When applying gradient fills to objects in FreeHand, each object will have the full range of the gradient applied to it. However, this may not be the effect you want to create. Sometimes you may want the gradient fill to be shared across multiple objects.

Gradient fills are often used to shade objects for a realistic look. Using a gradient fill is limited because the gradient steps don't always run in the same direction as the shape of the object.

Macromedia FreeHand and Fontographer are two graphics applications that support connector points (more here on point types in drawing programs). Although connector points are not widely supported they can, nevertheless, be very useful.

This tutorial is for creating metallic gradients with Macromedia® FreeHand. This tutorial uses version 9, but the steps should be the same for any version.

This technique is for drawing cylindrical shapes with Macromedia® FreeHand. This is a very basic and simple tutorial which can easily be done in a few minutes. This tutorial was done with FreeHand 9 but the same technique should work with most any version.

This technique is for drawing isometric or oblique rectangular shapes with Macromedia® FreeHand. It is similar to Drawing Technique Number 3, but instead of being a freeform technique, this one uses the Transform panel to control the angles. This tutorial was done with FreeHand 9.

This very simple and basic technique is for drawing isometric or oblique rectangular shapes with Macromedia® FreeHand. This tutorial uses FreeHand 9, but the steps should be the same for most any version.

The following tutorial details the steps to make the arrow in the illustration below. The battery comes from a CorelDRAW® clip art collection. The idea of the illustration is to show that electricity flows from negative to positive.

The following tutorial details a simple technique for drawing a complex shape by combining primitive shapes in Macromedia® FreeHand. The shape is a fan grate on the back of a computer case. The techniques described here are very typical for creating complex shapes from primitives.

In the first part of our discussion about gradient fills, Color Power with Gradient Fills, we looked only at raster programs. This time, we are focusing on gradient fills in Adobe Illustrator and Macromedia Freehand.