Adobe closes FreeHand in favor of Illustrator

San Jose (CA) - Effective immediately, Adobe has shut down its vector drawing app FreeHand, encouraging users to move to its other akin software program Illustrator.

The one exception is FreeHand MX, which will continue to be sold and supported, at least for a little while longer. All other users are asked to move to Illustrator.

Said Adobe’s John Nack in his company blog, "After a long and storied career, Adobe FreeHand has reached the end of its development road."

FreeHand was developed by Macromedia back when it was an independent company. Adobe’s acquisition of Macromedia led to speculation of the end of FreeHand because of its existing similar Illustrator application. However, in May 2006 Adobe said it would continue to support both products. Despite that promise, there have not been any updates to FreeHand in over four years.

As part of the suggested transition, Adobe has released a Migration Guide for users moving from the now abandoned software to Illustrator. Owners of FreeHand can also get a special rate on Illustrator CS3 of around $200. The regular list price is $600.