I've been using FreeHand ever since my senior year in High School. So that means I've been using it for more than 10 years. I can't even remember what version it was, but it was cool to be able to do smooth blended fills and vectorized lines that would print smooth on a LaserWriter, a world away fromMacPaint type programs that I started on. If you're like me then you've seen FreeHand change a lot over the years. Not to mention, change ownership. We've seen the Good (FH 7), the bad (FH 5) and the ugly (FH 4). And some we've never seen (FH 6???).

Below are the different versions, their application/document icons, the company that released it at the time, size in Disk Space, RAM requirements, and other misc. info. Well it looks like I've gotten all the icon and misc. info on all known releases of FreeHand, and if you have any knowledge to add or change, feel free to e-mail me. Thanks, of course, to all the contributors and suppliers of the missing icons and info.

Also I have a page with all the splash screens for each version.

• FreeHand Splash Screens

To see secret splash screens go to the Tips Archive section.

If you are looking for a replacement floppy disk or installer for an older version of FreeHand and Macromedia can't help, then go to the Older FreeHand Installers page.

FreeHand™ 1
Company: Aldus, 1988	Size: 429K	RAM: 750K
The first release. Can't remember too much about this one as I last used it in High School. It offered the power of Illustrator 88, with the ease-of-use of MacDraw. I was finally able to get this to work with a Mac Plus emulator. What a time warp this is. Made me feel young again. I forgot how bad the layers function was. Visit the Spotlight section under the News tab for a look into the past.

FreeHand™ 2
Company: Aldus, 1988	Size: 704K	RAM: 750K
The second release. I really don't have too much info on this one. The icons look familiar though, so I must have used it some time in my life. Sub update: 2.02

FreeHand™ 3
Company: Aldus	Size: 1.3 MB	RAM: 1.5 MB
I remember this version very well. This one I learned inside and out. Did tons of work with it on a Mac Classic and IIci and remembered hating it very little. Fill and Line editing was tedious though, having to use a menu every time you needed to change something. This is what Illustrator was fighting to become. This was the first version to hit the Windows platform. This version was also ported to the NeXT system under the name Virtuoso (more on that below). Sub update: 3.1.1

FreeHand™ 4 (a.k.a. Virtuoso)
Company: Aldus	Size: 3.4 MB	RAM: 7.1 MB
Virtuoso 2 and FreeHand 4 were on overlapping development schedules. NeXT user interface gadgets made their way into FH4, and some Aldus UI design notions made their way into Virtuoso. The NeXT user interface influenced a lot of Macintosh applications in that period, FreeHand was just the most extreme example. When Altsys got FH back from Aldus in the course of Adobe's acquisition of Aldus, the team brought FH5 out in under 180 days. Sub update: 4.0b

FreeHand™ 5
Company: Macromedia, 1995	Size: 4.5 MB	RAM: 6 MB
Finally FreeHand™ was in the hands of good people. Macromedia® bought Altsys and again revamped our old favorite. Making it more stable and adding all kinds of cool features not found in competing software. FreeHand™ was making big headway against Illustrator. Hiring the great minds of DreamLight, they created the now infamous "Super FreeHand Guy" (AKA"Pat") and a great looking corporate ID for FreeHand™. But again it was riddled with bugs and even a sub-upgrade to v5.5 didn't help most; the exodus to Illustrator began. This also introduced the now standard floating palettes seen today as well as the plug-in/Xtra architecture. It started very slow, and today is still lacking in anything great. Kai introduced Vector Effects and started all kinds of creative juices. Sub update: 5.0.2, Sub upgrade: 5.5

FreeHand™ 6
Company: Macromedia	Size: ???	RAM: ???
This one never saw the light of day. It only existed in beta, about a third of the prerelease versions of FreeHand™ 7 had the "FreeHand™ 6" tag.

FreeHand™ 7
Company: Macromedia, 1996	Size: 5.6 MB	RAM: 8 MB
With v7 we got to see a lot of great changes. Editable EPS files were of course a great addition. Better compatibility with Photoshop was a big plus. One of the best new features was being able to edit contents of a pasted-in fill which saved a whole bunch of work for users of this feature. Also the ability to attach a blend to a path was cool. The palettes were now tabbed for easy customization and grouping. Sub update: 7.0.2

FreeHand™ 8
Company: Macromedia, 1998	Size: 6.6 MB	RAM: 10 MB
One of the first things I've noticed is the toolbars that can be moved to the top and now to the side. You can customize these as well as your keyboard shortcuts. The coolest feature I've seen yet is the Lens fill, there are so many things that can be done with it. Seems like they went bonkers with the new FreeHand ID, changing all the icons and splash screens. It has better integration with Macromedia Flash as well. To see more, visit the Spotlight Section under the News Tab for a closer look at most of the features. Sub update: 8.0.1b

FreeHand™ 9
Company: Macromedia, 2000	Size: 7.6 MB	RAM: 32 MB
Code named Underdog during the development cycle, FreeHand 9 has brought the levels of application customization up to new heights. One of the biggest new additions is the Perspective Grid where you can turn your 2D art easily into 3D perspective art. Many other great enhancements include the Lasso tool, Live Envelopes, and some cool Flash animation tools. See some of these additions in action in the Spotlight Section. Sub updates: 9.0.1 (Mac), 9.0.2 (Win)

FreeHand™ 10
Company: Macromedia, 2001	Size: 9.5 MB	RAM: 40 MB
Code named Avenger during the development cycle, FreeHand 10 is the first application Macromedia has released that is Carbonized for MacOS X. FreeHand also gets a facelift to have the common Macromedia GUI Interface. New features include Brushes, Master Pages and the seriously cool and useful Contour Gradients. Other new features are the built in Flash movie preview and the Navigation palette. Be sure to check out the Spotlight section for more cool additions. Sub update: 10.0.1 (see below)

FreeHand™ 10.0.1
Company: Macromedia, 2002	Size: 9.5 MB	RAM: 47 MB
Before this release, Adobe won a lawsuit against Macromedia in regards to a patent for "Tabbed Panels." Since most Macromedia applications used these panels, it was time to revamp the UI once again to make Adobe happy. This update introduced a temporary fix for this panel issue, as well as other general fixes (see FreeHand News for more on this). It also gave FreeHand the new MX brand of icons as seen above. This was a "silent" release only to make the lawyers happy, and was deemed too large of an update to release a patch application. It was made available only via the Studio MX package, or as a new purchase.

FreeHand™ MX
Company: Macromedia, 2003	Size: 10.3 MB	RAM: 131 MB
Finally FreeHand receives the MX brand nearly a year after Macromedia announced the MX style. New with this release is a totally revamped way of using the Object Inspector panels. Now rolled into one Property panel, you can change all of your objects' styles as well as add all kinds of neat vector and raster effects. Also new is the Extrude and Chart tools. Many other improvements and features abound in this upgrade, bringing many fans back after the FreeHand 10 fiasco.