No tools in FreeHand

I have lost my tools palette in FreeHand! I have tried the
obvious chedking of Tools in the windows menu, but can't seem to!
Any ideas? Not sure if I have "misplaced" it or hidden it somehow,
or if I have a more serious problem. Also I can't make tool bars
appear either. Thanks.

> I have lost my tools palette in FreeHand!
See this technote:
http://www.adobe.com/go/tn_13188
Judy Arndt

Similar Messages

Where is the Spiral Tool on Freehand?

Dear forum members:
I would like to know if the Spiral Tool on Freehand Drawing
Toolbox has been eliminated in version 11.0.2. All I see is the
ellipse and the rectangle.
Thanks for any enlightment
Dilsia

> Dear forum members: I would like to know if the Spiral
Tool on Freehand
> Drawing Toolbox has been eliminated in version 11.0.2.
All I see is the elipse
> and the rectangle. Thanks for any enlightment Dilsia
Window > Toolbars > Xtra tools
Jukka

Can you open freehand files in CS6?

can you open freehand files in CS6? I have been using both illustrator & freehand for 15 years & have thousands of work files being freehand.
It seems very disappointing to have to keep an old version of illustrator just to open these files. I also find it interesting that many of the key tools that freehand had over illustrator are not translated into the newer versions of illustrator. Something simple like you still can't have a unique picture bullet • before text in illustrator. In freehand you could cut & paste any graphic into the text you were designing.

saturn234 wrote:
can you open freehand files in CS6? I have been using both illustrator & freehand for 15 years & have thousands of work files being freehand.
No. The conversion plugin didn't make it into CS6 so the last import function was CS5.5
It seems very disappointing to have to keep an old version of illustrator just to open these files.
At this point, it is the only way to make your files convert into Illustrator although I've had some luck with exporting to EPS or (if your FH graphics are simple enough) save as AI format. Keep your eyes on this project however : http://www.stagestack.com/
I also find it interesting that many of the key tools that freehand had over illustrator are not translated into the newer versions of illustrator. Something simple like you still can't have a unique picture bullet • before text in illustrator. In freehand you could cut & paste any graphic into the text you were designing.
As a fellow FreeHand user, I couldn't agree more. Other users of both programs have said this endlessly over the years here. A litany of features are still m.i.a. since FHMX was acquired years ago... including inline graphics. It's almost comical.

3D Tool with Bitmaps/images?

Hi All,
I can use the 3D rotation tool in freehand quite easily with
vector shapes etc however I am wondering if this is possible with
imported bitmaps and images etc. It doesn't seem to apply anything
to an image in this sense. Does it need converting?
I'm basically trying to do a 3D perspective of a simple
screenshot of my desktop to create a similar looking thing to the
new Windows Vista Flip 3D if you get what I mean.
I have read through the help files which are quite useless
really! And searched the net to no avail.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Many thanks,
Mikey.

Kapitaine wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I can use the 3D rotation tool in freehand quite easily
with vector shapes etc
> however I am wondering if this is possible with imported
bitmaps and images
> etc. It doesn't seem to apply anything to an image in
this sense. Does it need
> converting?
>
> I'm basically trying to do a 3D perspective of a simple
screenshot of my
> desktop to create a similar looking thing to the new
Windows Vista Flip 3D if
> you get what I mean.
>
> I have read through the help files which are quite
useless really! And
> searched the net to no avail.
>
> Any help would be much appreciated.
Do you have Photoshop? You could set it up in a 3D
perspective there and
then import it into Freehand if you need to.

Adobe Interview For FreeHand Users

Hey FreeHand Users,
I just updated my blog. It now features an interview I just
did with Terry Hemphill, Seniolr Product Manager for Adobe. I asked
him a series of questions that many FreeHand users may have been
wondering about, including what Illustrator CS4 has to offer.
Thanks again to Adobe for the interview!
The address is:
http://www.enrichdesign.com/fhblog

