Carried over from version 1.0, FreeHand 3 suffered by having text entered into a dialog box instead of directly to the page. Text could be converted to paths, applied to an ellipse, or made vertical. Also tighter precision of both the existing tools and aligning of objects. New features included resizable color, style, and layer panels including an Attributes menu. It added accurate control over a color monitor screen display, limited only by its resolution.įreeHand 3.0 sold for $595 in 1991. 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. FreeHand performed in preview mode instead of keyline mode but performance was slower.įreeHand 2.0 sold for $495 in 1989. It was also possible to create and insert PostScript routines anywhere within the program. 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. Windows PC development also allowed Illustrator 2 (aka, Illustrator 88 on the Mac) and FreeHand 3 to release Windows versions to the graphics market.įreeHand 1.0 sold for $495 in 1988. 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. The partnership between the two companies continued with Altsys developing FreeHand and with Aldus controlling marketing and sales. FreeHand's product name used intercaps the F and H were capitalized. 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." Seattle's Aldus Corporation acquired a licensing agreement with Altsys Corporation to release FreeHand along with their flagship product, Pagemaker, and Aldus FreeHand 1.0 was released in 1988. With the PostScript background having been established by 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. Their premier PostScript font-design package, Fontographer, was released in 1986 and was the first such program on the market. Based in Plano, Texas, the company initially produced font editing and conversion software Fontastic Plus, Metamorphosis, and the Art Importer. Von Ehr founded Altsys Corporation to develop graphics applications for personal computers. Someone using a later version of Mac OS X than 10.6 might be able to use VMware Fusion, VirtualBox or Parallels to virtualize Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server and run Freehand using this emulator. Freehand 10 runs without problems on Mac OS X 10.6 with Rosetta enabled, and does not require a registration patch. Since 2003, FreeHand development has been discontinued in the Adobe Systems catalog, FreeHand has been replaced by Adobe Illustrator.įreeHand 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. In 2005, Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia and its product line which included FreeHand MX, under whose ownership it presently resides. Altsys was later bought by Macromedia, which released FreeHand versions 5 through 11 (FreeHand MX). 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. For me, it’s always fun to see what tech was like back then, considering that I don’t remember it.FreeHand was created by Altsys Corporation in 1988 and licensed to Aldus Corporation, which released versions 1 through 4. And the speed… Oh dear!Īnother thing that amuses me is the fact that 1988 is also the year when I was born. For example, it’s funny to see how the whole Mac interface changes when you change Hue, even the little apple in the upper left corner. Of course, it was also fun to see how the 31-year-old version of Photoshop performed. I found this video amusing, above all, because of Ken’s humor. So, I need to warn you that you can expect some strong language in the video. And we all know how frustrating it is when the editing program has hiccups. As you can imagine, Photoshop from 1988 isn’t the fastest program in the world.
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