Re: FLASH: The Benefits of Freehand?

[John McKenzie]

Christopher Rankin wrote:


> As I've been moving away from print and toward the web and Flash and

> have heard that the integration between Freehand and Flash is good, I

> was wondering if anyone had any comments on whether I should switch

> to Freehand now or stick with Illustrator.

> 

> I've downloaded the trial of Freehand and the learning curve will

> slow me down in the short term, but will it work out better in the

> long term? Thanks for the input.


Well, this one is pretty subjective. Personally, I prefer FreeHand, and

FreeHand 9 eliminates a few of the interface annoyances from previous

versions. As far as integration with Flash, it works as well as I need it

to, however, Illustrator 9 looks to provide the same level of integration

(JD can probably check me on that). I don't wind up "distributing to layers"

very often but that's just me, perhaps that's the kind of thing you'd

like... but in either case either FH8 or Ill. 9 will do this... of course

Ill. 9 won't be out for a few months.


The most compelling argument for FreeHand is just that some people find it

incredibly fluid and empowering. I'm one of those people. If you do the

trial and, after a month of figuring out all the subtle things, it's not

clicking for you, it may never. Some people never adjust to all the little

UI differences like "control click to get at nested objects," personally, I

think they're almost all in FH's favor. If you do print work, you will find

that you can produce more powerful multipage designs in FreeHand than trying

to do it with any other application, but that's getting further OT.


    John McKenzie

    http://homepage.mac.com/jmck




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