What is Aldus FreeHand 1.0?

As color editing and printing become a reality, increasing numbers of sophisticated drawing programs are coming to the Mac II. Entries into this field already include MacroMind’s VideoWorks II, MindScape’s GraphicWorks, Cricket Software’s Cricket Draw, Adobe Illustrator, and SuperMac’s PixelPaint.

Latest in the genre is FreeHand from Aldus, a PostScript-based color drawing program that enables you to sketch a subject and then edit each of its elements precisely in an object-oriented, PostScript-compatible format by using handles that can be manipulated like the curves in Illustrator FreeHand boasts a number of other features, including the ability to output color drawings as spot overlays and to process color separations with hairline registration marks for checking alignment during printing. You can view up to 200 consecutive layers simultaneously, and you can go back and redo your last eight actions.

A line of text can be bent along an irregular shape and edited for size, spacing, typeface, and color. Color and monochrome fills are available for graphics, using graduated radial, linear, or logarithmic functions. Text and graphics can be scaled, rotated, reflected, or slanted.

Both PICT and encapsulated PostScript (EPS) images can be brought into FreeHand through the Clipboard for tracing and painting, and then exported via EPS to page-makeup and other programs. Adobe Illustrator files can also be opened and edited in FreeHand.

FreeHand provides nine levels of either x 1/2 or x 2 magnification, allows custom fills of complex shapes, creates and edits PostScript code, and saves entire designs or individual design elements as templates.

Davis, Gil. (February 1988). Macworld News. Macworld. (pg. 131).

Download Aldus FreeHand 1.0 for Mac

Architecture

Motorola 68K

System Requirements

From Mac OS 4.0 up to Mac OS 6.0

Compatibility notes

Architecture: 68K

Mac OS 4.x - Mac OS 6.x

Note: It does not work on Mac OS 7, 8 or 9 since it gets stuck at the new document window, complaining input values are incorrect.

 

Emulating this? It could probably run under: Mini vMac