How Can I Open An Aldus Freehand Document From 1996

Factual Questions
1

I did a logo for a company 13 years ago that they never bought and would like to repurpose the artwork, but it was created using Aldus (I don’t think they’d been bought by Adobe or Macromedia yet) Freehand. How can I open the file?

2

You’ve stumbled on one of the most irritating problems of our rapid computing evolution. I have this problem occasionally, so I keep old machines (or emulators) around to handle it. I might be able to open it and convert it for you - I’d have to go into my archives and see what versions of Freehand I have. I’m not sure what modern formats this old version can export - you will probably be stuck with EPS.

3

Here’re the Freehand files—although one of them might be an old Illustrator file: http://tinyurl.com/dzmm53

4

I’ll look at them when I get home tonight.

5

http://www.freehandsource.com/
http://www.freehandsource.com/_files/_scripting/convertto_fh8-fh10.sit"

from: Subscribe

hope this helps…

6

Thanks!

7

Unfortunately, these files require Classic, which is no longer supported.

8

Adobe CS3 can open some FreeHand files, depending on the version.

9

I just opened one using Adobe CS 2

10

Only back to FH7. These files are FH5.

Freehand MX is supposed to open them - I’ll look back in the stacks tonight and see if I have a copy.

11

Freehand MX is available on a 30 day trial.

12

Oooohhh…
That’s a good suggestion…

13

>Unfortunately, these files require Classic, which is no longer supported.

I run classic on vmac on windows. Kinda a PITA but it works.

14

Yes, and there’s Basilisk II and Sheepshaver, for OS X, but neither is really ready for primetime.

15

Yea! That worked. Thanks.