FreeHand MX PDF support

[John]

I'm currently using FreeHand 9 and CorelDRAW 11.

I'm thinking about upgrading to FreeHand MX as I'm really after getting to
know one tool really well that'll cover most things, print, video and web
and is multipage!! I've seen all the flak about bugs and the talk of an
impending update, so I'm aware that there are some issues with MX.

There's a lot of exciting talk about the new Flash support in FreeHand MX
but what is the PDF support like? Has it moved on from 9? (What about
Illustrator support too, since AI now saves as a version of PDF?) CorelDRAW
11 gives extensive options for PDF output, can FreeHand MX match it?

Thanks
John

[Judy Arndt]

John wrote:

> I'm currently using FreeHand 9 and CorelDRAW 11.
>
> [...] There's a lot of exciting talk about the new Flash support in FreeHand
> MX but what is the PDF support like? Has it moved on from 9? (What about
> Illustrator support too, since AI now saves as a version of PDF?) CorelDRAW 11
> gives extensive options for PDF output, can FreeHand MX match it?

The limitations of PDF export in FH9 remain in FHMX. Online help for FHMX
details the same info as this technote:
[url]http://www.macromedia.com/support/freehand/ts/documents/export_limits_pdf.ht[/url]
m

FHMX exports to Illustrator 7 and previous versions, not the newer PDF-based
formats.

Judy Arndt

[John]

Wow quick replies - thanx Armadillo and Judy.

It's not so vital for me to have 100% PDF reliability for print work, I'd
just want to be able to have people view artwork and also publish small
brochures for download. I sometimes use PDF to get artwork into After
Effects as well as Flash and PSD. Like I say I'm after a good all rounder. I
think my head will explode if I have to learn one more app!!!!

After looking at specs on Flash MX 2004, it seems it has better
compatibility with Adobe formats than FreeHand MX?

Thanks again.

[darrel]

> I do not even use

> pdf export in InDesign.

This is off topic, but my understanding is that it is better to make PDFs
(for pre-press) directly in InDesign. Since it is an adobe product, I see no
reason not to export directly as PDF from Adobe apps.

I do agree that with anything else, it's usually best to run things through
Acrobat.

-Darrel

[Ian]

Slightly off topic, but I have used FH9 to produce PDFs via both direct
export and via Distiller.
Often I find that Distiller will produce HUGE pdfs in comparison with direct
export. A direct export might be 30k and the same thing through Distiller,
even with compression settings set to max etc (max compression, not max
size!), could be 200k. On other occasions Distiller produces nice small
pdfs, and of course the direct export can frequently turn it all to custard,
so I only use it for quick, simple, non-critical jobs.

I haven't yet detected a pattern to this behaviour, so it's unpredictable at
this stage.

Cheers
Ian.



"John" <john@mayavisionint.com> wrote in message
news:bj56n8$rn0$1@forums.macromedia.com...

> I'm currently using FreeHand 9 and CorelDRAW 11.
>
> I'm thinking about upgrading to FreeHand MX as I'm really after getting to
> know one tool really well that'll cover most things, print, video and web
> and is multipage!! I've seen all the flak about bugs and the talk of an
> impending update, so I'm aware that there are some issues with MX.
>
> There's a lot of exciting talk about the new Flash support in FreeHand MX
> but what is the PDF support like? Has it moved on from 9? (What about
> Illustrator support too, since AI now saves as a version of PDF?)

CorelDRAW

> 11 gives extensive options for PDF output, can FreeHand MX match it?
>
> Thanks
> John
>
>

[Armadillo]

> This is off topic, but my understanding is that it is better to make PDFs
> (for pre-press) directly in InDesign. Since it is an adobe product, I see

no

> reason not to export directly as PDF from Adobe apps.

Not with version 1.0 - 1.5. In 2.02 there is no major problems with pdf
export.

However, my point is to make pdf files always the same way using the same
joboptions. (Often provided by printer) In other words 'If it is not broken
don't fix it.'

Jukka