INFORMATION
Macromedia FreeHand Mx (formerly Macromedia Freehand) is a
computer application for creating two-dimensional vector graphics that are
oriented primarily to professional illustration, desktop publishing and content
creation for the Web. FreeHand is similar in scope, intended market, and
functionality to Adobe Illustrator, CorelDraw and Xara Designer Pro.[1] Because
of FreeHand’s dedicated page layout and text control features, it also compares
to Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress. Professions using FreeHand include Graphic
Design, Illustration, Cartography, Fashion and Textile Design, Product Design,
Architects, Science Research, and Multimedia Production.
FreeHand was created by Altsys Corporation in 1988 and
licensed to Aldus Corporation which released versions 1 through 4. In 1994,
Aldus merged with Adobe Systems and because of the overlapping market with
Adobe Illustrator, FreeHand was returned to Altsys by order of the Federal
Trade Commission.[3] Altsys was later bought by Macromedia, which released
FreeHand versions 5 through 11(FreeHand MX). In 2005, Adobe Systems acquired
Macromedia and its product line which included FreeHand MX, under whose ownership
it presently resides.
Development has been discontinued but it is still sold in
versions for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.[4] FreeHand MX is available in
English, German, Chinese (traditional and simplified), French, Italian,
Japanese, Spanish and Swedish languages.
FreeHand MX continues to run under Windows 7 using
compatibility mode and under Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) within Rosetta, a
PowerPC code emulator, and requires a registration patch supplied by Adobe.[5]
Freehand 10 runs without problems on Mac OS X 10.6 with Rosetta enabled, and
does not require a registration patch.
Altsys and Aldus FreeHand
In 1984, James R. Von Ehr founded the Altsys Corporation to
develop graphics applications for personal computers. Based in Plano, Texas,
the company initially produced font editing and conversion software; Fontastic
Plus, Metamorphosis, and the Art Importer.[6] Their premier PostScript
font-design package, Fontographer, was released in 1986 and was the first such
program on the market. With the PostScript background established with
Fontographer, Altsys also developed FreeHand (originally called Masterpiece) as
a Macintosh Postscript-based illustration program that used Bézier curves for
drawing and was similar to Adobe Illustrator. FreeHand was announced as “...a
Macintosh graphics program described as having all the features of Adobe’s
Illustrator plus drawing tools such as those in Mac Paint and Mac Draft and
special effects similar to those in Cricket Draw.”[7] Seattle’s Aldus
Corporation acquired a licensing agreement with Altsys to release FreeHand
along with their flagship product, Pagemaker, and Aldus FreeHand 1.0 was
released in 1988. FreeHand’s product name used intercaps; the F and H were
capitalized.
The partnership between the two companies continued with
Altsys developing FreeHand and with Aldus controlling marketing and sales.
After 1988, a competitive exchange between Aldus FreeHand and Adobe Illustrator
ensued on the Macintosh platform with each software advancing new tools, achieving
better speed, and matching significant features. Windows PC development also
allowed Illustrator 2 (aka, Illustrator 88 on the Mac) and FreeHand 3 to
release Windows versions to the graphics market.
FreeHand 1.0 sold for $495 in 1988. It included the standard
drawing tools and features as other draw programs including special effects in
fills and screens, text manipulation tools, and full support for CMYK color
printing. It was also possible to create and insert PostScript routines
anywhere within the program. FreeHand performed in preview mode instead of
keyline mode but performance was slower.
FreeHand 2.0 sold for $495 in 1989. Besides improving on the
features of FreeHand 1.0, FreeHand 2 added faster operation, Pantone colors,
stroked text, flexible fill patterns and automatically import graphic assets
from other programs. It added accurate control over a color monitor screen
display, limited only by its resolution.
FreeHand 3.0 sold for $595 in 1991. New features included
resizable color, style, and layer panels including an Attributes menu. Also
tighter precision of both the existing tools and aligning of objects. FH3
created compound Paths. Text could be converted to paths, applied to an
ellipse, or made vertical. Carried over from version 1.0, FreeHand 3 suffered
by having text entered into a dialog box instead of directly to the page. In
October 1991, a 3.1 upgrade made FreeHand work with Mac OS 7 but additionally,
it supported pressure sensitive drawing which offered varying line widths with
a users stroke. It improved element manipulation and added more import/export
options.
