Top FreeHand MX Features

Add more visual punch to your designs and illustrations—apply unlimited stroke, fill, and effect attributes to a single vector or text object. Multiple attributes eliminate the need to stack duplicates of an object to create a particular appearance, making updates easier, faster, and leaving fewer objects to manage.

Now you can quickly inspect and change object and text properties—such as stroke, fill, font, or effect—in one centralized location. In addition, the Object panel provides localized stacking control of multiple attributes for unlimited and unique visual appearances. You can also drag and drop between the Object and Styles panels to create, edit, and redefine graphic and text styles.

Maximize creative expression with live effects, which apply complex distortions and effects without altering the original object. FreeHand MX includes vector effects (such as bend, sketch, and transform) and raster effects (like bevel, drop shadow, and gradient transparency). The complete control of ordering provided in the Object panel allows you to apply effects in any order, to all or selected attributes of the object.

Quickly and easily reshape rectangles, ellipses, and polygons while maintaining the control and editability of FreeHand MX graphic primitives. Easily round rectangle corners and mix concave or convex, convert ellipses to arcs, or change polygons to stars with editable numbers of points.

Increase productivity and streamline development of Macromedia Flash projects. Plan, layout and design entire projects in single document. Now you can even import more complex Macromedia Flash movies (SWFs) into your FreeHand MX document and integrate them into your designs before exporting back out to SWF with improved efficiency. Placed SWFs can be edited using launch and edit in Macromedia Flash functionality. Macromedia Flash can also open and import FreeHand MX files.

Drag and drop complex Macromedia Flash actions between objects, symbols, and pages. Assign simple actions like Go To and Play, or Go To and Stop, as well as more complex behaviors such as Get URL or Load External Movie.

Quickly map information architecture, data flows, and site maps with the Connector Lines tool. Just drag the tool to assign persistent relationships between objects. Connector Line styles let you completely customize the appearance of connectors and quickly apply them.

Realize your creative vision with a collection of enhanced tools and functionality. Create exciting 3D appearances with the Extrude tool, which gives complete live control over extrude attributes, including 3D rotations, lighting, and shared vanishing points. Drag and drop the Blend tool to create and modify live blends, or use the Eraser tool to modify paths in an, organic way. Additionally, FreeHand MX now provides alpha channel support for imported bitmaps.

Streamline your graphics development workflow with enhanced Fireworks integration. Launch and edit imported bitmap images with a single click in the FreeHand MX Object panel, make your changes in Fireworks, then click back in FreeHand MX— your image is now updated, without losing any effects or transformations applied to the original FreeHand MX image. You can also open or import FreeHand MX files directly in Fireworks, with improved vector and text reliability and editability.