Open Freehand files with Illustrator CS6

[Herbie03]

Please bring back this ability. It worked in CS 5.1.

[Angus Hume]

We are in the same boat. We used FreeHand for as long as we could after Adobe bought their only competition and killed it. More than 15 years worth of assets. At least they eventually included a reasonable translator in Illustrator to open Freehand files. Having just upgraded to CC from CS5, because… Adobe, we are astounded to see that even this meagre effort by Adobe they cannot bother to maintain. We still have FreeHand and we still have CS5, but I have not been able to run FreeHand for years because it does not run on recent OSX versions or hardware. I find it ridiculous that we are expected to keep installing CS5 just because they decided to silently kill the translator. Once of these days Adobe is going to wake up and realise they have become the next Quark.

[David J Taylor]

It's hard to believe that there's no way to the old designs and illustrations I did in Freehand to open in Illustrator CC. I feel like I'm missing something because it seems so basic. I'm curious why adobe won't address this issue.

[maeric]

To Angus Hume and Scifi Commons, you echo many of us on this matter. It is one of the biggest complaints on our Twitter page but considering that Adobe FreeHand is a discontinued product now, there will be no remedy by them for converting files to Illustrator. BUT a third party has a working converter plugin in beta. Several of us have been testing it for months and it works. It should be released early this summer.

[Angus Hume]

Certainly FreeHand is a discontinued product however the list of formats that Illustrator CC can open is quite long and still includes many old formats such as Corel Draw 5. Looking at the page Supported file formats | Illustrator the only import format that has changed from CS6 onwards is that all FreeHand versions are no longer being supported. Having already been thoroughly shafted by Adobe by their killing FreeHand I was not really in dire need of a second. More people should be alarmed by this even if FreeHand is irrelevant to them, because now they are trapped in the CC upgrade path they may do a minor update one day and find compatibility for some other format they use daily silently killed.

It is nice to know you are working hard on a third party solution

[kiski]

I'm stuck at MacOSX10.6.8 just to be able to open my Freehand 11 files. I have Illustrator CS4 and CS6. Which is the better way to open those files? Do I  then have to work my vector logos in Illustrator?

Someone said I could download Snow Leopard Server to open FH file in 10.9. How would that work? Is that like having a second OS and closing one to access the other just to open a FH file?

[BarhorstCreative]

In the same boat as other Freehand users here with 20 years worth of Freehand files. Was happy when Adobe added Freehand import to Illustrator CS3, but the import in CS3 wasn't all that great so I continued to use Freehand running in Snow Leopard on a 2011 Mac Pro. Now that Apple is giving a free upgrade to Yosemite, thought I should finally get around to tackling the Freehand vs Illustrator problem I have. Downloaded a trial of Illustrator CS6 to see if the Freehand import was any better than CS3 and was shocked to find the Freehand import no longer supported. At this point I just find myself wondering what is wrong with the people at Adobe? I downloaded the trial to see if it would work and now find I would have to buy an additional plugin for $50 to see if that would work. It's all very disappointing. From what I've read Adobe has finally gotten Illustrator on par with the old Freehand MX, but at the same time they decided to take away the one feature needed for all of us old Freehand users to embrace Illustrator and move on. We can complain in these forums all we want, but they won't listen. Adobe stock has more than doubled since 2012, so I'm sure they think they're doing everything right and have little interest in reading commentary from any of us. I can tell you from what I've seen so far I wouldn't buy the CS6 stuff or subscribe to the CC. It's not because I don't want to, but because it doesn't have what I need. I always thought that someday I would be able to easily open old Freehand files in Illustrator with little text shift and distortion. But "someday" has now gone on for years and I have little confidence in Adobe for a solution. I'll start reading up on that plugin. Maybe it does a good job and works as promised. It won't have an Adobe logo on it, but at this point I'm starting to think that's a good thing.

[dichundmich]

Hi,

I have the same problem, I still have around 100 Freehand files that I cannot open in Illustrator.

Trying the "social solution" (free): Would someone reading this (this means you!) with a working pre-CS6 version of Illustrator convert the Freehand-files to AI for me? That would be really helpful (100 files, 2MB ZIP). Please email me at hpcompaq2206 and then gmail and then dot com. I will post here once someone did this for me (and declare that person hero of the day!).

This script allows you to batch convert Freehand to AI files Adobe - Illustrator : For Macintosh : Converting FreeHand files to Illustrator files through scripti...

Should be done in <5 min for someone with a pre-CS6 Illustrator.

Thank you in advance!

[graphicsource]

Does anyone know if there is a stand alone download for the Freehand Import Plugin from CS3-CS5?

What is the actual name of the Plugin in order to search and see if I already have it somewhere?

I'm going to purchase the Tensai plugin, but I'm not sure my CS4 software installed correctly, or have what I need.

Somebody please help. I can't believe that Adobe can get away with this crap!!!. So frustrating!!!

[graphicsource]

For anyone else that may be looking for the plugin, it is called FHImport.aip     

[maeric]

A regular install of AI-CS4 will work fine as the Tensai plugin looks only for the import file. You can even use a Trial version since Illustrator itself doesn't need to be working at all for the Tensai plugin to find the needed file. I've been using it for a year now and it is amazing.

[graphicsource]

I got it to work!!! If I'm not mistaken, you don't even have to install Illustrator to make it work. There was a zip option in the installer, so I'd think you could just download the trial version zip and go to town. The Tensai plugin is AWESOME!!!! There is a very slight type reflowing, but other than that, it's great. I wish I had bought this a long time ago. Re-typesetting was for the birds. Well worth the $55.

[paulw52642690]

And we have to pay £45 to do this?? On top of an annual license fee?

Not at all happy about this Adobe. You should do something about this asap.

[enriquefornes]

POR FAVOR ADOBE, BORRAD ESTE POST. NO SIRVE DE NADA. SOLO PARA PERDER EL TIEMPO.

GRACIAS

PLEASE ADOBE, DELETE THIS POST. IT'S USELESS