Participant

Question

Opening Freehand files

Forum|Forum|13 years ago
May 7, 2012
5 replies
55643 views

Hello

I saee that my Illustrator CS5 has a script which is for opening Freehand files - I click and it saks me to select the FH file to open - but they are all greyed out... is this s a problem with Lion or is there a workaround?

Thanks

A

Anonymous

Hi,

I use an external HDD ssd running on SNOW leopard with FreeHand MX.

When I need to work on FreeHand I restart on it.

My computer is a 24" iMac running on Lion, I think that ANY osx (Yosemite for example) will run fine.

Have a nice day.

maeric

Participating Frequently

roberts59099742 wrote:
Hi,
I use an external HDD ssd running on SNOW leopard with FreeHand MX.
When I need to work on FreeHand I restart on it.
My computer is a 24" iMac running on Lion, I think that ANY osx (Yosemite for example) will run fine.
Have a nice day.

Same here.

My SSD is wicked fast to open and I use a menu app called QuickBoot that jumps from Yosemite to Snow Leopard. My finished FreeHand work can be dropped onto the Desktop of my main drive to use Ai-PS-ID CC apps.

I save my individual FH files as PDF to open in Ai or use Tensai's plugin to batch-open FreeHand files in Illustrator CC.

FreeHand | Twitter

N

nilodorinc

Participant

If you can open the file in Freehand and export it as an illustrator 5.x file (no other version will work), it will open the file in any illustrator and with editable text blocks.

V

vickyjs-2007

Participant

Does Illustrator CS6 still open freehand files that have been saved as .ai rather than .eps? (I know each page gets saved as an individual .ai file but can live with that) The 'export' option is to save as an illustrator .7 version on my copy of freehand MX (version 11 I think)

Wondering what to do as my old macbook is falling apart, I'm still using freehand, need a new mac but can't run freehand on the new mac OS so will finally have to change to illustrator and trying to decide wether to go for CS5 or CS6 - just don't know what to do? I work for a small non profit organistion so money is a huge issue and I need to make a good choice. I somehow need to salvage the freehand work but upgrade for the future.

Any advice would be much appreciated PLEASE

Thanks

W

Wade_Zimmerman1

Inspiring

>ai files are .ai files and as far as I know any .ai file can be opened by AI CS 6.

I you wish to have someone open one of the files you save as .ai v7 post one and I will open it on my Mac. And let you know.

G

Gustavo Del Vechio

Inspiring

Hi stickleback6

Illustrator CS5 supports opening Freehand formats *.fh7, *.fh8, *.fh9, *.fh10, *.fh11, *.ft11

Illustrator CS6 has no support any longer for Freehand formats.

What´s the Freehand´s version of the file your are trying to open in Illustrator CS5?

Gustavo.

maeric

Participating Frequently

Gustavo, how do you know this for sure?

L

Les ONeill

Inspiring

I don't know too much about the Adobe Ideas app other than my Android phone might not be big enough for me to create little sketchy things good enough to bother importing into Illustrator and/or Photoshop. Obviously the app is geared for tablet use. The "work on up to 10 layers for no extra charge" thing scares me a little. It has me thinking of a scenario where I'm smearing my finger on the screen and suddenly run into a scenario where I have to break out the credit card in the middle of a mobile improv creative session. Tablets are popular with a lot of people, but I don't have much use for them given all the limitations in storage capacity, connectivity, etc. I'd rather use a notebook with full computer functions rather than something primarily built for media consumption. I can plug my Wacom tablet into a notebook.

The rival CorelDRAW application still offers Freehand import support. However, the mileage varies on how well Freehand artwork is imported. It's already challenging enough making CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator play nice in how they trade files between each other. For instance, neither one knows how to properly import each other's interactive gradient fills. Other apps besides Freehand are arguably lapsing into obsurity or dying. Neither Illustrator or CorelDRAW can import ACD Canvas art files, Canvas was formerly developed by Deneba. Micrographix Designer was (sort of) turned into Corel Designer -the last couple or so versions are really modified builds of CorelDRAW rather than the old Micrographix product.

I would still love to hear from a Senior Adobe employee on this issue. I have about 23 years worth of FreeHand files that I continue to use/update as I go forward (and yes I am converting to Ai as I go) but I can't just sit down and go through the thousands of illustrations that I've done in that time and convert them all in one sitting! I need to know that Adobe will continue to offer the ability to 'convert as required' going forward.

Les

D

DocPixel-BMW

Participating Frequently

In Illustrator CS5 you can just open the files, no need for a script.

As for Illy CS6: it will no longer open Freehand files of any kind. They must be first saved as an EPS from Freehand, then open in Illustrator.

TIP: for people with Macs, better keep an old system running as long as possible on Snow Leopard with CS5. Freehand is officially dead

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