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"Freehand" redirects here. For the Australian production company, see Freehand Group.

Macromedia FreeHand
FreeHand MX on Windows XP.
Developer	Adobe Systems
Latest release	MX (11.0.2)
OS	Mac OS X, Windows
Genre	vector graphics editor
Website	Macromedia FreeHand

Macromedia FreeHand is a computer application for creating two-dimensional vector graphics (use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and polygons to represent images, also known as geometric modeling), oriented to the professional desktop publishing market. It is available in versions for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

FreeHand is very similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to Adobe Illustrator. It was created by Altsys and licensed to Aldus, which released versions 1 to 4. When Aldus merged with Adobe Systems, because of the overlapping of market with Illustrator, Adobe returned FreeHand to Altsys soon after the merger (after some legal wrangling, and intervention by the Federal Trade Commission). Altsys was later bought by Macromedia, which released FreeHand 5.0, 5.5 (Mac only), 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11/MX. In 2005 Adobe acquired Macromedia, thus returning the FreeHand product to Adobe.

A flexible application, it is used for page layout (especially since version 4 which was based on Altsys Virtuoso for NeXTstep and had multi-page capabilities) as well as the creation and editing of vector graphic files for print and the Web.

Its current version, FreeHand 11, is marketed as FreeHand MX, which shows its integration with the Macromedia MX line of products, which also includes Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Macromedia Fireworks and more.

Macromedia FreeHand MX on Windows Vista

Macromedia did not significantly update FreeHand for Studio MX 2004 and did not include it at all in Studio 8. Many believe this is because Fireworks is intended for web development while FreeHand was not intended for the Web. Others believe that because most of FreeHand's vector imaging features were integrated into Macromedia Fireworks, there was no need for both programs (however, Macromedia's continued promotion of FreeHand after Studio 8 was released would seem to suggest otherwise). Fireworks' inability to make vector-oriented .eps or .pdf files suitable for print should confirm this.

Adobe's acquisition of Macromedia also cast doubt on the future of FreeHand, primarily because of Adobe's competing Illustrator product. Despite rumors, however, Adobe announced in May 2006 that it plans to continue to support FreeHand and develop it "based on our customers' needs".^[1]

On May 15, 2007, Adobe officially announced that it would discontinue development and support of Freehand.^[2]

The newest Adobe Creative Suite 3 collection allows upgrade of FreeHand to Adobe Illustrator CS3.

While some users of the program were voicing their concerns, hoping to see Adobe continue to support and develop the package,^[3] the company decided to provide tools and support to ease the transition to Illustrator instead.

Even through Adobe has stated that Macromedia FreeHand does not support Windows Vista, FreeHand can run under Vista.

• List of vector graphics editors
• Comparison of vector graphics editors

1. ^ macworld.co.uk Adobe: GoLive and FreeHand development continues
2. ^ blogs.adobe.com/jnack FreeHand no longer updated; moving to Illustrator
3. ^ enrichdesign.com

• Official Macromedia FreeHand page
• Third-party support page
• The Vintage Mac Museum: 1-bit Screenshot of FreeHand