Freehand glitches & Illustrator incompatibility

Illustrator/Freehand compatibility - trying to work with both
programs so I can keep flexible in case Freehand dies out - but
getting some difficulty when trying to import 'live' vector
graphics saved as .PDF and .AI documents into Freehand - just
getting blanks imported.
Also Freehand seems to be crashing lots and lots - are there
limits to the size of a single Freehand document one can work
on....maybe a lot of A3 pages with big raster graphics and lots of
complex vector clipping paths is just giving it too much to move?
Thanks to:
davecc for the link to the site for upping Freehand memory
allocation - fab!

verticalis wrote:
> Sadly Freehand is still crashing - also all my menu
dropdowns were full of
> little AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA symbols/characters in boxes
rather than the proper
> contents.
If you have purged your font caches, then perhaps you still
have a corrupt
font lurking somewhere.
I few other general troubleshooting exercises:
1. Use Disk Utility to repair disk permissions.
2. Delete your FH Preferences file. You will find the
Preferences file in
this location on a Mac: Users/(Username)/Library/Application
Support/
Macromedia/ FreeHand MX/ 11/ English/ Settings
> Any more ideas, now I've got a document that will only
open up, but will crash
> even if I just try to re-save it with another file name
and won;t allow me to
> do any work on it?
If this is happening in only one file, and you've ruled out
font problems,
then copy the contents of the document into a new document.
If that doesn't clear up the problem, you may have a corrupt
graphic element
in the file. You'll have to decide whether a tedious process
of deleting
objects and testing the file is worth the time and trouble.
Judy Arndt

Similar Messages

Text along path from freehand to illustrator problem

Does anyone know a workaround for text along path conversion from freehand to illustrator?
The problem is text along path in freehand which is slightly moved along path.
The result after conversion to illustrator is an invissible (exept a red+ where the text should be)text. Sometimes you can't even correct the problemtext so you had to place hundreds/thousends of text (streetmaps) again after conversion.
Exporting the Freehand file as illustrator 7 gives a much better result for the text part. (the art works is in this case seperated into lines and fills)
The message I get opening the illustrator file in CS3 is that legacy text should be updated, clicking the update button and text is looking way better and there is less text to replace.
Opening the Feehand file in CS3 doesn't give me this method... I'd like to...

Sorry but the text doesn't contain empty spaces, it's text missing.
The problem to be solved is conversion from Freehand to illustrator text along path which is justified (moved the slider in freehand to adjust the text placed along a path) is after conversion misplaced along the path and text is missing. In some case the text isn't adjustable because I can't crab a handle etc. The only solution is to place the text again. Any solutions?

Adobe ships FreeHand-to-Illustrator migration guide

Adobe ships FreeHand-to-Illustrator migration guide:
<
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=14504>
Cheers Martin

They have to stop production of the illustratror and add the
most cool
feature of the illustrator in freehand or, they have to
change all the meanu
and shortcuts of freehand & illustrator as same, so that
poeople can easily
swich between them. Because it is very difficult for the
designers to switch
their ideas in new software environment. If they puzzle
around the tols,
then they can't deliver good creativity.
Anand
www.apbdesign.net.in
"Tinius" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:e2tsqf$jc0$[email protected]..
> Count me in!
> Not sure that I have the skills nor the expirience to
contribute at the
> professional level needed here... but I'll try the best
I can!!
>
> Adobe definitly has a hidden agenda somewhere...
>
> btw.. one little ray of sunshine today... talked to my
former employer
today
> and they will stick to FH untill the bitter end. They
will also continue
to
> recommend FH when starting new production facilities
around the world. Not
much
> but now we need every fragment of hope.
>
> Maybe we should start a new thread that brings a clear
message to all
users of
> this forum? A wake-up-act-now! thread?
>
> What about this:
> As well as a fund raiser for the AI to FH migration
guide, as I
suggested
> yesterday - also raise money to advertise on the web?
For the migration
guide,
> for FH, for ... I don't know what... anything that will
help... just to be
> visible out there!
>
>

"Save As" glitch, Illustrator CS4

I've had a couple instances on Snow Leopard where Save As > AI.Illustrator CS4 generates a PDF instead. It's happened more than once though I don't expect I can reproduce the glitch reliably. I'm reminded of earlier versions in which clicking OK on a Transform operation would produce no results. Anybody know why I'm experiencing this glitch???