First off, nice blog site you have. Very informative on the
Adobe-Freehand issue over the last few years.
Secondly, I was more frustrated by the interview than I was
appeased. Corporate Adobe seems more at fault than Terry Hemphill,
who I felt was only toe-ing that corporate line. Comments like
these don't help me feel confident when I am looking at keeping my
FH workflow:
— "Adobe will continue to evaluate the demand for
FreeHand before bringing the product to end-of-life. It's not our
intention to force people into another solution."
— "Freehand is not going to be revived; time to move
on, really. The Illustrator team is making a determined effort to
bring the best of FreeHand into Illustrator, which should be
evident from some of the new features in CS4."
— "Official line -- we don't comment on future
development plans."
— "Illustrator's integration with other Adobe tools and
presence as the industry standard application for designing vector
content."
— "Special upgrade pricing for owners of FreeHand who
want to move to Illustrator, and we're updating the FreeHand
migration guide for CS4, which should be available for download on
line early next year."
From the interview, I see AI now has Multiple Artboards
(nice) and working on Clipping Masks in this latest AI version, but
like FH Addict says, CS6 may be the earliest I ever upgrade. You
have a ways to go yet.
(Message to AI team, get the simplicity of FH tools and
workflow, not the bloat I see. Make a REAL effort to create the FH
workspace within AI. Keep it a separate interface from your
Illustrator Users if you want, but show me the familiar interface
and tools when Freehand was your competitor.)

Freehand Users / Adobe

Yes. Freehand remains far better than Illustrator. We have
been using Freehand for the last 12 years here at Electronic
Theatre Controls, Inc. I am a Product Graphic Designer and need the
features and power that FHMX provides. We use Illustrator basically
to export .dxf. files. I think if Adobe had a Graphic Designer who
worked in Macromedia Freehand and then started using Adobe
Illustrator that Adobe would finally "get it" I think they would
just take FHMX and write Illustrator on the box. Designers do not
like the cumbersome slow interface of Illustrator.
I can run rings around Illustrator users with FHMX. While
your figuring out how to stop the guides from moving or trying to
set up a custom page size, my work will be on its way to be made
into a finished product.
The name - Freehand does not accurately describe what this
program does.
It's simply the best Vector Graphics program for doing
professional design work. I work with Engineers who use Solidworks
and AutoCAD. With Freehand, Acrobat Professional and Photoshop, I
am able to do award winning design work.
Can we ask Adobe to continue to support and expand Freehand?
Or can we ask them to put all of the great features Freehand
has into Illustrator?
I think new designers are just given Illustrator and think
that's the only program they have to choose from.
Adobe, please consider that the professional users of
Freehand will continue to use it anyway. Why not please your
customers?
Thank you,
John Masino
ETC Product Graphic Designer

First off, nice blog site you have. Very informative on the
Adobe-Freehand issue over the last few years.
Secondly, I was more frustrated by the interview than I was
appeased. Corporate Adobe seems more at fault than Terry Hemphill,
who I felt was only toe-ing that corporate line. Comments like
these don't help me feel confident when I am looking at keeping my
FH workflow:
— "Adobe will continue to evaluate the demand for
FreeHand before bringing the product to end-of-life. It's not our
intention to force people into another solution."
— "Freehand is not going to be revived; time to move
on, really. The Illustrator team is making a determined effort to
bring the best of FreeHand into Illustrator, which should be
evident from some of the new features in CS4."
— "Official line -- we don't comment on future
development plans."
— "Illustrator's integration with other Adobe tools and
presence as the industry standard application for designing vector
content."
— "Special upgrade pricing for owners of FreeHand who
want to move to Illustrator, and we're updating the FreeHand
migration guide for CS4, which should be available for download on
line early next year."
From the interview, I see AI now has Multiple Artboards
(nice) and working on Clipping Masks in this latest AI version, but
like FH Addict says, CS6 may be the earliest I ever upgrade. You
have a ways to go yet.
(Message to AI team, get the simplicity of FH tools and
workflow, not the bloat I see. Make a REAL effort to create the FH
workspace within AI. Keep it a separate interface from your
Illustrator Users if you want, but show me the familiar interface
and tools when Freehand was your competitor.)

About burying a superior software ...

