Macromedia's omission of the popular illustration tool from latest Studio release continues trend and stirs fears that Adobe merger will spell the app's doom.Macromedia Inc.'s release of Studio 8 has some FreeHand users feeling as though the application's days are numbered, as the company did not include the illustration tool in the suite.
Ian Kelleigh, founder and author of Freehandsource.com, said his feelings are mixed on the issue of Freehand and its future outlook. In April, following the announcement of Adobe Systems Inc.'s intent to acquire Macromedia, Kelleigh made predictions for FreeHand on his Web site including that "Macromedia might sell off the product or phase it out slowly or pull some of the most useful features and integrate them into Illustrator."
In an e-mail interview on Tuesday, Kelleigh commented on the release of Studio 8 and the omission of FreeHand, and noted user frustrations with Macromedia's support of the product.
"Seeing as how I've been a FreeHand user since its early days, it would make me sad to see it disappear completely," he wrote. "Though, in its latest upgrades, it has sometimes felt like Macromedia ignored the pleas of its users as to what should and shouldn't be added, and the end results were often bloated pieces of software that oftentimes broke their regular routines and made people digress to using older versions.
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"Many FreeHand users were just getting frustrated that not enough attention was being put to more creative and production time saving features (scripting interfaces?) where it looked like Macromedia's other applications were getting all the goodies."
Kelleigh continued, "Also to note, there were people complaining when it was included with Studio MX 2004 and how it was made to look like some kind of Flash helper instead of the powerful illustration program that it is. It's ironic that now people are complaining that it would be left out of the Studio suite. But I guess that's just natural paranoia since the user base hasn't seen or heard from Macromedia on any new developments on FreeHand in nearly two years."
Jim Guerard, vice president of product management for the tools business at Macromedia, when asked if the future looks bright for FreeHand, said, "Depends on the context you're saying it in. Certainly if you're asking what might happen after the Adobe acquisition, it's impossible for me to speculate on what may or may not happen."
He also reiterated the company's intention to support the product as a stand-alone, "What I'm saying right now is that the plan of record for FreeHand for Macromedia is that we will continue to sell, support and maintain it as a stand-alone product."
Guerard also said Macromedia has gathered a large list of comments and questions from major FreeHand users and plans on prioritizing the list and moving forward from there. He would not specify when the company might make improvements.
On FreeHand's long-term future, Kelleigh said he is hopeful that the merger will lead to a stronger illustration tool. "Ultimately it's up to Adobe on its future. I just hope that if they absorb FreeHand, that they utilize some of its better features over Illustrator's and vise versa."
Ron Rockwell, a Pennsylvania-based freelance illustrator, said he hopes that Adobe will be kind and turn FreeHand over to another company.
"Aldus and AltSys are dissolved so there's no one to sell it back to," he said. "I hope that long-term FreeHand will see another evolution with a different company."
The Adobe and Macromedia merger is expected to close by the end of this year, pending shareholder and regulatory approval.
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