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Ask DN: do you miss the Macromedia era?

almost 9 years ago from , UX/UI

From time to time, I usually go on tour reviewing all sites of companies that used to produce graphic software. I was always an admirer of Macromedia: not only for creating Flash, but also by other software like Freehand, Macromedia Director. Heck, those guys did rock.

One of the things I loved from Macromedia was the intensive use of Font Bureau's Vonness. Sweet font and perfect colors.

https://web.archive.org/web/19990826225339/http://www.macromedia.com/?

I love everything from Macromedia's graphic design style. The cleanliness, the colors, the fonts, everything.

10 comments

  • Corin EdwardsCorin Edwards, almost 9 years ago

    I miss the competition.

    14 points
    • Marc EdwardsMarc Edwards, almost 9 years ago (edited almost 9 years ago )

      Ditto. I wasn’t ever really a fan of Freehand — I prefer Illustrator, but it was nice when Macromedia, Quark and Adobe were duking it out for our business.

      Mind you, the transition from QuarkXpress being dominant and completely dropping the ball to InDesign taking over the print layout industry didn’t take long.

      2 points
    • Diego LafuenteDiego Lafuente, almost 9 years ago

      Totally.

      I was Illustrator and Freehand. To me Illustrator had good thing, but Freehand was really powerful. Specially on the grid side. I used freehand on print a lot and was really popular on Spain nowadays.

      0 points
  • Account deleted almost 9 years ago

    I remember in Freehand you could zoom in/out infinitely. Still waiting for Illustrator to add this. :-(

    3 points
  • Evan DinsmoreEvan Dinsmore, almost 9 years ago

    Hell no. Those tools were shit compared to the versions we have today. I'm happy Flash is basically dead, that dreamweaver isn't really used to produce websites anymore, that Photoshop has auto-save and dozens of other features that I couldn't live without now, I would hate to have to use those old tools again.

    1 point
  • Mike SwartzMike Swartz, almost 9 years ago

    I never really understood freehand, I guess because I got started in Illustrator first. But I did enjoy the Macromedia design aesthetic and the juxtaposition to Adobe.

    Bonus, here's a blast from the past when "Future Splash" was just becoming Flash: https://cdn.tutsplus.com/active/uploads/legacy/articles/017_flashStory/img/befor-flash1.png

    1 point
  • Account deleted almost 9 years ago

    Definitely. I also miss Freehand.

    1 point
  • Josh GreenJosh Green, almost 9 years ago

    no

    0 points
  • Geoff YuenGeoff Yuen, almost 9 years ago

    If you were a poor freelancer, you could do almost anything with just Freehand and Photoshop. Freehand supported multiple pages long before Illustrator had multiple artboards.

    I also liked how there was only one pointer tool to move objects and edit nodes.

    0 points
  • Mark StewartMark Stewart, almost 9 years ago

    aaaaaahhhhhh Lingo.

    I recently found one of my old zip disks from 1998 (complete with radical fractal custom cover). I know it's full of flash and director stuff, but a) I don't have a zip drive and b) don't know how to open old Flash/Director stuff. Does anyone know if you can still get Director up and running? Do current versions of Flash open up reeeeaaallllyy old fla's?

    0 points