It may be that the OS is not making the correct associations with the file types. You might have an .ai file but it has a .pdf icon You might try downloading this:
http://nudge.mac.findmysoft.com/
and see if it will work for you. It will install an item in the Contectual Menus that will force the OS to reassociate the files to the correct icon.

Freehand in Illustrator konvertieren?

Hallo allerseits,
in meinem Datenarchiv existieren noch jede Menge alte Freehand-Dokumente, aber ich habe keine Version von FH mehr installiert. Lassen sich alte FH-Dokumente automatisch mit Illustrator CS4 öffnen (zur Zeit arbeite ich noch mit CS2, werde aber bald upgraden)? Oder hat jemand einen guten Tipp, wie ich die alten FH-Dokumente öffnen und bearbeiten kann?
Platform: Mac OSX 10.5.5

You can't change it. But you can report it as a feature/bug
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/mmform/index.cfm?name=wishform

[OT] de Freehand a Illustrator

Para todos aquellos que tarde o temprano tengaís que
pasar a illustrator os
recomiendo este enlace para que os sea más sencillo.
http://www.adobe.com/es/products/illustrator/pdfs/illcs2ip_fhillmigr_sp.pdf
Es una pequeña guía de migración de un
programa a otro, esta en castellano.
Saludos
Lui7

Que yo sepa no, pero si te enteras publicalo, yo la verdad es
que preferiría
una guía de freehand a indesign...
Saludos !!!
Lui7
"YaC" <[email protected]> escribió en el
mensaje
news:elk7o1$13g$[email protected]..
> Guau Luisete! perfecto!
> Por cierto, sabes si hay otro pdf de freehand a
indesign? Lo estoy
> buscando
> pero no lo encuentro.
>
> gracias
>
> YaC
>
>
> "Luisete" <[email protected]> escribió en el
mensaje
> news:eljsmq$ghv$[email protected]..
>> Para todos aquellos que tarde o temprano
tengaís que pasar a illustrator
> os
>> recomiendo este enlace para que os sea más
sencillo.
>>
>>
>
http://www.adobe.com/es/products/illustrator/pdfs/illcs2ip_fhillmigr_sp.pdf
>>
>> Es una pequeña guía de migración de
un programa a otro, esta en
> castellano.
>>
>> Saludos
>> Lui7
>>
>>
>
>

FreeHand and Illustrator aren't the same thing

Freehand: The speedy, multipage, get-things-done when time is
critical software. Intuitive tool for who those who depend on it to
get work done quickly on a daily basis. Practical and intuitive.
Illustrator: The fine art, take your time, gradient meshes,
and all the filters you could ever want software. For that
masterpiece you have all the time in the world to work on.
Beautiful.
Adobe should be making a fortune off of FreeHand as something
different than Illustrator. Adobe hasn't put any of FreeHands gems
into Illustrator. So, what's the plan Adobe? When will we see
Illustrator benefit from Adobe's acquisition of FreeHand? Never?
The door is wide open for the competition to fill the FreeHand
void. I can't wait!

quote:
Originally posted by:
Newsgroup User
Adobe did not acquire Macromedia and FreeHand until October
of last
year. At this point Illustrator CS3 was probably either in
Beta or very
near being in Beta. How are they supposed to glom on FreeHand
features
at that point? The true beginning of the integration will be
in CS4 or
whatever they decide to call it.
Rich
jason_sf wrote:
> Freehand: The speedy, multipage, get-things-done when
time is critical
> software. Intuitive tool for who those who depend on it
to get work done
> quickly on a daily basis. Practical and intuitive.
>
> Illustrator: The fine art, take your time, gradient
meshes, and all the
> filters you could ever want software. For that
masterpiece you have all the
> time in the world to work on. Beautiful.
>
> Adobe should be making a fortune off of FreeHand as
something different than
> Illustrator. Adobe hasn't put any of FreeHands gems into
Illustrator. So,
> what's the plan Adobe? When will we see Illustrator
benefit from Adobe's
> acquisition of FreeHand? Never? The door is wide open
for the competition to
> fill the FreeHand void. I can't wait!
>
>
>
>
>
I hope your right. FreeHand users have waited 4 years for a
new version, whats another year or two?

