Your feedback for the Adobe presentation

[rubenarthe]

It was a great presentation. I would add one more thing:
The Align Window in FH is in my opinion the best align window ever. Center both ways (W and H) at the same time only takes one click. Another click to change from pasteboard to selection (a simple checkbox). That was fast! In ID or IL al lest takes two clicks to center both ways. And it takes a pop up window to change from pasteboard, objetcs, page... a waste time.

[FFH Mark]

That's a good point on the alignment panel. Although the features pointed out in the comparison may be a difference of an extra click or two, it is the combined clicks during a project that bog Illustrator down.

[sourismom]

Paste inside, paste inside, paste inside! It's my No. 1 issue with Illustrator. I do maps pretty much every day in my job, and paste inside is absolutely necessary for it.

[DTPDH]

Bring in the lens function or something similar to export portions of the artwork with selected objects (LENS) only!

[gozoman]

I'm also one of the FreeHand users since version 3.1 who had to change to Illustrator.
We use Illustrator CS5 and using it is sometimes very frustrating. I am still missing some features in Illustrator:
- Zoom to Selected or Fit Selection and with a short cut
- Illustrator isn't able to show the number of selected features.
- Illustrator doesn't have the HLS color mixer which is much more intuitive than HSB. One can make real shades of a color by mixing it with white or black and saturation separately without changing hue.
- In FreeHand one could paste inside objects which have a style. Even while pasted inside a user can change the style of the objects pasted inside very easily. Try that with Illustrator.
- Snapping in FreeHand is better. When I draw a line which has to connect to a vertex of a different line it is impossible not to join the two lines. I want to be able to keep them seperate.
- I miss the automatic handles to have FreeHand calculate the best Bezier curve.

Many cartographers were very enthusiast users of FreeHand.

[FFH Mark]

These are really good points to add to the requests. Getting the basics, such as live corners on shapes, FH-like path tools, interface customization, etc. were pushed in the original presentation. These items get more into the details of the FreeHand experience. I also love the automatic handles selection for creating smooth bezier curves. AI's curved path plotting always looks somewhat jaggy to me.

If the Illustrator developers play this out right—and having seen pre-releases of new functions looks like they are—Illustrator can be more FreeHand-friendly. Maybe it's not a substitute but at least can serve alongside FH as an intermediary. I will say that their team responds to feature requests WITH detailed reasons why it is important.

Off topic, but maybe applies in this thread, the folks at Indeeo.com are very interested in capturing the FreeHand market. The have asked us how iDraw can better fit with FH-users and those not wanting to migrate to Illustrator. Their FB page is here: https://www.facebook.com/idraw?v=wall&filter=2

They had a free beta to try out new features but I don't know if it is still active: http://indeeo.com/idraw/beta/

[FH Addict]

iDraw is interesting. If only it could open freehand files, this would be the holy grail

[FFH Mark]

The iDraw folks have been asking me about this and are interested in importing FreeHand files. The problem is the FreeHand code is pretty complex and hard to make sense of. I've spoken with former FreeHand programmers and they can help but are concerned about NDA with Adobe. iDraw has potential especially if we keep feeding them FreeHand-like feature requests. They are very motivated to be the best.

[FH Addict]

That's a good news! Thanks again Mark for all your efforts.

[FFH Mark]

Thanks Bruno. As I get more info from Indeeo, I'll pass along.

I'm not seeing much movement on Quasado's Paintstack and am feeling that concentrating on an established drawing app like iDraw is the quicker route to go for now—especially if they are interested in working with FreeHand users. I am reading comments from FreeHanders on their Facebook page and I (and others here) gave Indeeo feedback on their recent beta release. Besides, some will never go near Illustrator so these options are good.