Respect! I'm in awe...
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As a die-hard FreeHand aficionado since the late 80'es, I have managed to avoid Illustrator so far.
I still use FreeHand professionally on Windows and privately on virtualized legacy MacOS! It works, but FreeHand shows it's age and it takes an extra effort to "stay alive"..
Now here comes VectorStyler into my life!
I thought I was in the know regarding FreeHand alternatives, but I just learned about VS browsing reviews on Affinity Designer 2.This is an amazing piece of work! I see it as FreeHand on steroids, teleported from past to present. So many familiar ways of doing stuff. Also reminds me of Fontographer, another Altsys originated app like FreeHand.
Only a few days into the trial, but I keep discovering well known features and methods + loads of modern, parametric ways of doing stuff.
It's a keeper - I'm buying..
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@larsherold Welcome to the forum and the world of Vectorstyler! Your post was fun to read. It's always encouraging to see how others react to Vectorstyler, especially when they are awed by it like the rest of us have been.
I was also a Freehand user for a period of time back in the day and then begrudgingly transitioned to Illustrator when Macromedia was bought out. My desire for a non-bloated and non-subscription alternative to Illustrator first led me to Affinity and then like you, a post about Vectorstyler on the Affinity forum led me here.
The developer of Vectorstyler has a terrific vision and concept for the program. It's obvious to me he did not want to make "just another" ho-hum vector editing program. At the same time, he's also been willing to take the best ideas from other vector editing programs and add them to Vectorstyler in a way that enhances that unique vision.
Initially I was shortsighted because I wanted so much of Vectorstyler to be like Illustrator as that was what I knew best. I've grown to appreciate new ideas and methods by keeping an open mind and not making initial familiarity my primary measure.It sounds like you have a wide breadth of design knowledge and an obvious familiarity with the revolutionary Freehand. @VectorStyler, the developer, is actively seeking new ideas and suggestions for improving Vectorstyler. As we have been using the program, it's been fun to see our ideas and suggestions get added over time. We all come from different design backgrounds and have used different vector design programs in that process so the ideas contributed so far have been well-rounded. I want to encourage you to share your favorite tools and methods from Freehand that are not already a part of Vectorstyler. Most of us here are not actively using Freehand, so you have a distinct opportunity to help Vectorstyler grow and develop further. I look forward to seeing what you add to the forum and the program!
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@larsherold Thank you
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Whilst my post may have sounded like moaning (and it sort of was!) I’m very impressed with what a single developer has achieved. My personal point of view is don’t go mad implementing suggestions and perfect what’s already there.
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@VectorVonDoom said in Respect! I'm in awe...:
don’t go mad implementing suggestions and perfect what’s already there
why should one exclude the other ?
It is already clear that the features should work.But in my opinion is especially the open mind
of the developer for improvements, new features
and the willingness to implement them. What makes
VectorStyler also stand out from other programs.Win 11
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 9600X, 6-core.
GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 5070. -
@Subpath said in Respect! I'm in awe...:
why should one exclude the other ?
Of course these are not mutually exclusive, and an important missing feature can be just as bad as a bug
Nevertheless, reported bugs / issues should take priority.
But there is progress on the new features side also
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@VectorStyler said in Respect! I'm in awe...:
and an important missing feature can be just as bad as a bug
very well said
and true -
@Subpath Some people on this forum… It was one sentence and you didn’t follow. I didn’t say don’t add anything new just not to try and accommodate every feature request when the base product needs finishing. It’s one developer.
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@VectorStyler said in Respect! I'm in awe...:
@Subpath said in Respect! I'm in awe...:
why should one exclude the other ?
But there is progress on the new features side also
... hope to see new possibilities of page/document layouts
