The User Group Network _/_
UG Library _/_
Reviews
FreeHand 8
by Jim Alley
It has been said that Illustrator and FreeHand have been playing leapfrog for years.
There is certainly an element of truth in this statement; the competition between
these two PostScript illustration programs has been good for the marketplace. And
yet, despite the fact that Illustrator holds a commanding lead in sales, for the
past few versions, most observers have picked FreeHand as the top program. Consider
the following quotations:
It is also worth noting that FreeHand has consistently brought out important new
features first, leaving Illustrator to play catch up. (Sidebar "FreeHand Firsts" will open in a second window )
With the release of FreeHand 8, Macromedia has increased the gap between the programs,
whether you judge in terms of features, speed, or ease of use. In fact, as Sandee
Cohen noted in the February 1998 Mac Monitor, FreeHand 8 does what Adobe has been
saying is impossible: true, editable, printable PostScript transparent fills.
Through a lens, brightly
The new Lens fill feature is the most exciting new feature in FreeHand 8. Here’s
how it works; Place a closed shape over other parts of an illustration. From the
Fill palette, choose the Lens fill, then select Transparency from the pop-up menu,
and finally dial in the amount of transparency you want.
__ The Lens fill isn’t limited to transparency effects. It can also magnify
an area, darken or lighten an area, give a monochrome (grayscale) effect, or invert
the tones in an area. Furthermore, a lens effect can be frozen with the snapshot
effect, so that the area can be moved away from the area it originally covered --
very handy for exploded details in illustrations. And the lens effects work on raster
objects, too, which means that it’s now easy to, for instance, place transparent
text over photos. The dynamic nature of the lens fills means that you can come back
later and change the level of magnification or the degree of transparency with the
click of a mouse.
Time is money (RAM is, too)
Speed and memory usage have improved -- especially in some functions. New Fast Preview
mode speeds the redraw considerably by slightly simplifying such things as gradient
fills. Common operations like scroll, zoom, and scale are now faster, and the new
version has lowered the RAM requirements for rasterizing bitmapped versions of FreeHand
graphics. The speed of displaying imported bitmapped graphics has improved, too;
and FreeHand 8 can now import native Photoshop files. (See
the sidebar, "Speed Tests") It can also import and export via drag-and-drop
or cut-and-paste.
__ Interactive transformation handles represent a new
level of ease of use when it comes time to rotate or resize a shape or a group of
shapes. (See Figure 2.) The Mirror Tool creates symmetrical patterns such as flower
petals or gear teeth. (See Figure 3.) A new Freeform tool lets you reshape paths
by pushing and pulling areas — without the need to manipulate individual Bézier
points.
__ Previews for text and graphic styles are now available,
and styles can be imported and exported.
__ The Collect for Output feature gathers all of the
necessary files for a trip to the service bureau. This includes all of the fonts
used in the document.
__ Other new features include the Hide Selection command;
a Graphic Hose, which can spray graphics across the page; and new emboss and Shadow
Xtras. The new Divide Path operation is a handy addition -- it’s sort of the reverse
of the Intersect command. Named views can save a lot of time when working on a complex
design.
__ For web designers, FreeHand
can create Flash animations; and the Insta.HTML Xtra (available as part of the Design
in Motion combination) can create web pages directly from FreeHand documents.
Have it your way
FreeHand 8 now features customizable toolbars and keyboard shortcuts. Want to be
able to kern text in FreeHand by using the same keyboard shortcut you use in QuarkXPress?
No problem. You can simply choose the XPress shortcut set from a list of many popular
programs. You can also set individual shortcuts manually. Want to add a button for
a favorite command to a toolbar? Again, FreeHand makes it easy. And toolbars can
now be either floating palettes or docked to the edge of your monitor.
Oldies but goodies
__ There are also lots of features carried over from
previous versions of FreeHand that warrant interest. For instance, FreeHand’s Paste
Inside command is still superior to Illustrator’s Mask command, which creates an
awkward clutter while in the Keyline mode. (See Figure 5.) And FreeHand’s single
selection tool is easier to learn and faster to use that Illustrator’s for manipulating
paths. Adding and deleting points is faster with FreeHand, too.
__ Another big plus is that FreeHand can produce multipage
documents. In addition to the obvious benefits -- such as the ability to produce
brochures -- this also means that FreeHand can produce, save, and open multipage
Acrobat files. Illustrator can’t.
__ When it comes to the Autotrace function, there’s
really no comparison; Illustrator has nothing that comes even close to the power
and flexibility of FreeHand’s tool. In fact, Illustrator users have to purchase another
Adobe product, Streamline, to match FreeHand’s abilities. (See our review of Adobe
Streamline in the December 1997 issue of Mac Monitor.)
__ Then there’s Find and Replace Graphics. If you’ve
ever needed to replace a certain Pantone color with another one in a document, you
already appreciate this feature. Have you ever printed a file and felt that the lines
were the wrong weight? Find and Replace Graphics can make all of the lines within
a specified range thicker or thinner.
Conclusions
FreeHand 8 still suffers from a glut of palettes, and sometimes it’s hard to know
where to look for a particular tool, but overall this is a solid upgrade, offering
new commands and added speed without sacrificing ease of use. Current users of FreeHand
will certainly want to upgrade. For those just starting out, FreeHand is the logical
choice for both power and ease of learning. And finally, considering the widespread
statements of dissatisfaction generated by the recent upgrade to Illustrator 7, it
wouldn’t be surprising to see defections from the Adobe camp.
FreeHand 8 from Macromedia
Street price: $399 ($499 for Design in Motion suite)
Upgrade price: $145 ($299 for Design in Motion suite)
Competitive upgrade: $199
The Design in Motion Suite includes FreeHand 8, Flash 2, and Insta,HTML 2.
by Jim Alley
Jim Alley is editor of Mac Monitor, a columnist for Print magazine, and a professor
at the Savannah College of Art and Design. He has been working with Macs since 1984.
His online address is alleyjim@earthlink.net.
USER GROUP EDITORS: Articles posted in this area have been cleared for publication in your newsletters. We do encourage you to contact the author for additional details and/or updates. Please ALWAYS credit the original author!
Articles posted here by UGNetwork News staff, or the UGN News Service may be reproduced ONLY after your group has become a registered Network affiliate. Contact the UGNet-News for authorization and the UGNet News Affiliate publicity package. Thank you. Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, The User Group Network, and on behalf of the respective authors.
All of this content, and the associated services are donated through the generous efforts of members from the User Group community. This content area is provided by The User Group Network News Service, and is sponsored by The Design & Publishing Center as a public service.