How to open Freehand Files in Adobe Ilustrator

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I am looking for a free plugin, if available, in order to open older file formats only available in Freehand. The Old G4 quit so I can't access any FreeHand files.

Anyone able to help?

Thanks!

freehand illustrator

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Monika GauseCorrect answer

Community Expert

The Tensai plugin or Illustrator CS5 are your only options. CS5 should run stable enough for this task on Mac OS up to Yosemite.

Forget about other apps like Affinity Designer - they can only open simple files. And even then I would not bet on the results.

The trouble is the file structure. It seems to be rather complicated and is undocumented.

J

JMG92

Participating Frequently

Bonjour,
J'ai le même souci avec des fichiers .FH7 à .FH11.
En attendant une promo sur le produit Tensai®, j'ai trouvé ceci, qui déjà, en ligne, permet de convertir des .FH7 (ou .FH11) en .PDF :
https://www.coolutils.com/online/FH11-to-PDF
Quand on pense que FreeHand® était en mesure d'ouvrir parfaitement les fichiers .Ai, même les versions des fichiers Illustrator® qui sortaient à chaque mise à jour de Illustrator®.
Adobe®, ayant racheté FreeHand®, ne parvient à proposer ce service dans Illustrator®.
C'est dingue.
JM (FRANCE)

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Monika Gause

Community Expert

Quand on pense que FreeHand® était en mesure d'ouvrir parfaitement les fichiers .Ai, même les versions des fichiers Illustrator® qui sortaient à chaque mise à jour de Illustrator®.

By @JMG92

No, it couldn't. FreeHand can't open Illustrator files newer than version 7 or the like.

You could open FreeHand files with Illustrator until version CS5 in 2010. FreeHand died in version 11, which was way back in 2003. At some time demand for such a functionality gets so low that someone cut the ties.

The link you posted is about FreeHand 11 files (not about version 7). You can also open version 11 files with Scribus (which is open source)

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Monika Gause

Correct answer

Community Expert

The Tensai plugin or Illustrator CS5 are your only options. CS5 should run stable enough for this task on Mac OS up to Yosemite.

Forget about other apps like Affinity Designer - they can only open simple files. And even then I would not bet on the results.

The trouble is the file structure. It seems to be rather complicated and is undocumented.

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Bill Silbert

Community Expert

Check out this link for some possible suggestions: adobe illustrator - Open Freehand in 2017 - Graphic Design Stack Exchange You did not say what computer, OS and version of Illustrator you are using so if the link does not help, please provide that info for additional help.

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