Your expectations

[FFH Thü]

What do you expect from Expressive? What are the features you need the most? Things that have to be like in FreeHand, or things you need additionally? Let us know here.

[cyclopsdx]

At this point in Expressive's development, I would just be happy with an up-to-date version of what I already use. No need for any extras at this point. The key is the simplicity and refinement of the tools, the ease of use.

It's important that current PDF export options are included and the option to open legacy FH files. When the time comes, I can see myself spending hours converting/updating my old files!

Will Quasado be able to use the same keyboard shortcuts, the same naming conventions for commands, etc? Does this infringe on any Adobe registered content? It would be typical of Adobe to try and sue for copyright infringement once the software is public.

If the development team do want suggestions for additional features, I'm happy to contribute but I don't want to distract them from the core job of getting the initial product right!

[alecchin]

Hi,

I've been a FreeHand user since the 80's and so am a hard fast fan. I've tried Adobe Illustrator so many times but have always moved back to FreeHand to do the work I need to do. I find Illustrator blotted with features I'd never use and a UI that I can't fully understand. FreeHand had a simple yet easy to understand set of tools and commands. For example I find Illustrators massive set of selection tools confusing, why do you need so many different selection tools when one can do the same job, FreeHand has one primary selection tool and keystrokes if you need to get deeper into a selection... simple! Also, the terminology of filters and commands in FreeHand are easy to understand, for instance the "paste into" command does exactly what it sounds like where as in Adobe Illustrator the same function is "Create compound Mask", it took me forever to find it and then I found it seems to has limitation as to how many points it can handle, FreeHand's function just worked!

So what do I want in a new application? Well basically a clean and simple to understand set of tools, similar to FreeHand, not too many subset tools unless needed. A set of commands that do what they say and don't make me spend hours testing them to work out what they do. I'd also like to see a palette system that gives you access to menu features and tools I'd use daily, Illustrator seems to have a lot of menu features (i.e.: step and repeat) but no palette access to them so you're forced to always go into the menu bar to access them which is very slow if you need to access them multiple times.

I'd also like to see a lot of FreeHand features, I miss the transform palatte which gives you easy access to move, rotate, mirror,etc objects live. I also loved that when moving, rotating, etc an object FreeHand kept the values of the action in it's memory so you could then simply select another object and use the "duplicate" feature to duplicate the exact same offsets to another object.

There's so much I'd like to see but not enough time to go into depth so here's a quick list of some other elements I'd like to see:

• A easy to use ColorSync profiling system
• Mirroring tool (accessible by a toolbar)
• Envelope distortion tool (accessible by a toolbar)
• Path combining tool (accessible by a toolbar)
• Path blending tool (accessible by a toolbar)
• 3D path effect tool (accessible by a toolbar)
• Scale, rotate, skew tools (accessible by a toolbar)
• Type palette
• Gradient attribute palette and some sort of fluid gradient tool similar to Illustrators gradient mesh
• Pantone swatch libraries
• CMYK colour compatiblity
• Advanced find/select tool for finding any element including colours line widths, text styles, fonts
• Name all colours in a document feature
• Replace colours/library swatch feature
• A good set of PDF export tools
• Spell checker
• Fast redraw and options for previewing a page
• Layers palette
• Alignment palette
• Properties palette similar to FreeHand (a central palette that gives you access to attributes of an object and the page all of which can be changed)
• Info palette containing co-ordinates, scale, rotate, info for the current selection
• Snap to guides and point feature
• Type on path similar to FreeHand feature

Hope this helps.

Alec

[harry]

I agree. Just an up to date version of what I already use. (Without the weird things that I have put up with for ages - like the fact that I have to type my percentage to scale into a blank area - the box doesn't appear until after). Also, with the ability to control the PDF output the same as I do out of indesign (I currently import eps files into Indesign in order to do my final ready for print PDF).

[netdzynr]

Absolutely agree and second/third alecchin's post regarding selection tools. Freehand has always had good selection options (being able to click "through" upper layered objects to access lower layer objects). Illustrator makes this difficult and in some cases impossible. Similarly, Freehand's layer system works well in that 1) multiple objects can exist on a layer and 2) shifting objects to another layer can be done with a simple click. Finally, not sure if anyone has said this yet, but Quasado would do well to offer the import of Freehand files, if possible.

[frederick]

what cyclopsdx said: no need to reinvent the wheel, for now please give us the same functionality as MX but compatible with current and future OS. bells and whistles can follow once the inevitable bugs (sorry... undocumented features) are smoothed out.

[oskarolsen]

when the new program would work with the new OSX versions combined with the features of Freehand everything would be great. The handling of Opentype fonts would be great!

Best regards

Oli

[garethglynn]

Much like others, a version of FreehandMX that is fully functional on MacOS10.6/7.
I particularly like the colour management, type control and multi-page functionality.
Some open standard animated graphic output option would be great

[caroleh]

Ditto... "no need to reinvent the wheel" I too am happy with Freehand as it is now. The only thing I would like added is to be able to scroll up and down the page with my mouse - I may not be able to do this right now as I think I went back version as I found it work better an operating system upgrade. Was a long time ago so my memory is vague.

[FFH Thü]