What Are FH10 and FH11 Files?

These are vector images made with Adobe FreeHand

By
Tim Fisher
Photo of Tim Fisher, Lifewire GM and Writer
Tim Fisher
Senior Vice President & Group General Manager, Tech & Sustainability
  • Emporia State University
Tim Fisher has more than 30 years' of professional technology experience. He's been writing about tech for more than two decades and serves as the SVP and General Manager of Lifewire.
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Updated on August 9, 2022

What to Know

  • FH10 and FH11 files are drawings created by and opened with FreeHand 10 & 11.
  • You can also use Adobe's Illustrator or Animate programs.
  • FreeHand can convert one to EPS, or use CoolUtils to save to PDF.

This article explains what FH10 and FH11 files are and how to open one on your computer or convert one into a different image format, like JPG, PNG, EPS, etc.

What Are FH10 and FH11 Files?

Files with an FH10 or FH11 file extension are drawings created using the now discontinued Adobe FreeHand software.

These files store vector images used for both web and print purposes. They can contain gradients, lines, curves, colors, and more.

FH10 files were the default format for FreeHand 10, while FH11 files were the default format for FreeHand MX, the name that version 11 was marketed as.

FH10 files that open with Adobe Illustrator in Windows 10

Previous versions of FreeHand utilized the appropriate file extensions for those versions as well. For example, FreeHand 9 saved its files with the FH9 extension, and so on.

How to Open FH10 & FH11 Files

FH10 & FH11 files can be opened with the appropriate version of Adobe's FreeHand program, assuming you have a copy. Current versions of Adobe Illustrator and Animate will open them as well.

FreeHand was created by Altsys in 1988, which was later bought by Macromedia and finally purchased by Adobe in 2005. The software was discontinued in 2007. While you can no longer get it from Adobe's website, there are some FreeHand updates you can download from Adobe if you need v11.0.2 (the last version released).

How to Convert FH10 & FH11 Files

Finding a specific file converter that can save FH10 or FH11 drawings to another image format may not be possible. One we found is the CoolUtils website, which says it can save it to PDF.

However, if you have FreeHand already installed on your computer, you can just use it to convert the file to a different format, like EPS. Once you have the EPS file, you can use an online file converter like FileZigZag or Zamzar to convert to some other image format like JPG, PDF, or PNG.

Since both Illustrator and Animate can open these formats, it's likely that there's some sort of Save As or Export menu option that can be used to save the file to a different format.

Still Can't Open It?

If your FH10 or FH11 file doesn't open with any of the above suggestions, it's possible that your particular file has nothing at all to do with FreeHand and is just using the same file extension. In this case, the file is meant for a different program entirely.

If this is the case, use a text editor to open the file as a text document. In doing this, you'll likely see scrambled, unclear text unless the file happens to be text-based, in which case all the data is 100 percent readable in the text editor. However, if you can pick something identifiable out of it, you might be able to use that information to research what program was used to build your file, which is likely the same program that opens it.

It's also possible that you're misreading the file extension entirely. Other extensions look similar, even though they're completely unrelated. F06 is one example, which is an output file used by MSC Nastran. Another is FH, associated with Backup Exec.

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