Macromedia Announces FreeHand 5 for Windows

Major Upgrade First To Over 32-Bit Performance, Cross-Platform Capabilities
And New Features

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--June 19, 1995--Macromedia, Inc. (NASDAQ:MACR), the
leader in multimedia and digital arts software, today announced FreeHand 5
for Windows, a major upgrade to the most powerful tool for graphic design
and illustration. FreeHand 5 is the first Windows drawing software to be a
native 32-bit application, providing digital artists 32-bit capabilities
and performance across the entire Windows platform, including Windows 95,
Windows NT and Windows 3.1 or 3.11 under Win32/s. FreeHand 5, which will
ship with over 500 fonts and 10,000 clip art images, provides superior
cross-platform graphic illustration software, with an identical feature
set, interface and cross-platform file format for both Windows and
Macintosh. Graphic artists working in digital studios with a mix of
different Windows systems and Macintosh computers now have the flexibility
to seamlessly move from platform to platform and operating system to
operating system. Files are also ported between systems effortlessly, as
FreeHand 5's binary database is the same on any platform, even between
different versions of FreeHand.

"FreeHand 5 for Window's 32-bit, cross-platform performance empowers
digital artists to 'Author Once and Play Anywhere,' by encouraging
seamless movement of illustrations designed on any platform or operating
system to another platform or operating system from any computer to any
other computer," states Jim Von Ehr, vice president and general manager of
Macromedia' s Digital Arts Group. "As the computing environment in graphic
design shops becomes more and more mixed, FreeHand 5's flexibility allows
digital artists to put a premium on creativity, not platform
compatibility."

"FreeHand 5 for Windows helps me be responsive to my clients' demands,"
states beta tester Dale Glasgow, owner of Glasgow and Associates, an
illustration and multimedia design firm. "The cross-platform capability of
FreeHand 5 gives me the flexibility to design on one platform and easily
port to another, making it possible for me to support and satisfy all my
clients, regardless of the platform they use."

FreeHand 5 for Windows includes many new features, including an expandable
architecture, increased text capabilities, extraordinary special effects,
bundled content and faster performance. FreeHand 5's expandable
architecture supports interactive drop-in tools unique to FreeHand. This
provides graphic artists with added flexibility and a third-party market
of FreeHand-related tools and features. FreeHand 5 now supports text
handling capabilities that enable designers to lay out multi-page
brochures and advertisements, as well as amazing special effects that
cannot be duplicated in any other graphics software. Substantial content
is shipped with FreeHand 5 for the first time, with over 500 fonts and
10,000 clip art images available. A number of features improve the speed
at which designers can experiment with and initiate new projects. These
new features make FreeHand the tool of choice for graphic designers,
creative directors, production artists, and illustrators worldwide.

Expanded Architecture

FreeHand 5 now supports floating palettes and its own drop-in interactive
tools as well as plug-ins from third party developers. Five companies,
including HSC Software, BeInfinite, Azalea, Bullfrog, and Visions Edge
have already designed significant Xtras for FreeHand 5 for Windows and a
continuing stream of new tools to enhance FreeHand's capabilities is
expected. In addition, FreeHand's import/export abilities have been
enhanced so that FreeHand can now open and place CorelDraw 3 and 5 files,
as well as files from all versions of Illustrator.

Text Handling Improvements

FreeHand 5's text capabilities have been expanded to allow designers to
easily integrate both headline and body type into advertisements and
brochures. New features include style sheets, a spelling checker,
search-and-replace, underline, strike-through, highlighting, optional text
edit windows, and optional text ruler.

Special Effect Enhancements

A number of new tools give designers the capacity to create extraordinary
special effects. Some of the new effects include FreeHand 5's Fisheye
Lens, EyeDropper tool, 3D Rotation, Smudge, and Transparency tools. For
example, the EyeDropper tool can "pick up" color from any place in a
scanned photo or other TIFF image. The color can then be named and applied
to type or other graphic elements.

Bundled Content

FreeHand 5 now ships with over 500 fonts and 10,000 clipart images. Fonts
are available in both Type I and TrueType and are high-quality URW
typefaces.

Faster Performance

Many of FreeHand's new features contribute to faster performance and
increased efficiency:

* Multiple views of the same FreeHand document allow editing with
  instant feedback from several different magnifications.
* Text handling has new, faster performance.
* Drag-and-drop multi-colored gradient fills are now available. These
  sophisticated shading effects can contain up to 64 colors and print
  accurately on any PostScript device.
* Magnification of up to 25,600%.
* Expanded 20' x 20' work area.

Pricing and Availability

FreeHand 5 for Windows will be shipping in North America in late June for a
suggested retail price of $595. Registered users of previous versions of
FreeHand for Windows can upgrade for the price of $ 149; FreeHand 4.0 for
Windows will continue to be sold as an entry level tool for $79 through
October 1995. A competitive upgrade is being offered for $149 to users of
any version of CorelDraw (or other major Windows drawing application).
FreeHand 5 for Windows will also be available later this summer in the
following versions: International English, German, French, Swedish,
Italian and Spanish. Outside North America, interested parties should
contact their local Macromedia authorized international distributor for
additional information on the localized versions.

"Graphic designers will be pleased with FreeHand 5's professional new
feature set and reliability," said Pete Mason, product manager of
Macromedia FreeHand. "FreeHand' s expanded architecture will increase
their creative horizons with hundreds of supported plug-ins, and the
improved text-handling capabilities will enable designers to create
multi-page brochures and advertisements entirely in FreeHand."

About Macromedia

Macromedia Inc., the leader in multimedia and digital arts software tools,
offers a full range of products for the Windows and Macintosh platforms.
The company's flagship products include: Macromedia FreeHand, the most
powerful tool for design and illustration; Macromedia Director, the
industry-standard animation and authoring tool for multimedia production;
Authorware the most powerful multiplatform authoring environment for
interactive information; MacroModel, a powerful 3D modeling tool for
multimedia, graphics and product design; SoundEdit 16, the easy-to-use
digital sound recording and editing solution; Fontographer, the
industry-standard typeface editing program; and Action!, the most popular
multimedia presentation application. For more information on Macromedia
products, please call 500-288-4797, 415-252-2000, or fax 415-626-1502. You
can also reach Macromedia on-line: America OnLine: Keyword: MACROMEDIA,
Compuserve: GO MACROMEDIA, Internet: macropr@macromedia.com or on the
World Wide Web site: http://www.macromedia.com

Macromedia
600 Townsend
San Francisco, CA 94103

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