It's Official: Adobe to Discontinue FreeHand
Adobe will continue to sell and support FreeHand MX, while encouraging users to move to Illustrator. With almost four years since an upgrade, FreeHand has been looking more and more like a product on life support. And now the plug has been pulled.The FreeHand illustration application can trace its origins back a long way, through the hands of Altsys, Aldus, Macromedia and finally Adobe. It's a capable program that has attracted many devoted users over the years. However, much as with the now-dead GoLive, FreeHand's days were numbered when Adobe inherited it as part of the Macromedia acquisition—it never had a chance at co-existing with, let alone beating out, its fellow vector illustration application Illustrator.
Adobe's John Nack has posted some details about the winding down of FreeHand on his blog, in advance of updated product pages on the Adobe site. Adobe has clearly seen this coming and has made the move easier in part by adding functionality to Illustrator CS3 that will make FreeHand users more comfortable. The new version also imports FreeHand files more effectively, critical for those who have a large investment in FreeHand artwork. There are also a number of migration tutorials on the Adobe site, although hopefully more of these will be made available. Finally, Adobe is providing FreeHand users with a special Illustrator upgrade price of $199, although there's no direct upgrade straight to the Creative Suite.
More details are currently available in an Adobe FAQ, in PDF format.
Article originally published on http://www.graphics.com and reproduced without permission.
Published: 17/05/2007 | 280 View(s)
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