Press release
FreeHand: sold and buried alive
Many designers worldwide do their best work with the software application known simply as FreeHand (version 1.0 was first released in 1987). They count on it for their livelihoods and object to industry efforts to limit their choices. For many designers and illustrators, the software options forced upon them prove inferior in practice. Despite this fact, in 2005 FreeHand, as part of a larger transaction, was sold to another corporation which callously and summarily announced FreeHand’s death, much to the dismay of those who rely on it to practice their trade. No coincidence that this same corporation owns another vector graphics application. FreeHand was, at the time of its purchase and sudden execution, the only superior product and true competition at hand.
FreeHand must live
But now there is meaningful resistance, initiated by the designer and illustrator Thü Hürlimann, known in German-speaking countries for his work as the former art director of Macworld and Computerworld Switzerland. In 2009 he came together with a U.S. design firm, specifically Jabez Palmer of Bez Design in Seattle, to found the FreeFreeHand Organization. Within days of launching their activist web site, more than a thousand FreeHand users joined the community in full support. The number of members continues to grow daily.
What We Want to Achieve
We want FreeHand to have a future. Not only because we love to work with it, but also because we have thousands of files from the past we may need access to on any given occasion (well, they open in AI, but are converted into chaos). Our wish is a simple one: For those who still use FreeHand today (and don’t want to use Illustrator, possible reasons for which are myriad) the application must be brought up to date and maintained, i.e. known bugs fixed and made to work natively on current operating systems. We don’t believe this is asking too much.
There are several ways this could happen, depending on the level of monetary funding we can achieve and the degree of cooperation we might realize from the unnamed corporation that owns the FreeHand software code and related patents. All of the options below are on the table at this time:
* Updates are provided by the owner to current users for the equivalent of a per-license upgrade fee.
* The current owner agrees to release FreeHand code and licensing to the opensource community for maintenance and further development for an agreed-upon price.
* Sufficient funds are raised such that legal recourse becomes an available option and the owner is pressured into making a choice: release the code and all rights, or updates must be provided. Call it a class action antitrust lawsuit.
For more information, visit www.freefreehand.org.
This article was last modified on January 18, 2023
This article was first published on October 13, 2009
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