Adobe buries FreeHand MX
Adobe has decided to pull the plug on FreeHand MX, their vectorial application aimed at designers. You’ll still be able to download and use the program but version 11.0.2 will be the last release. As John Nack, developer at Adobe, reveals on his blog, the company will “continue to sell FreeHand MX, and will offer technical and customer support” yet strongly encourage users to make the leap to Adobe Illustrator CS3 by offering an update for $199.
The decision comes as no surprise considering that FreeHand MX hadn’t been updated for four years. Adobe is pushing users to use their new Creative Suite 3, which has seen a reshuffle in applications. It appears that there wasn’t much room for FreeHand MX anymore, with Illustrator CS3 covering most of the creative design and page production needs of users. Adobe has already set up a number of guides to help users easily migrate from FreeHand MX to Illustrator. Rest in peace, FreeHand.
Posted at 6:35 pm on Apr 19th
How can one software who claims capable to replace another can’t do so many things that the suppose replace one can.
How are we able to migrate when there are so many short comings?
The major ones are:
1. Multipage support
2. Unembed link image
3. Alignment to selection
4. View overprint objects
5. Find and replace colours, fonts and more
6. Paste inside, cut content: The hidden image or graphic stay passive, active only when direct selection tool is use.
A smart company with smart shareholders will never bury a wonderful piece of software with millions of user still using the same version after 5 years without upgrading. The reason is very obvious. We are still waiting for the upgrade. Adobe will only harm its reputation by bury Freehand.
I will be the first to pay adobe if there is an upgrade for Freehand.
If someone out there start a petition on this, I am sure million Freehand user will come in and will upgrade.
The money is hugh.
By doing this, you will not lose a single illustrator user as well.
Please send my comments to Adobe.
Get someone to start a petition on
Would you purcahse a FreeHand MX upgrade with Adobe?
Posted at 8:56 am on Apr 22nd
Hi Jack Png,
You’re right it’s a shame Adobe let go of such an excellent application. I guess they wanted to focus more on Illustrator and saw it as a better option for the future. Let’s hope this means they’ll cover the missing functionalities you list out in the next versions of Illustrator CS3.