Getting error message about Java Script/OSX/Illustrator incompatability. CS6 will not open

Suddenly, CS6 version of Adobe Illustrator is not opening,. Getting an error message that it requires a "legacy version of Java Runtime." Talked with Apple Customer Service about this and they learned that Oracle is no longer making that version available. What to do?

Read this to the end:
Adobe Illustrator(CS6) NOT running on OS X Yosemite

Freehand vs Illustrator - the movie

Here are some features I'd like to see in Illustrator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f8CKjsYS9k

Of course. Illustrator is a mountain but why engineers with the turnkey solutions available from the transfer Freeheand. Just make a list of 100 features to vote what is best and take at least 10. Not! Invent the wheel again to just wound the sale of CS1-CS15

Illustrator CS3 - still 5 years behind FreeHand

What have they done! - just got a demo of Illustrator CS3, no
FreeHand tools. How about multiple pages and masterpages - how
about you can have a hole exhibition, folders, letterhead an
bussines cards in one file like with FreeHand - you can copy a page
just by a key command, and re-arange a hole brochure page by page -
how about paste inside (even InDesign got that) - the drawing tools
are still just awfull and you still have to make a colour "global"
just to get a tint - no way to set bleed (besides in print options)
- I could go on and on - I almost hope that Quark will "buy"
FreeHand. They should dump Illustrator and go on with FreeHand -
I've been working with FreeHand and Illustrator since Illustrator
even needed at prrogram just to print, and it seems to me that
Adobe still are in the bussines of just birthday cards (wake up -
we can use Microsoft Office for that - and - perhaps that will do a
better job).

quote:
Originally posted by:
At-Work
Thamks for all replies...
maxman23 - I do think that this is the right forum - sorry.
In my frustration I just can see CS3 as a program to make
things the easy way - just did an ad in FreeHand with round corners
- a 2pt stroke (2 round corners - one at the bottom left and one at
the top right) - a feature in FreeHand - can't do it in Illustrator
- had a background photo - Paste inside - can't do it in
Illustrator - the ad should be in 3 sizes - can't do it in
Illustrator - I also did a rollup banner in the same file - can't
do it in Illustrator - put bleed on all separately - can't do it in
Illustrator - made all ready for print as a PDF (remove white) - I
know that I can do it with the new cropmarks Illustrator CS3, but
then I have to make each ad or poster one at a time - did I mention
that I used the MasterPage option in FreeHand?
Hey, you are perfectly free to disagree with me without
saying you're sorry!
Anyway, you are preaching to the choir here. I understand
your frustration but take a look around... it's just us FH
die-hards in here. Adobe has come clean and indicated that FH is
dead. So neither your passion nor mine for this one app means squat
in the larger scheme of things. That's what I mean about going to
the Illy forum - but *only* if you want to agitate for Adobe to
change Illy in ways that would be meaningful and useful to you as a
veteran FH user. If however you would rather gripe / lament what's
done, that's different... here is where you belong.

Problems with Freehand Illustrator CS4 script for Macs

A couple of us just downloaded the new Freehand to Illustrator CS4 script for Macs that was released on 5/17/10. Sometimes it works okay, but more often than not we get errors like 'ERROR: 1, Access is denied'. If we instead just open the Freehand file, the file comes in fine. What have been other people's experiences using this new script?
Mac OS X 10.5.5

Is the problem there only at the time of conversion or even the FH files are not opening after running the script
Here is what I have done and may be you can follow the exact steps :
1) Create a folder FH on Desktop and paste only the FH files in the folder( My folder does not contain any other file apart from FH files)
2) Create a Folder AI on Desktop and keep it empty
3) File-> Scripts-> FreehandToAI
4) Select the source folder( FH)
5) Now select the destination folder(AI)
It gives the message after conversion "N freehand files are converted to AI".

