If you can find an old MacMini Intel (on ebay) and prepared for a bit of tinkering then you can run natively FreeHand MX on an Intel box. This will keep FreeHand MX alive and is very much RETRO Macintosh tinkering. Its also surprisingly fast in use, both to start up (in seconds) and in use. I should...

Although many FreeHand MX users are faced with using 'Parallels' to run freehand virtually, there is a new option if your planning on getting a new Mac soon. This will only work on the new Apple Silicon Macs and its limited to ARM based Macs. I have not tried this, but its worth a try. I do know tha...

A nostalgic trip down memory lane here. A chance to use the old FreeHand sofware under Mac os 7 and Mac os 8. I have been a user since Aldus FreeHand 3 and Aldus Pagemaker made for the early Mac system 7. You can now try that same system in your browser. IF you are or have your old hard dives intact...

I have been in contact with CROSSOVER who are advertising to convert 32 bit Apps (like FreeHand MX) into 64 bit Apps. An idea that we could convert FreeHand MX to an newer Mac os i.e. Catelina and later using the same scheme and method. I already use something similar BUT its entirely based on the W...

Interesting option to choose. I am using SOSUMI and QUEMU to run a Mac os system (and I have run TIGER in virtual but prefer another method). It will work and its damn fast but I found QEMU blocks certain ports (such as USB) and I could not 'update' the Tiger os at all. Another problem was that I co...

A new graphics App clean and simple is not quite FreeHand but quite good at simple no frills graphics for both Mac and Linux (no Windows). Its 64 bit runs on most versions of Ubuntu and modern Macs, although not tested). So worth a look if your work is more Browser based (SVG graphics) than print. I...

Yes, you can import clip art as SVG into Inkscape and 'save as' PDF. I can then 'import' or open that PDF in FreeHand MX usually, so its a big 'plus' on that front. And for really old clip art (picture jpeg of gif files), I still use the 'old' Adobe Streamline v4. to convert to vector (ai) format, (...

As a graphic artist, I cannot live without FreeHand for both speed and ease of operation. Its simplicity hides its enduring usability, which is a go to tool for graphics professionals not wanting Adobe overkill and bloat. So I am glad FreeHand Forum is maintained to share hints and tips. One of whic...

Well, I solved it and it was quite easy if your familiar with FreeHand layers (which I use all the time). Exporting from FreeHand is restricted to pdf v1.4 (ok for most printing jobs) but for layers you have to use pdf v1.5 upwards. So that means you have to use (the dreaded) Adobe CS2 illustrator t...

This is a bit off topic but I understand that FreeHand is used is used by choice of keen mappers for drawing up terrain/ locations on Maps. I have a request from a client who wants me to map an underground tunnel and use layers to switch on and off cables and so forth in PDF. I can do that. But the ...