Open FH files in your browser
FreeHand's drawing, Illustrator's great rival until Adobe ended it. Open one right here, every page, sharp at any zoom. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your drawing opens at its first page, its pages in a rail beside it.
- Every page • Shapes, lines and text
- Sharp at any zoom • Drawn, not pictured
- Search • Every match counted and marked
- Export • Save as PDF, PNG or JPEG
About FH
Altsys made FreeHand for Aldus in 1988, Macromedia sold it from 1995 to FreeHand MX in 2003, and Adobe ended it in 2007 after buying Macromedia. For twenty years designers drew logos, posters, maps and packaging in it, and many still keep their work as .fh files, numbered by version from .fh3 to .fh11.
A FreeHand file holds pages of paths, text, gradients, blends, symbols and pictures. Its format changed with most versions, and no app Adobe sells opens it now, so old artwork needs a reader of its own.
Filepeek reads FreeHand 3 to MX with libfreehand, and FreeHand 1 and 2 with libmwaw, the open source readers LibreOffice uses, compiled to WebAssembly, and draws every page with its paths, text, fills and pictures, sharp at any zoom. Export saves the pages as a PDF or as pictures.
FreeHand document
.fh • .fh3 • .fh4 • .fh5 • .fh7 • .fh8 • .fh9 • .fh10 • .fh11
Format
- MIME type
- image/x-freehand
- Made by
- Altsys for Aldus, then Macromedia and Adobe
- Released
- 1988
Inside the file
- Pages
- Paths, text and pictures
- Look
- Fills, gradients and strokes
- Colors
- Process and spot colors
- Versions
- FreeHand 1 to MX
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens FreeHand files in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers only download them.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open FH
- WindowsLibreOffice Draw opens it • Adobe ended FreeHand in 2007
- MacLibreOffice Draw opens it
- iPhone and iPadNo app built in opens it
- AndroidNo app built in opens it
Questions
How do I open a FreeHand file without FreeHand?
Drop it on this page or choose Peek an FH. It opens at its first page, sharp at any zoom.
Can I get it into Illustrator?
Export saves the pages as a PDF, which Illustrator opens with its paths. LibreOffice Draw opens FreeHand files too and saves them as SVG.
Why does my drawing look a little different?
Filepeek reads FreeHand files with libfreehand, the open source reader LibreOffice uses. Some of FreeHand's effects aren't drawn, and text is set in the fonts your device has.