I've just switched from Freehand and I'm going to have a heart attack ...

In two weeks, my tech department is ripping Freehand MX off of my machine and I'll be finally forced to use Illustrator.
I know it is going to take a bit of time to get used to Illustrator after using Freehand for the past 15 years, but if someone out there can help me with two questions, I'd sure appreciate it because the Adobe help files aren't as helpful as I'd hoped. (Adobe: screen captures are a useful visual guide when I can't find the "t-slider" and have no idea what it might look like ...)
1. How do you adjust the tint of a color? Apparently there's supposed to be a "t-slider" in the color palette. Perhaps mine isn't visible for reasons unfathomable, but if I create a color and I want to use 10 percent of that color as a tint, I don't want to whip out a calculator and drag each of the CMYK sliders accordingly. I want to use the feature Freehand had, where you type in "8" in the tint box and voila, you've got 8 percent. InDesign has this feature, so I know Adobe knows about it. Where is the tint slider in Illustrator? (I don't want to change its transparency, I did find that palette easily enough ...)
2. If I paste in a graphic from Freehand into Illustrator, everything comes over on one layer. That's annoying, but understandable. But I can't select parts of the graphic and assign them to new layers, they remain firmly on the first layer they were pasted on unless I copy each item, delete the original, click on my new target layer and paste it on that way -- and then, it doesn't paste perfectly back into place, it moves randomly around the page and I have to reposition it. ARGH! How can you reassign layers without cutting and pasting? Clicking doesn't work. What am I doing wrong?
Many, many thanks in advance from a *very* frustrated designer. If I thought I could secretly reinstall Freehand on my machine without tech hunting it down and ripping it out again, I wouldn't be fretting about such things ...

Doug, you gave me the first giggle I've had since I opened this blasted program, so thanks for that.
I'd love to keep secretly installing Freehand, because you can save your finished work as an Illustrator file, and I could then open it in Illustrator CS3, save the final as a CS3 EPS file and nobody would be the wiser ... except my tech department is prone to periodic look-sees on everyone's machines, there was a massive freakout that went all the way to the publisher's office when they discovered I'd installed .... wait for it .... free fonts on my machine that weren't part of the Adobe package they bought. In the end I had to yank the fonts out, despite showing them the read-me files that came with the fonts that expressly permitted usage in commercial applications. It's a very controlled environment. I now have 12 days left to start converting all my files ...
The good news is I'm pretty sure they're going to hurl the Freehand install disc at my head when they rip it out of my work station, so I can put it on my home iMac, where I'm still running Tiger. Now to convince them to let me work from home ...
Thanks again to everyone for all the advice,
~michelle

