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Adobe FreeHand

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Also known as Macromedia Freehand

Two-dimensional vector graphics editing application

Key facts

Other names
Masterpiece (working title) Virtuoso (NeXTSTEP)
Original author
Altsys Corporation
Developers
Adobe Systems , formerly Macromedia
Initial release
1988 ; 38 years ago ( 1988 )
Final release
MX (11.0.2) / 2003 ; 23 years ago ( 2003 )
Operating system
Mac OS X , Windows
Type
vector graphics editor
Website
www .adobe .com /mena_en /products /freehand /

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Developer
Aldus
Show 2 more facts
discontinuation date
2003-00-00
Commons category
FreeHand
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~16 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Macromedia FreeHand (formerly Aldus FreeHand) is a discontinued computer application for creating two-dimensional vector graphics oriented primarily to professional illustration, desktop publishing and content creation for the Web. FreeHand was similar in scope, intended market, and functionality to Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW and Xara Designer Pro. Because of FreeHand's dedicated page layout and text control features, it also compares to Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress. Professions using FreeHand include graphic design, illustration, cartography, fashion and textile design, product design, architects, scientific research, and multimedia production.

FreeHand was created by Altsys Corporation in 1988 and licensed to Aldus Corporation, which released versions 1 through 4. 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. Altsys was later bought by Macromedia, which released FreeHand versions 5 through 11 (FreeHand MX). In 2005, Adobe Systems acquired Macromedia and its product line which included FreeHand MX, under whose ownership it presently resides.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Adobe FreeHand” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.