Macromedia FreeHand 9 Fence-Jumping Features Paul Jones
FreeHand 8 was really good. However, I did not find it as easy to use as Adobe Illustrator 8. To tell the truth, I never gave FreeHand a fair test. I already had Illustrator, I was already used to it, and I didn't see any features in FreeHand that made a change seem urgent. And, being a long-time Adobe user, I was necessarily biased in favor of Adobe Illustrator's tools, pallettes, and layout.
With the release of FreeHand 9, that has changed. I noticed several features in this version that were only available in Illustrator as expensive third-party plugins. That was more than enough to make me give the program a serious spin. And so far I like what I see.
FreeHand's new features are many, and most of them are significant time savers, not just minor tweaks. New features include the Perspective Grid, the Envelope tool, and the ability to publish any FreeHand file as an HTML page. Let's take a look at the whole list (and it ain't shabby):
Revolutionary perspective grid illustration
Live enveloping
Magic Wand tracing
Custom scaling and units
Precise drawing with the Freehand tool
Interactive transform handle additions
New blending effects and improvements
Intuitive new multipage management tools
Vector lasso tool
Faster, more accurate, and integrated Autotrace
Unsurpassed color management, including ColorSync support
Easy layer management
Customizable page sizes
Step and Repeat
Manage linked files
Produce and edit multipage Acrobat PDF documents with notes and URLs
Integrate with Photoshop
Export optimized GIF, JPEG, PNG, and other Web formats