FreeHand 4.0 sold for $595 in 1994. Altsys ported FreeHand
3.0 to the NeXT system creating a new program named Virtuoso.[9] Virtuoso
continued its development at Altsys and version 2.0 of Virtuoso was
feature-equivalent to FreeHand 4 (with the addition of NeXT-specific features
such as Services and Display PostScript) and file compatible, with Virtuoso 2
able to open FreeHand 4 files and vice-versa. A prominent feature of this
version was the ability to type directly into the page and wrap inside or
outside any shape. It also included drag-and-drop color imaging, a larger
pasteboard, and a user interface that featured floating, rollup panels. The
colors palette included a color mixer for adding new colors to the swatch list.
Speed increases were made.
In the same year of FreeHand 4 release, Adobe Systems
announced merger plans with Aldus Corporation for $525 million. Fear about the
end of competition between these two leading applications was reported in the
media and expressed by customers (Illustrator versus FreeHand and Photoshop
versus PhotoStyler.) Because of this overlapping of the market, Altsys stepped
in by suing Aldus, saying that the merger deal was “a prima facie violation of
a non-compete clause within the FreeHand licensing agreement.”[12] Altsys CEO
Jim Von Ehr explained, "No one loves FreeHand more than we do. We will do
whatever it takes to see it survive."[13] The Federal Trade Commission
issued a complaint of Adobe Systems on October 18, 1994 ordering a divestiture
of FreeHand to “remedy the lessening of competition resulting from the
acquisition as alleged in the Commission’s complaint,” and further, the FTC
ordering, "That for a period of ten (10) years from the date on which this
order becomes final, respondents shall not, without the prior approval of the
Commission, directly or indirectly, through subsidiaries, partnerships, or
otherwise ... Acquire any Professional Illustration Software or acquire or enter
into any exclusive license to Professional Illustration Software;" [3]
(referring to FreeHand.) FreeHand was returned to Altsys with all licensing and
marketing rights as well as Aldus FreeHand’s customer list.
Macromedia Freehand
By late 1994, Altsys still retained all rights to FreeHand.
Despite brief plans to keep it in-house to sell it along with Fontographer and
Virtuoso,[13] Altsys reached an agreement with the multimedia software company,
Macromedia, to be acquired. This mutual agreement provided FreeHand and
Fontographer a new home with ample resources for marketing, sales, and
competition against the newly merged Adobe-Aldus company. Altsys would remain
in Richardson, Texas but would be renamed as the Digital Arts Group of
Macromedia and was responsible for the continued development of FreeHand.
Macromedia received FreeHand’s 200,000 customers and expanded its traditional
product line of multimedia graphics software to illustration and design
graphics software.[14] CEO James Von Ehr became a Macromedia vice-president
until 1997 when he left to start another venture.
FreeHand 5.0 sold for $595 in 1995. This version featured a
more customizable and expanded workspace, multiple views, stronger design and
editing tools, a report generator, spell check, paragraph styles, multicolor
gradient fills up to 64 colors, speed improvements, and it accepted Illustrator
plugins. In September 1995, a 5.5 upgrade added Photoshop plug-in support, PDF
Import capabilities, the Extract feature, inline graphics to text, improved
auto-expanding text containers, the Crop feature, and the Create PICT Image
feature.
A FreeHand 5.5 upgrade was part of the FreeHand Graphics
Studio (a suite that included Fontographer, xRes (image editing application),
and Extreme 3D (3D animation and modeling application).
FreeHand 6.0 in 1996. This version only existed in beta.
Some Freehand 7 prerelease versions were released under the Freehand 6 tag.
FreeHand 7.0 sold for $399 in 1996, or $449 as part of the
FreeHand Graphics Studio (see above.) Features included a redesigned user
interface that allowed recombining Inspectors, Panel Tabs, Dockable Panels,
Smart Cursors, Drag and Drop with Adobe applications and QuarkXPress, Graphic
Search and Replace, Java (programming language) and AppleScript Automation,
Chart creation, and new Effects tools and functions. Shockwave was introduced
to leverage graphics for the Web.
FreeHand 8.0 sold for $399 in 1998. This version began
integrating to the Web with the ability to export graphics directly to
Macromedia Flash. Customizable toolbars and keyboard shortcuts were prominent
features. Also Lens Fill and Transparency, Freeform tool, Graphic Hose, Emboss
Effects, and a “Collect for Output” function for print.
FreeHand 9.0 sold for $399 in 2000 or $449 as part of the
Flash 4 FreeHand Studio bundle. This was a major repositioning for FreeHand
emphasizing the Web and especially Flash output. Creating simple Flash animation
from layers was featured. The Perspective Grid, Magic Wand Tracing tool, Lasso
tool, and a Page tool that treated pages like objects (resize, clone, rotate,
etc.)