We are designers, producers, nerds, geeks. We aren’t
interested in share holder value. We always just wanted to work
with the VERY BEST software for vector drawing. We had it for many
years. It was called Freehand. We need not understand why ADOBE
buries Freehand and keeps Illustrator alive instead. Because
there’s nothing reasonable to understand. The web is stuffed
with angry protest from countless disappointed Freehand users.
Adobe doesn’t care at all. Eat it or die. I won’t eat
it that way, folks.
How can an outstanding company be so ignorant? OK, they did
the same with PageMaker to push InDesign. But there was a special
InDesign version which had an implemented tool palette with
PageMaker functions. So one could forget the good old program step
by step.
With Illustrator, it’s a lot meaner. Just to mention
the fabulous, mighty Bezigon tool in Freehand, Illustrator simply
doesn’t have one! All the countless logos and letterings I
digitized in 20 years would have cost me double or triple time
using the cheesy path tools Illustrator offers. Instead of letting
the Bezier routines do the job automatically between the anchor
points, one has to constantly drag around points and curves
manually. Did any of the Adobe developers ever try Freehand’s
Bezigon tool? That tiny, little tool offsets all the few advantages
Illustrator might have in other sections!
Now they purchased Freehand, and they got the source code.
Now everything’s ready to be finally dumped. Maybe you folks
from ADOBE are too stuck-up to admit that Freehand was the far
better software as a whole. But there’s still one thing you
could do: Preserve the coding of the Bezigon tool and implement it
into Illustrator! Yes, you may give it another name! Yes, it could
also come as a plugin! Of course, even a third party developer
could do the job!
Yes, of course, PLEASE, you could also sell Freehand to
another company, letting them work on it again and compete with
your Illustrator, like in the past. Don’t bury a jewel just
for market share! This would be sooo courageous, and we would love
you again for giving us PhotoShop ...

> As long as
> Illustrator isn?t better than Freehand, they fail.
Of course they don't fail.
As long as Illustrator is the market leader, they're fine.
Business isn't
always about 'best product'. It's about 'good enough'
combined with market
share.
Yes, that sucks for us consumers, but that's how business
works.
> My attitude isn?t
> politically motivated. I just don?t want to spend double
or triple time
> drawing
I agree, and empathize. ;o)
-Darrel

A few questions about Text

1) Is there any key that allows you to scale the area type, without having to select the scale tool?
2) Is there any possibility to reduce the area of the area type with a single clic in any of the bottons of the area (like you can do in FreeHand)?
3) Can you convert a title type into an area type and vice versa in a quick way?

Vaca,
Welcome to the real world.
Neither Illustrator nor InDesign provide anything like FreeHand's auto-fitting textframes.
Neither Illustrator nor InDesign provide anything like FreeHand's wrapping tabs.
FreeHand provides proper paragraph rules; Illustrator only has its lame underscore and strikethrough.
FreeHand provides an end-column formatting character.
One text object in FreeHand does more than Illustrator's two.
One text tool in FreeHand does more than Illustrator's six.
One selector tool FreeHand does more than Illustrator's three.
One pen tool in FreeHand is more powerful than Illustrator's four (three pens plus one convert).
One polygon tool in FreeHand does more than Illustrator's two (star and polygon).
FreeHand provides more grad types than Illustrator.
FreeHand knows the difference between a path being selected as an object vs. having all its anchorpoints selected.
FreeHand can drag-bend a straight segment without adding an unwanted anchorpoint.
FreeHand snaps are reliable at any zoom.
FreeHand's speed blows the doors off Illustrator.
So-called "power duplication" is more powerful in FreeHand than in Illustrator.
Select-through is quick and fluid in FreeHand; cumbersome and tedious in Illustrator.
FreeHand provides for disallowing fills on open paths; Illustrator doesn't.
FreeHand's cutting tool can cut its own open, unfilled paths (duh!).
FreeHand's path operations are more logical than Illustrator's cluttered and confused Pathfinders.
In FreeHand, winding direction in compound paths is more reliable.
FreeHand's interface doesn't encourage the creation of stray points.
FreeHand provides a proper hairline stroke weight.
FreeHand provides Connector Points to ensure tangency of curves to straight segments.
FreeHand provides a proper, straightforward, reverse path command.
FreeHand can auto-extend, auto-retract anchor handles.
FreeHand provides connector lines.
Illustrator never kept up with FreeHand in most basic functionality.
FreeHand always allowed editing in preview mode. It took several versions for Illustrator to catch up to that and, incredulously, AI users actually defended that inability.
It took fifteen years for Illustrator to acquire a Fit To Page print command.
It took twenty years for Illustrator be able to add page 2.
Illustrator still doesn't provide for user-defined drawing scales.
Illustrator still doesn't even provide live shape primitives (live polygons, arcs, ellipses, etc.)--among the most basic constructs common to vector drawing programs.
I could go on and on an on with this list. Users have been pointing these things out literally for decades. Illustrator is simply the most archaic, cumbersome, tedious, confused, and cluttered mainstream vector program on the market. Much of the basic feature set is sub-standard (see custom arrowheads). The interface is worst-of-class. Those who don't know better encounter its confused awkwardness and mistake it for "sophistication."
And we're talking about superior functionality that remains in a program Adobe acquired and discontinued how many years ago?
JET