R.I.P. FreeHand

The depth of my hatred for Adobe tonight is nearly boundless.
Like most longtime FreeHand users, I greeted Adobe's purchase of
FreeHand with a sense of foreboding and dismay. I hoped that Adobe
would continue to support and develop this extraordinary drawing
tool. Stupid me. FreeHand ran circles around that lumpy piece of
junk called Illustrator. Always did, always will. Macromedia knew
this when they bought FreeHand from Aldus (Remember them? Aldus
pretty much invented desktop publishing), eons ago, way back in the
1990s. And then Adobe got so big and powerful that the FTC allowed
Adobe to buy FreeHand and gut Macromedia's dead carcass. Corporate
feeding frenzies rule our nasty, modern world.
FreeHand MX 11.0.x was working well up to or around Mac OSX
10.2.x. I recently bit the bullet and "upgraded" to OSX 10.4.x (aka
"Tiger" -- argh, Apple, ditch the cat names, OK? Since most of
those big cats are on the brink of extinction, naming your flagship
OS after an endangered species is a weird, ironic marketing
choice).
All hell has broken loose since I "upgraded." Simply turning
on FreeHand's "snap to grid" and turning it off again is now
impossible. Adobe offers a lame "TechNotes" workaround that doesn't
truly work.
Adobe doesn't care. And why should it? Adobe only wants us
all to buy their version of some fabulous next new thing -- like
"CS" (aka "Creative Suite" -- an Orwellian doublethink marketing
campaign if ever there was one). Adobe is nothing more than another
money-grubbing corporate nightmare. Customer loyalty and
trustworthy products don't figure in Adobe's bottom line... let
alone respect or commitment to the venerable art of graphic design.
I used to love getting up in the morning. I used to love
turning on my Mac and making art. I thought I was the luckiest man
in the world! I could make art and design and pay my bills! Stupid
naive me.
Hours of my life melted away forever this afternoon. I'll
never get them back. I was just trying to make some graphic design
for a paying client. For every five minutes I spend on an idea
these days, I spend an hour or so trying to make software express
it. The ratio of art to product is crazy... especially considering
the stupid amount of money Adobe charges for products that never do
what Adobe says they'll do. It's all snake oil and trickery.
I wish I could go back to FreeHand 3.1. It was a brilliant
piece of software. R.I.P. FreeHand. Rest in peace. Shame on Adobe.
Shame. I'm tired and sad tonight, and my deadline is shot to hell.
I used to make digital art, but now I'm just another digital ditch
digger. Just another consumer, hooked on this never-ending heroin
spiral of "upgrade" after never-ending "upgrade."
I looked at the very first serious drawing I ever made with a
vector drawing program (FreeHand 2.0) tonight. You can see it
here. From a
purely technical point of view, it's not a bad drawing... and the
technology that made it possible is gone forever. Bought and sold
by the jerks who own the code.
OK. I'm done with this rant. Thanks for reading it. I guess
I'll go check my email now... an inbox full of more image-based
spam peddling pump 'n dump stock market scams. I used to love the
'net, almost as much as I used to love drawing with FreeHand.

