i am crazy with the tutorials these days….
8 )
I used FreeHand for many years, but was forced to start using Illustrator 4 years ago. I still miss FreeHand and it’s intuative interface. I wish someone would port it to run in intel based Macs…
Freehand still has many advantages over Illustrator. It’s so much faster to work with and more precise than AI. Adobe is a lame bunch of losers with no vision, releasing version after version with no improvements worth mentioning. They OWN Freehand, and don’t even understand what makes it superior to bring those features to AI (which has the worlds worst UI in vector tools).
wow I’ve never used Freehand before. I read your comment and started researching about it. Thanks for the eye opener! It turned to have really useful stuffs that I wish AI has..
Thanks for the heads up. Still have to use Spazhand occasionially in work to update maps which would just be too much hassle to re-create in illustrator. Might make it a bit easier. Cheers.