How to revert to a previous version of any Creative Cloud application

All those users who have burned their fingers by the latest update to Illustrator 17.1, especially with respect to how the Reshape functionality works or how the Pencil tool behaves, there is a solution. After some digging around, I came across this page: http://blogs.adobe.com/kevinmonahan/2014/01/29/revert-to-a-previous-version-of-premiere-pr o-cc-or-any-creative-cloud-application/
In short, follow these steps:
1) Uninstall the application from your computer using the application’s uninstaller. If you are not aware of their location, uninstallers reside in the same folder as your application.
2) From the Creative Cloud desktop application, begin to install any Creative Cloud application by clicking the “Install” button.
3) As soon as the application indicates it is “Updating”, click the “X” to cancel the process.
4) This leaves applications at the same version when Creative Cloud was first launched.
5) Go to the product updates site http://www.adobe.com/downloads/updates.html and then install the version of the application that suits your needs.
Let's get back to our jobs with 17.0 for now till the time Adobe fixes the mess they created with some thoughtful update in the future!

I agree that the ability to move path segments freely, being able to apply Live corners to objects & on a per-corner basis (unlike the Round Corner effect) and being able to draw a straight line with the Pencil Tool (like Freehand) were always on the top of everyone's wish list for a very long time. No one is questioning that for sure. But the way it was implemented, detrimentally affecting (if I may say so) the way users would really like to work is something the griping is about. As rcraighead said, they have come at the expense of the working features.
Take the Reshape functionality. Photoshop introduced the "Constrain Path Dragging" functionality in CS6 whereby if this option is turned off - that is, path dragging is unconstrained, you get the same functionality as we presently see with the Reshape functionality in Illustrator 17.1 but if it is turned on, you get the same functionality as we were used to all along in Illustrator prior to 17.1. At least they gave the choice. But Illustrator simply abandoned the constrain path dragging functionality with the new Reshape feature in 17.1.
About the Live Corners functionality - how often does one need to apply corners to their artwork? Is it always, 100% of the time? You'd agree, No, not always. Maybe 5% (or is it 20%?). But the corner widgets are always shown when the Direct selection tool is selected. Already some users have asked 'how to hide the widget' and you've graciously answered. The point I'm making is if applying corners is not something which one does always or very rarely, why show those widgets always, by default? Obviously some smart-aleck will jump in to ridicule me & say 'hide it if you don't want to see it, it's just a click away, you fool.' or discoverability could be cited as one of the reasons but that's not the point. The other day I was doing some freeform drawing with the Pencil Tool & obviously did not need corners on those paths but on selecting the ds tool, all those widgets showed up and it was not a pretty sight.

Clipping paths in AICS3 IMPROVED!

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Just a word here...
After reading Bill's thread: Illustrator with Freehand
Features..
Mordy Golding put up links to a video podcast about AICS3 and
some of
the great enhancements...
Here's a link Illustrator CS3 Overview
<
http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2007/03/real-world-illustrator-podcast.html>
you'll need to sign up to Mordy's video podcasts if you
haven't already.
Including the new way in which clipping paths works!.. I
believe the
method of creating a clipping path may still be the same
however the BIG
difference now is that at the very least alignment uses the
clipping
path and not the contents!!! a good step in the right
direction.. I'm
still not sure whether the clipping contents outside the path
remain
visible or not.. as per previous versions.. but it will be
interesting
to see what it's like once it starts to ship and people get
their hands
on it.
Incidentally I used Freehand from version 3 on a PC to MX but
our studio
got fed up with Freehands bad color fidelity for printing
comps - it
worked fine for output of fairly simple spot colour jobs but
full colour
stuff was getting difficult to manage. I didn't cross over
lightly - I
used AIv10 in the background sometimes duplicating jobs in AI
from
Freehand in my spare time to see how it worked. While I loved
the tools
in Freehand - pen tool, Find and replace, paste inside etc..
better
colour fidelity and integration with InDesign and Photoshop
and more
reliability for output were more crucial to us than the
tools. That's
just me/us.
But at the end of the day it looks like AICS3 is giving us at
least some
of what we've been asking for.
I hope this has been of some help.
Kind Regards
Piers Le Sueur
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01
Transitional//EN">
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<meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
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<body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000">
Just a
word here... 
 