Greetings and thanks to everyone who's posted to this thread.
Interesting insights and opinions here. Special thanks to those of
you who sent private messages of condolence and support via my
site. I took a few days off and I'm feeling a little better.
I stopped in here off and on and decided to wade in again
with what will probably be another longwinded epic-style post. I
tend toward verbosity, especially with a subject like this. In
addition to raising my blood pressure a notch or two, the subject
of FreeHand's demise sparks some passion in me. This will be a long
post because I want to attempt clarity. Clarity sometimes takes
time.
Navale's post regarding the fact that Adobe charges full
price for a broken FreeHand is spot on, as is darrel's car
metaphor. If GM sold a car, and the engine exploded when a buyer
first turned the key, well, that would be the lead story on the
evening news. Congress would launch an investigation. I think
there's a federal law somewhere that requires carmakers to make
parts available for 10 years after a car is released to the public.
I could be wrong, but I think that's true. Anyway, there's no
parallel in the software world... no protection for consumers. It's
buyer beware and blame the consumer if things don't work as
advertised. While the speed of software development makes a ten
year 'parts' guarantee impractical, I don't think some sort of
mandated guarantee of maybe 3 years is unreasonable.
I appreciate Judy Arndt's post. "Keep in mind that if Adobe
is going to put it's logo on a FreeHand box, the product is going
to have to live up to Adobe standards." Well said, Judy. As for the
EPS, PDF, OpenType, and "old code" issues, well, I could discuss
that at greater length later. The short version is that there are
workarounds which worked prior to Mac OSX 10.4. Adobe's FreeHand
product page states that FreeHand is compatible with Mac OSX 10.4.
I took that statement to be true, without following the "emerging
issues" link. Stupid me. I took Adobe at it's word without reading
the fine money grubbing print.
Adobe has a major PR problem with FreeHand and chooses to
blow it off. Frankly, this astonishes me. Maybe Adobe thinks we'll
just fade away. Maybe Adobe is correct in that assumption. For
better or worse, Adobe now owns FreeHand. FreeHand is a spectacular
vector drawing tool (and I still contend that it runs circles
around Illustrator -- old code and all -- don't even get me started
about Illustrator's lumpy old legacy code). There's a market for
FreeHand and no more competition (thank you FTC; nice to know
you're watching out for consumers -- not).
I know no figures on the number of people who use (and maybe
even love) FreeHand, but I suspect it's easily in the hundreds of
thousands... maybe even millions. Why would Adobe abandon a product
it now owns and shun a substantial market? Maybe it's just
corporate spite? The trouble is, we just don't know. Adobe is
silent. There's a major communication break between Adobe and
FreeHand users. I want somebody at Adobe to tell us the truth...
either Adobe will support and develop FreeHand or ignore and
therefore kill it. I want to read a letter on Adobe's FreeHand web
page from somebody in a position to tell me what the hell is going
on with a product in which I've invested thousands of dollars and
thousands of files... a product I still want to buy.
Quick note to doentz here: Yeah, I loved Fontographer too.
Call me paranoid if you like, but I sometimes think Fontographer
was way too brilliant to be allowed to exist in a market-driven
world where Adobe owns just about every font and there's no room
for people to freely make and distribute their own creations. From
Adobe's point of view, such freedom is way too dangerous.
Capitalism run amok.
Curtcarto's post was interesting. Yes, software development
always takes time. I know this; I've seen it first hand... and
maybe that's what's going on with Adobe FreeHand. The point is, we
don't know! All indications from Adobe don't look good. Adobe is
silent. Adobe still charges full price for a broken FreeHand, but
doesn't list it in its main Products page (you have to dig to the
"view all products" link). If an updated version of FreeHand will
indeed join Adobe's product line - with full support and commitment
- you'd never know it by cruising through Adobe's corporate site.
R.I.P. FreeHand.
Argh. I'm gonna stop typing pretty soon. I'm tired and sad.
Before I go, I want to post a little more background about my life
with FreeHand. Maybe this will help readers understand why I'm so
passionate about FreeHand.
I became aware of FreeHand way back around 1986 - shortly
after Aldus PageMaker launched a revolutionary concept called
"desktop publishing." Prior to that, I made art the old fashioned
way... you know, I threw paint at a canvas or scribbled stuff on
real live paper with pen and ink and oil pastels. I beta-tested
FHv.7 for some of the guys who wrote the original FreeHand code. I
bought FreeHand v1.0 and later used v2.0 at a design firm that
employed me to make illustrations for their clients.
With FreeHand v3.1, Aldus nailed the interface and features.
It was a stunning and elegant piece of work. It made Illustrator
look like the junky copycat it is to this very day. If Adobe
offered a Mac OSX compatible version of FreeHand 3.1, I'd buy it in
two seconds flat. Adobe could market it as "FreeHand Lite" - heh.
And then things started getting ugly and convoluted.
Illustrator was emerging as a serious competitor in the vector art
world, while Aldus was loosing track of everything that made it
great. Too many cooks in the kitchen... it happens all the time.
The dot com bubble started to pop and nobody gave a flying fart
about art and vision or related nonsense. It was all about money.
I beta-tested FreeHand 4.0 (which was code named "Roadrunner"
at the time). It was a wreck... a screaming, flaming car crash. It
pulled the rug out from under every user who had invested time and
money and trust in FreeHand. I told the development team that if it
was released as written, loyal customers would scream bloody
murder, jump ship and buy Illustrator. I said, "If your intention
is to kill FreeHand, release this version immediately."
By this time, Aldus was dead. Macromedia owned Freehand and
released it as FreeHand 5.0. Loyal FreeHand customers screamed
bloody murder, jumped ship and bought Illustrator. FreeHand's
market share (not to mention its art and vision) was a sad memory.
Macromedia dorked around with FreeHand for a decade or so.
Version 5 was pretty dismal, but almost useable. By version 7, it
was almost OK. By versions 9 and 10, it was almost interesting.
Through all these versions, Macromedia didn't fix the stuff that
didn't work in previous versions... they just tacked on new
"features" nobody wanted and nobody used. Illustrator followed the
same development path, but by this time it was too late for
FreeHand. Illustrator ruled.
A buddy of mine just sent me an email. His message punched
through... one of two legitimate emails and 56 spams. He said:
"Maybe its time to start associating Adobe with Microsoft in
software's "Evil Overlord" category."
Argh. Welcome to the future. Adobe launches a new marketing
tool called "Adobe Youth Voices" on its home page. Socially
conscious work that can only be expressed by kids who buy Adobe
products. It's all so sick.

