I draw for a living. Here are a few reasons why I prefer to draw in FreeHand
rather than in Illustrator CS3.
OBJECT HANDLING
1. Selection of objects behind others very simple with control-click through
stack
2. One pointer tool, function controlled by key modifiers
3. Paste Inside - masking that hides objects outside mask for purposes of
selection, dimension display and snaps
4. Raster images display current scale percentage from original size.
5. Easy handling of linked images, including 'extract image' function
6. Import multiple images by shift-clicking in Finder window. Place in
succession by clicking in FH document.
7. Find & Replace Graphics path shape
8. Find & Replace Graphics within selected objects only, 'add to selection'
function
9. Find & Replace stroke width within range of stroke widths
10. Delete point selected with pointer tool deletes only point, not adjacent
path segments (no need to switch to a special pen tool to delete point)
DRAWING TOOLS
11. One pen tool, function controlled by keyboard modifiers
12. Live shape primitives - polygons, stars, rectangles with interactive
rounded corners
13. Interactive rounded corners on rectangles which can be set independently
14. Interactive ellipses create segments, wedges, arcs, sectioned circles.
15. Join selected path segments with Join command or toolbar icon (AICS3
requires script or concatonate plug-in)
16. Split paths into segments at multiple subselected points
17. Convert point to 'automatic' with balanced handles
18. Connector points
19. Retract point handles function with icons in contextual object inspector
20. Convert multiple subselected points to curve point, or corner point, or
retract bezier handles, or set 'automatic' handles which smooth curves
21. "Bend-o-matic" -- bend straight path segment by dragging with
pointer
22. All path and point controls are available on Envelopes
23. Knife tool cleanly cuts multiple open paths with one operation
24. Crop tool deletes whole objects outside crop area
25. Eraser tool cuts open paths cleanly, and at same location as filled
paths. It cuts accurately at all zoom levels.
26. Mirror tool creates quick and accurate rotational transformations from
clicked center
27. Spiral tool can be set to evenly spaced expansions
28. Perspective Grid creates accurate perspective distortions from user
defined vanishing points.
29. 3-D Rotate tool - creates quick and accurate perspective distortion
30. Transform Effect has movable, visible, center of transformation
31. Evenly spaced waves along length of path in Zig-Zag Effect
32. Contour Gradients, gradient handle controls
33. Expand Path Effect can be set to inside or outside of path (according to
path direction.
34. Path direction control easily reverses direction of attached brushes,
attached text, even-odd fill, arrowheads on open and closed paths
35. Keyboard shortcuts for increase/decrease stroke width.
VIEW
36. Custom ruler scales for scale drawings. Object inspector returns
dimension of objects in selected scale.
37. Consolidated contextual Object Inspector panel displays editing controls
available for selected item. No need to hunt through multiple panels.
38. Subselect and Superselect keyboard shortcuts make selection within
complex nested groups easy.
39. Zoom view to 512,000 X aids accurate editing of fine details
40. Multiple pages of various sizes
41. Page tool makes resizing, rearranging and duplicating multiple pages
quick and simple.
42. Fully customizable toolbars hold icons and input fields of a user's
most-used tools and operations
PREFERENCES
43. Adjustable snap and pick distances
44. Short and long nudge with arrow key can be set numerically, (long nudge
not limited to 10 times short nudge)
45. New object defaults are separated by text or vector objects (one does
not apply to the other)
46. Preference to move selected objects to layer by clicking on layer name
TEXT
47. Type on a single closed path such as a circle, reading upright top and
bottom
48. Auto-expanding text blocks that can be toggled to non-expanding blocks
and vice versa. Text blocks can auto-expand either horizontally, vertically
or both.
49. Text Editor window allows easy editing of text that is hard to read,
such rotated text, small text or text on a path.
50. Inline graphics
51. Keyboard shortcuts for horizontal scaling of text.
PRINT CONTROL
52. Object level halftones
STYLES
53. Graphic styles can be set to apply to stroke only or fill only (very
useful for my work)
I'm sure I'll find more reasons to love FreeHand as I spend more time trying
to draw in AICS3.
Judy Arndt
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Hi Judy
Couldn't agree more! I too continue to do all my drawing in FreeHand whilst
trying to come to terms with Illustrator's tools and interface. I've recently
upgraded to a new MacPro & Leopard and FreeHand still rocks! Unfortunately
printing from FH under Leopard is crippled, but not insurmountably. You can no
longer print directly from FH without losing all fonts (you can of course
convert to paths but this is not an acceptable solution for me) and you can no
longer print to the Adobe Pdf printer driver (again, this seems to be a font/s
issue) BUT you CAN still print to postscript and distill for Pdf or Eps output.
Or if the art is not overly complex, just open in AICS3 and print from there.
I too would like to thank you for all your advice and extraordinary generosity
of spirit here over the years.
Cheers
Les
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