FreeHand 10.0 sold for $399 in 2000 or $799 as part of the
Studio MX bundle. Macromedia released this as Carbonized for both Mac OS 9 and
Mac OS X. It shared a common Macromedia GUI Interface and several tools were
added or renamed to match Flash tools. New features include Brushes, Master
Pages, Print Area, and a Navigation Panel for adding links, names, and adding
actions or notes to objects. Also “Smart cursor” Pen and Bezigon Tools and a
Contour Gradient Fill.
A minor version of FreeHand 10 (10.0.1) came as a result of
Adobe winning a lawsuit against Macromedia for infringement on a Tabbed Panels
patent. A reworking of the user interface produced this temporary fix for the
panel issue. 10.0.1 was available with the Studio MX bundle or as a new
purchase but not available as a patch to existing users.
FreeHand MX sold for $399 in 2003 or $1580 as part of the
Studio MX 2004 bundle. FreeHand 11 was marketed as FreeHand MX and featured
tighter interface integration with the Macromedia MX line of products. This
release also featured a revamped Object Panel where all attributes and text
properties are centralized for editing, Multiple Attributes for unlimited
effects, Live Effects, Live-edit of basic shapes, Connector Lines tool, Flash
and Fireworks integration, Extrude, Erase, and Chart tools, along with
improvements to the standard tools.
During the development of FreeHand MX, the customer install
base was 400,000 users worldwide[16] but because of competition with Adobe
Illustrator’s market share, Macromedia focused instead on its web oriented
lineup of Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Contribute.[17] In 2003,
Macromedia reduced the FreeHand development team to a few core members to
produce the 11.0.2 update released in February 2004.[18][19] The company
released a final product suite prior to the 2005 merger with Adobe, called
Studio 8, which was characterized by the absence of FreeHand from the suite’s
interactive online applications of Dreamweaver, Flash, Fireworks, Contribute,
and FlashPaper.
Adobe Freehand
On April 18, 2005, Adobe Systems announced an agreement to
acquire Macromedia in a stock swap valued at about $3.4 billion. The Department
of Justice regulated the transaction that came 10 years after the Federal Trade
Commission’s 1994 ruling which barred Adobe from acquiring FreeHand. The
acquisition took place on December 3, 2005, and Adobe integrated the companies'
operations, networks, and customer-care organizations shortly thereafter. Adobe
acquired FreeHand along with the entire Macromedia product line that included
Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks but not including Fontographer, which FontLab
Ltd. licensed with an option to buy all rights to.[23] Adobe's acquisition of
Macromedia cast doubt on the future of FreeHand, primarily because of Adobe's
competing product, Illustrator.[24] Adobe announced in May 2006 that it planned
to continue to support FreeHand and develop it "based on [their]
customers' needs".[25] One year later on May 15, 2007, Adobe said that it
would discontinue development and updates to the program and the company would
provide tools and support to ease the transition to Illustrator. In a 2008
interview with Senior Product Manager of Illustrator, Terry Hemphill, he told
FreeHand users: “FreeHand is not going to be revived; time to move on, really.
The Illustrator team is making a determined effort to bring the best of
FreeHand into Illustrator, which should be evident from some of the new
features in CS4.”
Future
In 2006, the FreeHand community protested Adobe’s
announcement of discontinuing development with the “FreeHand Support Page”[30]
petition. It was followed in 2007 by the “FreeHand Must Not Die”[31] petition.
In 2008, the Adobe FreeHand Forum listed, “Adobe latest FreeHand MX upgrade,
Would you pay?” which continues to receive signatures in 2012. In February
2009, Creative Review magazine published “Freehand Anonymous” about the present
use of FreeHand in the UK. In September 2009, the Free FreeHand Organization (a
user community with the goal of securing a future for FreeHand MX) was founded
and by 2011, its membership had surpassed 6000 members worldwide. In May 2011,
the Free FreeHand Organization filed a civil antitrust complaint against Adobe
Systems, Inc. alleging that "Adobe has violated federal and state
antitrust laws by abusing its dominant position in the professional vector
graphic illustration software market." In spite of the aforementioned
petitions with the advent of Flash Player 11 in October 2011 Adobe
intentionally ditched the support for SWF contents created in FreeHand
supposedly aiming to urge the transition to its Illustrator software.
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