After reading Bill's thread: Illustrator with Freehand
Features.. 
Mordy Golding put up links to a video podcast about AICS3 and
some of
the great enhancements... 
 
Here's a link <a
href="
http://rwillustrator.blogspot.com/2007/03/real-world-illustrator-podcast.html">Illustrator
CS3 Overview</a> you'll need to sign up to Mordy's
video podcasts if
you haven't already. 
 
Including the new way in which clipping paths works!.. I
believe the
method of creating a clipping path may still be the same
however the
BIG difference now is that at the very least alignment uses
the
clipping path and not the contents!!! a good step in the
right
direction.. I'm still not sure whether the clipping contents
outside
the path remain visible or not.. as per previous versions..
but it will
be interesting to see what it's like once it starts to ship
and people
get their hands on it. 
 
Incidentally I used Freehand from version 3 on a PC to MX but
our
studio got fed up with Freehands bad color fidelity for
printing comps
- it worked fine for output of fairly simple spot colour jobs
but full
colour stuff was getting difficult to manage. I didn't cross
over
lightly - I used AIv10 in the background sometimes
duplicating jobs in
AI from Freehand in my spare time to see how it worked. While
I loved
the tools in Freehand - pen tool, Find and replace, paste
inside etc..
better colour fidelity and integration with InDesign and
Photoshop and
more reliability for output were more crucial to us than the
tools.
That's just me/us. 
 
But at the end of the day it looks like AICS3 is giving us at
least
some of what we've been asking for. 
 
I hope this has been of some help. 
 
Kind Regards 
Piers Le Sueur 

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(I'm still not sure whether the clipping contents outside the
path remain
visible or not.. as per previous versions)
Yes the contents are still visable.
AI cs3 does have a new quick mask type feature. It only works
on placed images and not vector artwork. When you place a Photo
there is a button that appears in the top menu bar called "MASK"
..ooo haha.
So in one step you can set your photo in a clipping mask
"square" shape only. It creats a path that is the exact size of the
image you have placed. From there you can resize the path to crop
the image as needed. the menu bar also shows more options like
adding a stroke etc.

What software comes closest to performing tasks like I could do on the Appleworks drawing program ?

What software is available for MacOSX that comes closest to performing like the old Appleworks drawing program?

Maybe Apple's iWork, or more specifically Pages - part of a package of three apps (Pages/Numbers/Keynote).
I never used Appleworks but Pages has some drawing tools for lines/boxes/circles/stars, etc. as well as a tool for freehand shapes. It will also open Microsoft Word files and Pages files can be exported in Word format.
Numbers is akin to Microsoft's Excel and will open Excel files and also export as Excel.
Keynote is an excellent app for presentations - a competitor to PowerPoint. Again it'll open PowerPoint files and export them.
Finally - I'm not 100% on this so hopefully someone else will chime in - but I believe Pages will open AppleWorks files.
iWork is available from the Mac App Store. The apps can be bought individually if you don't need all of them.

