Text on FreeHand Files

[Al Catullo]

Hi there,

I'm able to import old FreeHand files adding the extension..., but all the text is gone. The vector are ok. Anyway to open those files?

I have probably more than 20 years of work on those files....

Thanks.

 

 

[Paul Bravery]

Hi Al Catullo, 

 

Are you able to upload the imported file for me to look at? 

 

It can be deleted later. 

 

Paul. 

[Paul Bravery]

Hi Al Catullo, 

 

There is a Customer Beta of Affinity Designer. 

 

Maybe this will solve your problem? 

 

Please let us know if it does. 

 

Paul. 

[Al Catullo]

Please, show me... How to upload the files..., I don't see any button for that..?

[Al Catullo]

Here you have....

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rto1fk5qhqj9iqh/Awesome?dl=0

[Leigh]

The file has no extension, so I'm unable to open it. Have tried adding .zip & .png to the file but no joy. Can you provide a link to a working file :)

[Paul Bravery]

What version Freehand are you using, Al Catullo?

Maybe adding .fhx (x is the version number) might help.

[Paul Bravery]

The file has no extension, so I'm unable to open it. Have tried adding .zip & .png to the file but no joy. Can you provide a link to a working file :)

Hi Leigh,

 

It's Freehand 11 & needs the .fh11 extension.

 

 

Paul.

[MattP]

Our Freehand import code does not currently attempt to import text - quite simply because there's an awful lot of code required to make the text import work and even if we get it to read in correctly, it will be formatted differently by our text layout engine compared to Freehand... So it does have value, but it's not trivial and it's unlikely to work perfectly in reality - so we focused our attention on other areas of the program instead... There's obviously scope to revisit this and add it in the future, but for the files that we received during beta testing while we were adding the Freehand importer, the vast majority of all files comes in successfully (by this, I mean that the files we received and used to build our importer obviously weren't text-heavy and it didn't seem like too much of a trade-off that text was not implemented yet)

 

Leigh, the file should work if you add the extension .fh11  - Freehand had a novel thing of not adding its own extension when you saved files so you got a lot of extension-less files! :S  [EDIT] - Ha, Paul beat me to it - thanks, Paul! :D

 

Thanks,

Matt

[Paul Bravery]

Hi Al Catullo & Leigh,

 

I've opened the file in AD & saved it as an AD file.

 

Uploaded in this thread.

 

 

Paul.

[Paul Bravery]

Our Freehand import code does not currently attempt to import text - quite simply because there's an awful lot of code required to make the text import work and even if we get it to read in correctly, it will be formatted differently by our text layout engine compared to Freehand... So it does have value, but it's not trivial and it's unlikely to work perfectly in reality - so we focused our attention on other areas of the program instead... There's obviously scope to revisit this and add it in the future, but for the files that we received during beta testing while we were adding the Freehand importer, the vast majority of all files comes in successfully (by this, I mean that the files we received and used to build our importer obviously weren't text-heavy and it didn't seem like too much of a trade-off that text was not implemented yet)

 

Leigh, the file should work if you add the extension .fh11  - Freehand had a novel thing of not adding its own extension when you saved files so you got a lot of extension-less files! :S  [EDIT] - Ha, Paul beat me to it - thanks, Paul! :D

 

Thanks,

Matt

Thanks, MattP.

 

That no extension thing is a hangover from the old Mac days when extensions weren't necessary. ;)

[Leigh]

That's not confusing at all, ha ;)

 

Thanks Paul and Matt! - you live and learn :)

[Al Catullo]

Ok, I assume  my old files from Freehand  are done.  So many files prior the landing of InDesign.... I have some heavy text files (Flyers, small presentations, Stationary, etc. I was trying to move on, but I will have to keep on old computer to only be able to open  those "antique" files....

[Al Catullo]

Anyway, guys, thanks for your help. I have the two apps. (AD & AP). Gradually learning to use them to move on...

[Mactor]

Ok, I assume  my old files from Freehand  are done.  So many files prior the landing of InDesign.... I have some heavy text files (Flyers, small presentations, Stationary, etc. I was trying to move on, but I will have to keep on old computer to only be able to open  those "antique" files....

Hi there,

 

sorry for answering this old thread but maybe some other guys have the same problem.

 

When I started to look for a possible solution for our old Freehand files I had no old Mac here for testing purpose.

So I decided to go the virtual machine way and took VirtualBox to setup a virtual Mac with OS X 10.6.8 because it's the lastes OS X with the possibility to run PPC apps due to Rosetta but also the newer Intel code. Freehand MX runs nicely and Illustrator CS2 and CS5 work also fine.

Setting up the VM was a bit trial and error in the beginning but is running stable now and we have the ability to put it on a SD card and whoever needs to test something with these old files can start the VM from there.

Not too bad for now...

 

Greets...         Mactor