Illustrator slightly elongates images in the vertical in OS 10.5.6

For those of you who are claiming to have no problems in printing with 10.5.6, I would try this just to make sure. Your graphics may look right, but they may not actually be right.
When I make a perfect large circle, say 7" and I print it, it looks round until I take a measurement with a ruler horizontally and vertically. I find that my supposed round circle is actually longer in the vertical than the horizontal by about 3/8 inch, making it slightly oval shaped. If I check all my other graphics, I find the same thing. It is not that noticeable in most graphics, but it is there.
For what I do, I need the proportions to be exact, like they used to be. I am not sure where the problem lies.
I am using an Epson 2200 with Freehand MX and Illustrator CS4.
Let me know what you find out.
Thanks.
Elliot

Glad that helped, Elliot.
I still don't feel like we have verified that you have tried the true Epson driver, but I do think you have definitely learned that the Gutenprint drivers are a poor choice for you.
I have an Epson R2400, and so have not messed with any other than the full Epson driver for this printer. For my printer, both the full Epson driver and Easy Print are available, but I've never tried Easy Print to see what it does.
Printfab has a number of nice and useful features. I never really got color management down on the printers I used it with, but the driver still allowed me to use an older printer at a much higher level than Gutenprint (then Gimp Print) did.
For the record, Apple supplies the Gutenprint drivers, but Apple does not write them. They are from an open source project intended to allow a wide range of printers to work on various Unix systems, including Mac OSX. Gutenprint drivers have always been inferior to Epson drivers on any printer I have ever tried them on. You are probably going to be better off steering clear of them.
Printfab is a much higher quality driver, and since it includes Postscript RIP capabilities, you may find it works particularly well with Freehand and Illustrator.

ILLUSTRATOR CS5 AND INDESIGN CS5

Well...
I've been looking the new CS5 programs. It's time to change. Now, Illustrator artboards (pages) can be rearranged and named. You can paste a objet in multiple artboards and they preserve their relative location in the artboards too (imagine this feature with titles, ornaments in a long document, page numbers,etc.)
You can draw INSIDE and object. It has perspective grid (exactly like FreeHand)…
And at last, but no at least, InDesign CS5 has pages with multiple sizes.
What do you think?

First off, I am a staunch advocate of FreeHand and want to see it's future continue, as a majority of users here do. So to see Illustrator CS5 merge so many cool features from FreeHand is a good thing! AI's new perspective grid, multi-sized/arranged pages, text improvements for long docs, better paste inside, etc. are all from FreeHand MX and it takes Illustrator closer to parity with it. If I had the system requirements to run this version, I would definitely upgrade as I see no conflict with having both Illustrator and FreeHand on my system.
I do have trouble with the comment, "It's time to change." I think the mistake many FreeHand (and Illustrator) users make is that one is better than the other and thus only one should exist. Even Adobe thinks this. In fact, Illustrator has strengths in its widespread feature set (much like Photoshop) whereas FreeHand has it's strength in it's speed, lightweight and intuitive interface. If I want to touch up a JPEG, do I open up Photoshop or a quick application like Preview or Cocopad? If I want to draw quick vector elements, do I open up Illustrator or the speedier FreeHand? If I am on a time limit, I know which application is best just as I know which I'd use to create 3D extrusion and realistic effects. Do you see why both serve an important purpose?
The new Illustrator CS5 is highly worthy and Sr. Mgr. David Macy deserves kudos for bringing more FreeHand features into it. He's doing the right thing. But crushing FreeHand in order to boost AI's prominance is a very poor management choice. Adobe is now crying foul over Flash being disregarded by Apple, which is the ultimate irony to the same treatment they have foisted on FreeHand, GoLive and even PageMaker users. Adobe management can't point fingers when they have been doing the same thing to their user base.
Adobe, if you're reading this, release FreeHand to open-source or sell it off (once you've gotten what you want from it). But don't sit on it all these years and expect us to feel sorry that Flash isn't being given a fair shake! You are just playing a victim to your own policies.
Mark Gelotte
Join me at http://www.freefreehand.org/

Freehand glitches & Illustrator incompatibility

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