Akima spline curves for vector graphics

Akima spline curves give drawing freedom - I can't get bezier
curves to do what I want. It's like Alice in wonderland using a flamingo for a mallet in a game of croquet. unweildly.
Bezier Curves were introduced into Windows NT and all windows NT family products after that.
It soon followed that all paint programs began including Bezier Curves as a drawing method. Big mistake. They should have introduced Akima spline curves into Windows. I am not saying take Bezier
curves out - I am saying Add Akima Spline curves, or the bettered (modified) version of Akima Spline curves that doesn't react as much.
Akima spline curves are cool. just put points along where you want the curve. simple. you just need more points around sharp edges, or you get a "ringing" effect around that area. (See discussion and visuals link).
part of the challenge of using Akima spline curves is that the first 2 data points must be faked or dropped. same goes with the last data point. this can be taken care of with some simple engineering tricks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spline_(mathematics)
Wikipedia article on Spline curves (mathematics). This does not cover the Akima Spline, which keeps its curve along the data points rather than just near it like a B-spline curve does.
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~lambert/splines/
demonstration of the various curve types in action. (requires Java) play with the spline curve for a while (delete the existing points other than 0 first to get started)
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/BSplineCurveWithKnots/
B-Spline curve with Knots (can be active demo)
GNU Scientific Library Reference Manual
http://www.network-theory.co.uk/docs/gslref/InterpolationTypes.html
book - has Akima Spline & Cubic Spline. See also
http://www.gnu.org/software/gsl/manual/html_node/Interpolation-Types.html
GNU Manual
http://www.iop.org/EJ/abstract/0031-9155/18/4/306
PDF file from medical site on akima and spline methods and its associated errors. Recommendations for fixing the significant overshoot on abrupt changes, and suggestion to use more closely spaced points around those regions. must purchase.
http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=116810
The Akima Univariate Interpolation Method (spline) article from the acm. by Hiroshi Akima. requires web account and probably money to buy the PDF article.
http://www.iue.tuwien.ac.at/phd/rottinger/node60.html
Equations for Akima Spline
http://www.alglib.net/interpolation/spline3.php
discussion and visuals of Akima Spline and its drawbacks. also has source code in C++, C#, Delphi, VB6, Zonnon.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6TYG-414N645-2&_user=10&_rdoc=1& _fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_us
erid=10&md5=17dccffcfa40e5b420c7c377fc24b5f7
pay-for article on some sort of improved-smoothness spline. Shape of data is preserved.
http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/loadFile.do?objectId=1814&objectType=f ile
MATLAB model.

Jim,
Other drawing programs have other spline tools in addition to the ubiquitous Bezier tool.
FreeHand's Bezigon tool draws Beziers, but does so with an interface that lets you just click where you want points on the path, and then auto-conforms the curve points that you place according to where you place the next point, yielding results much like the Java applet you linked to.
Canvas's Auto Curve tool behaves almost exactly like the Java applet.
Although I'm not
opposed to a drawing program having multiple interfaces for creating spline curves, I have no desire for them. I never use the Bezigon tool in FH, and never use the Auto Curve tool in Canvas. I view them both as accommodations to beginners who initially think Bezier tools are unapproachable. I dare say the vast majority of proficient vector illustrators would agree. (No offense intended to any experienced users who find them useful.)
So while I can't say whether Canvas's Auto Curve tool actually uses the Akima equation you seem to be fond of, it's interface and behavior seems identical to what you seem to desire, and in that respect is therefore nothing new to drawing programs.
As far as Illustrator goes, I'd much rather development time be dedicated to far more fundamental and universally important things that it still lacks relative to the other mainstream drawing programs.
Illustrator still has no decent cutting tool. No user-defined drawing scales. No dimension tools. No connector tools. Poor snap behavior. Too limited value entry fields. Excruciating text performance. Bizarre Character and Paragraph style behaviors. No geometric shape primitives. No proper radius/chamfer/fillet feature. No joining of multiple paths at once. An old-fashioned modal-dialog-heavy and poorly-organized and too-cluttered interface. The list is quite long; and on
my list (for whatever it's worth), alternate interfaces for interactively drawing spline curves point-by-point does not even appear.
The Bezier curve is inherent to PostScript drawing programs, and the conventional click-or-clickdrag interface for them is practically universal. It is fluid, accurate, supple, and economical in the number of points it creates. It dominates for good reason. (That's not to say AI's particular
implementation of it couldn't be better; it could. FreeHand's is better.)
So while I'm all for truly valuable "new wrinkles," this is one I don't see any practical need for.
What actual benefit do you see in it?
JET

Converting png to vector

I have Freehand 10 and have always had a hek of a time trying
to figure this program out, I love fireworks, but am really
learning to hate freehand. Anyway, now that I've vented, can
somebody tell me if it's possible to convert a bitmap image (in my
case a png file) to a vector image. I've blacked out the bitmap and
am trying to convert it for use now to a vector. I appreciate any
help before I go crazy.

