Gedeon says

You hit the nail on the head Brian. Illustrator's clipping masks pale in comparison to the ease of use of Paste Inside (IMHO). There is no doubt that overall, Illustrator is a better tool for the job, but there are parts of Freehand that will be sorely missed. All things change I guess. Getting weepy, gotta...go... :-)

Josh Williams says

Brian -- Just because you're the sage around here doesn't mean I wasn't using Freehand when it had 3.1 stuck behind (and Aldus in front of it). In fact, I lived nary a stone's throw from Aldus HQ when I was growing up. I survived Freehand 4, and thoroughly enjoyed the glory days of Freehands 5 through 8.

And yes. Please Adobe... Paste Inside. Paste Inside. Paste Inside. The revolution will be televised, and it will include Paste Inside.

Hugh says

It looks like the rumors aren't quite true.

I vote for moving some of the path tool features. My favorite was being able to move a point around (using the apple key) while the mouse is still held down. If you clicked an anchor point you could fine tune its position before releasing the mouse button.

Brian says

Version 2, baby! Which means that I retain the coveted title of Old Man! You didn't dig v.4? I do remember it being a big change from 3, and I seem to recall all the palettes going from white to gray, but don't remember much else. Lotta water's been under that bridge.

You're right, Hugh. A little of FreeHand's path magic would be welcome. I loved all the things one could do by using the Option key. I fear, however, that some of FreeHand's way of handling paths (completed paths, at least) flies in the face of Illustrator's - and other Adobe apps' - Select and Direct Select tools.

Oh, golly. All this reminiscing is making me feel a little weepy, too. *sniffle*

Josh Williams says

Okay, so Version 2 has me beat. You win. *cough* Relic. Version 4 was real buggy I recall, and many of the "cool" features that were a big jump over 3, really didn't work until 5.

Brian says

Hot off the press! Adobe: GoLive and FreeHand development will continue ... FreeHand die-hards have spoken, but I fear the response to them may be doublespeak.

Roberlan says

Too bad, i´m very sad for this news. I like too much working on Freehand than in illustrator, imho is much easier and fast. Anyway, cest la vie. Here in Brazil people use more Corel Draw (which i hate). :(

Todd Dominey says

I take Adobe's response to this with a grain of salt. They're in business, and the last thing they'd want to do is kill of any potential sale of GoLive and Freehand. Is the writing on the wall though? Absolutely.

vuong says

Bloody hell! I am still pissed that they bought Macromedia in the first place. I take that once you hit big with killer apps like PS and Acrobat, you would walk the way of Microsoft.

GoLive is a joke when I first tried it at version 4. They should ax that and start working hard on Dreamweaver. Without any compeitiotn on the web dev. front, I fear that Dreamweaver 8 will be around for the next decade.

Von Glitschka says

Abode came out the next day and contradicted the rumors. Not sure how much of that is their spin doctors at work but they have said they are still going to develop FreeHand.

I've been using CS2 as well as FreeHand 11 since last summer and I can say with confidence that FreeHands core basic drawing tools and build functionality is still way more intuitive and simple (Faster) then CS2. That said CS2 has features FreeHand cannot touch which make creating certain types of art extremely less difficult then FreeHand does.

I'd like Adobe to be honest and admit CS2 short comings and take the best or what is done better in FreeHand and integrate it into CS2, but I am not holding my breath.

I do feel Adobe should produce an exhaustive tutorial that takes a life long FreeHand user and migrates them over to CS2 and does it without assuming they've used prior versions of Illustrator. Macromedia ghosted it's user base three years ago so now that Adobe owns them they should step up and support our transition.

Brian says

The page I linked mentions a PDF Adobe has provided to aid in migrating from FreeHand to Illustrator. But I can't vouch for its value because I haven't dared look through it, fearing that it would re-awaken all those FreeHand key commands that I've worked so hard to forget!

Mike H says

I dont know but I wasnt much impressed about Freehand GUI. wasnt that intuitive and takes me a long time to just do simple stuff.

there might be some hidden good features that could be brought over to Illustrator.. I hope I could easily find them this time.

Josh Williams says

Actually, I think it really depends on what you were familiar with first. I always thought that AI's interface was crap. The fact is that both apps approach a similar problem from two VERY DIFFERENT perspectives. If you're familiar with one perspective, the other will be very foreign.

Now that I usa AI every day, I'm fine with it... but it definitely required a change in my mental mindset. But I always thought the AI vs Freehand argument was a moot one. You simply used what you were comfortable with (and most likely what you learned first).

Sarah says

I noticed on the bottom of blinksale.com a small thumbnail graphic.

It looks like the following image:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexmuse/120849818/

that Alexander Muse took:

http://texasvc.weblogswork.com/?p=624

Is the photo attributed to him anywhere?

Josh Williams says

Sarah, that photo is a promotional stock photo of Southlake Town Square, and can be found on their website. Alex did not shoot the photo himself.

Warren says

Have some recent posts went missing from he blinksale blog or am i going mad?

Josh Williams says

Warren. Good catch. When Subversion and MT collide. Yikes.

Warren says

No Probs Josh,

whats MT?

Travis says

Josh

I have always wondered this so I'll finally ask:

Q: Why did firwheeldesign choose to incorporate Blinksale instead of forming an LLC. Simply the tax advantage (not being double-taxed) of an LLC seems like reason enough to choose it over an Inc.

Travis

Warren says

You Blinksale Blog has lost its posts again!

Josh Williams says

Travis -- S Corporations provide the same structural advantages of a traditional C corporation, but are still not double taxed (like a LLC). There are some limitations of a S Corp, but I've dealt with quite a few so I'm comfortable with them at this point. As always, consult your legal and financial professionals though. ; )

Rosalba says

I have always been much more comfortable with freehand! it is so simple, practical and fast. I have tried to work with Illustrator but I don't like the fact that you can't add pages to your document (or can you do that?).

I hope Freehand doesn't go away!

Brian says

You're correct, Rosalba. There's no adding of pages within an Illustrator doc. I've wondered about that and figured that FreeHand was serving double duty as a page layout app while Illustrator passed that task off to other members of the Adobe family, PageMaker and InDesign.

I used to work at a newspaper where for years the app for creating all in-house adverts was FreeHand. When the powers that be brought in a group peddling an ad tracking software system, a system that didn't mesh with FreeHand, FreeHand was thrown out and replaced by InDesign. Aye chihuahua what a mess that was! But I digress.

My advice is that you familiarize yourself with Illustrator, despite the pain it may cause. I truly don't believe that Adobe will continue to develop and market two different illustration apps. The best anyone can hope for is a future edition of Illustrator featuring a few of FreeHand's greatest aspects.

Kevin says

I don't see how Adobe will want two competing apps. I'm sure they will phase out Freehand in time. I just wish Adobe would introduce a B-Spline tool into illustrator. I liked Creature House Expressions for illustration because of the B-Spline and brush tools. Unfortunately it was bought by Microsoft.

Agnes says

Soft fire makes sweet malt... Agnes

Agnes says

Soft fire makes sweet malt... Agnes

Agnes says

Soft fire makes sweet malt... Agnes

Warham says

He who makes no mistakes, makes nothing... Warham

Samuel says

The wind cannot be caught in a net... Samuel

Gwenhoivar says

Money often unmakes the men who make it... Gwenhoivar

Melchior says

What can't be cured, must be endured... Melchior

Melchior says

What can't be cured, must be endured... Melchior

Gwenhoivar says

The best is oftentimes the enemy of the good... Gwenhoivar

Arnold says

A miss is as good as a mile... Arnold