© 7-11-03 Dean Browell

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• Product Name: Macromedia Freehand MX
• Company:Macromedia
• URL: http://www.macromedia.com/software/freehand
• Category: Commercial Vector Graphic Application
• Price:
  • $399 Full Version
  • $99 Upgrade
  • $899 in Studio MX (packaged with Dreamweaver MX, Fireworks MX, Flash MX, and the PC-only Contribute, Cold Fusion MX, and the DevNet Resource Kit Special Edition)
  • NOTE: Contribute 2 is due soon from Macromedia, and will be available for OS X.
• Requirements:
  • Power Macintosh G3 Processor
  • Mac OS 9.1 or higher, or OS X 10.1 or higher
  • 64MB of free available system RAM (128MB recommended)
  • 70MB Disk Space
• Rating: 4 bounces - Pure Lust

Freehand MX has arrived, rounding out the Macromedia MX line and more importantly making a clear signal that Macromedia is serious about making applications that are tailored to both the professional and beginner.

An Improvement?

What many readers and prospective upgrade-buyers will ask is: "Is this upgrade a massive one or an incremental one?" I hope to answer this question for you as straightforwardly as possible. Given that Freehand 10, the previous incarnation was relatively recent in release one might be forgiven to draw quick conclusions such as the need for an upgrade so soon and the increase in productivity involved. But these conclusions would ignore the careful hand Macromedia played in bringing Freehand 10 to the OS X market early in the OS X "clock" analogy and in fact being the first viable large-scale vector app available. Even when Illustrator 10 came to the party, Freehand was comfortably in place and drawing looks. The vector battle we held here at Applelust was a telling sign that Macromedia had brought their game face to the OS X transition. Freehand 10 wasn't just a carbon retread, but a true step up, and one would expect that Freehand's entry into Macromedia's "MX" line-up would be a similarly large step up. Let me be completely clear here: it is. Freehand MX improves in every way I could have hoped, and several I didn't even consider; Don't let the bargain upgrade price ($99) fool you.

Stability & Usability

As Mac users we take for granted a certain level of interface ease, but we also can truly appreciate a scenario when a company takes the time to refine an experience we may or may not be familiar with to make it more pleasurable experience all around. I have never found pleasure in button-hunting, pull-down menu roulette, menu madness, window-personality-disorder, or find-the-feature games in graphic applications (or any application for that matter, but design apps have a tendency to want to innovate themselves into interface oblivion). Worse yet, the inexperienced user will be twice as baffled as the seasoned graphic app devotee.

And ACTION! Web integration is a key advance in Freehand MX, making this a friendly entry for Web work for many artists. This easy-to-fill properties box appeared just after tapping the Action tool and an object.

Freehand falls into none of these pitfalls, and in fact cleans up an already pretty clean act (since Freehand 10 anyway). There is an emphasis on efficiency that leaves the user more time to consider their options, not pecking for a tool or selection they wanted to find minutes ago. Arguably, Freehand MX makes the seemingly implausible step of making Vector drawings as effortless to modify (such as in erasing lines, the new "blend" concept and tool, fills and basic object interaction) as your average raster-based Fireworks PNG, and vector artists know that is no small feat. Add to that the Action tool to create presentations and make behavioral relationships (not unlike Fireworks) and you have an intuitive program that doesn't bog you down. That reference to Fireworks is not unintentional, as the entire layout is in line with the successful menu interface and help features present in the other Macromedia MX line.

Even when you simply drag a .png file in from the Finder, Freehand MX quickly begins to work on importing it.

Packed full of features, Freehand MX isn't just a pretty face. Of the larger touted features I found the fact that you could assign multiple attributes to a single object the clear winner in my own productivity (thus reducing my usual load of objects to create a single image). The new features, like the multiple attribute one, are geared toward making your experience a less complicated and frustrating process toward a singular project. Take the Connector Lines tool, which makes flow charts look like child's play, which they should be at this point in our evolution of the graphic design program. Another should-be-a-no-brainer-by-now (and yet for some programs requires too much brain) is Import and Export options, which Freehand has made even more smooth in this release (See: Sidebar).

Not to be overlooked is the general stability of the program, which is another area that those with powerful computers and the latest OS X version can overlook if they aren't careful. But as an artist that has been confined to underpowered machines, I can tell you that to find an app that won't blow a metaphorical tire as I'm really turning the corner on a project is a rare and blessed thing; thankfully Freehand MX falls into this category and makes an improvement on its early-OS X version in its speed and stability. Comparing the two (unscientifically, mind you) I found the newer app far less apt to drag in process slowdown and far peppier in overall task performance.

Check out the run-down of object properties you can now work through instead of the image itself. What app(s) does this look like? That's right, all of the MX apps...

Welcome to the Family

Fact #1: Freehand MX is a powerful application on its own, which can aid artists of all levels of sophistication and medium. Fact #2: Combine another MX application with it (just pick any one) and you end up with a result far more advanced than the sum of its parts. Designers of all flavors can cherry-pick their career change by combining the MX experience; Want a graphic powerhouse? Mix Freehand MX with Fireworks. Want to manage a website built on your art? Freehand MX and Dreamweaver MX. Want to explore, create and publish animation on the spot? Freehand MX and Flash MX. Freehand MX could lean you in any of these directions and even competently perform what you might want to explore further, but for the best example of application interaction and integration since Apple's own iApps, take a spin with Freehand MX with another MX app in the sidecar. The files, effects and attributes are all interchangeable, including more thorough production abilities for Flash users and a host of interactive effects that can (if you wish) open the related MX applications for a responsive artistic experience that doesn't require you hunt, open and repeat all over the place. Obviously to use every feature you'd need every MX app (i.e. Studio MX mentioned below) but as I mentioned before not having other MX apps will not deprive you of any power- Freehand is an incredibly independent app (more so than ever before in fact).

Freehand's arrival to the MX club means that Studio MX has officially become the software suite of choice. Studio MX now boasts the impressive package of Dreamweaver MX, Fireworks MX, Flash MX, Contribute, Cold Fusion MX, and the DevNet Resource Kit Special Edition all at a tempting $899 price- NOTE: Only plan on getting the big-apps in this package as a Mac user since Contribute, Cold Fusion MX and the DevNet kit are PC-Only right now (hopefully these gravy apps will be converted soon). DOUBLE NOTE: You can get an additional $100 off the full version of Studio MX if purchased before July 24, 2003.

Freehand MX improves in every way I could have hoped, and several I didn't even consider. If Freehand 10 made vectorists (my pet name for those, for professional or habit reasons, that simply must create everything vector-based) happy to make the OS X transition, than Freehand MX will make the rest of the art industry take notice. Macromedia has a knack for creating applications that encourage users inclined in a particular direction to empower themselves in other mediums. Freehand MX is one of the most surprising examples of this, playing enabler for vecorists to enter mediums that are natural progressions (web, animation, publishing) without the need of a career change. Somehow, Macromedia went from being a developer of powerful niche applications to being the developer of applications that made niches invisible. I recommend Freehand MX to even those users that thought they wouldn't need it. This is an app you simply must explore. Download a free trial and check it out!

- Dean Browell

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