> I have Freehand 10 and have always had a hek of a time
trying to figure this
> program out, I love fireworks, but am really learning to
hate freehand. Anyway,
> now that I've vented, can somebody tell me if it's
possible to convert a bitmap
> image (in my case a png file) to a vector image. I've
blacked out the bitmap
> and am trying to convert it for use now to a vector. I
appreciate any help
> before I go crazy.
No, you can't convert but you can trace.
Tracing means that the program reads outlines from an image
and makes the paths accordingly. The result depends on the quality
of the image. Small low res web graphics cannot be traced very well
because tracing do not have any intelligence whatsoever. Even with
very good images there is a lot of cleaning to do, especially if
there must be vertical and horizontal lines, sharp angles, circles
etc.
If the image is very simple it is best to put the image to
the background layer and remake it from scratch with drawing tools.
FreeHand, Yes. Import the image into FreeHand and marquee
select the area you want to trace with the trace tool. (The magic
wand icon in the toolbar.) Double click gives the settings. Getting
a good result usually requires fair amount of trial and error.
Sometimes combining parts of several traces work best.
Jukka

How do i delete pen lines?

ALright i live traced a photo and did expand and that created alot of pen lines. I then erased one half of the photo with the eraser tool but the pen lines stayed.
So my question is how do i erase those pen lines? I know about the delete anchor point tool but seeing there are about 500 anchor point that would take forever.
thanks

Bowe,
Assuming that:
1. You used the autotrace feature to trace the photo.
2. You DID NOT use a centerline option during the trace. That is, the tracing result is only filled paths; it has no unfilled open paths.
3. You expanded and ungrouped the results.
Then, you should be able to:
1. Knife Tool: Press and hold Alt. Mousedown and drag across the artwork. Mouseup. That will cause the Knife to work in a "straight line mode," cutting all fills it crosses if nothing is selected, or cutting only selected fills if something is selected.
2. WhitePointer or BlackPointer: Drag a selection marquee that touches, but does not fully enclose, the unwanted portions of the cutting result. Delete once if using the black pointer. Delete twice if using the white pointer.
The utterly lame Knife tool cannot cut open unfilled paths. The utterly lame Scissor tool cannot cut multiple paths at once. There IS NO "saw tool". (That's probably a reference to the TableSaw tool included in the CuttingTools plug-in.)
The CS3 Eraser tool
should be useful for this, but it unpredictably distorts the remaining
unerrased portions of the artwork. I therefore find it to also be utterly unsatisfactory.
One properly-designed cutting tool (see FreeHand) and one properly-designed Crop To Path operation (see Corel Draw) would eliminate the need for Illustrator's three inadequate cutting tools and replace several inadequate Pathfinder commands. That would be the sensible conventional-wisdom approach.
A better approach would be the ability to use ANY vector path as either a cutting path or a selection marquee. When used as a cutting path, it should of course be able to properly cut paths regardless of their fill/stroke/open/closed attributes.
But after over 2 decades, Illustrator has not yet even caught up with conventional wisdom, let alone shown any real innovation in this basic and critical functionality. This is one of those areas in which Illustrator is extraordinarily sub-standard.
JET

My rotate tool won't work? (FreeHand MX, Mac OS 10.6.3)

Hi All,
I recently loaded FreeHand MX on a Macbook Pro. It seems to run pretty happily, except I can't get the "rotate" tool to select. I added this tool to the default toolbar (using "toolbar/customize" but when try to I select it, the cursor reverts almost immediately to an arrow or magnifying glass (whatever it was just now). So to rotate objects I've had to activate View/Transform Handles, or use the Transform dialogue box and type in my values. The former solution actually works pretty well but I'd really like for the basic rotate tool to work!
I read last month in the forum people were having problems with FH and OS 10.6.2; someone said 10.6.3 solved their problem, so I upgraded to 10.6.3 before loading FH MX. But I'm wondering if this is a 10.6.3 compatibility issue, or if there's something I can do to menus, preferences, or restarting, that would make this tool work. I need a solution that doesn't involve reloading the software from my FreeHand disks.
If you can help solve this, much appreciated! Then I'd just have my usual getting-used-to-MX learning curve (I normally run FreeHand 10 on an old G5 and Mac OS 10.4.11).
Thanks!
Ben Pease

Aha! No wonder the transform panel was always open to type in the values as a workaround.
You were correct; I had used the wrong icon. I found the other one (not one I would have immediately recognized from FH10 and earlier) and it works fine.
Thanks again, Judy!

No tools in FreeHand

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