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Private company

Altsys

American software company

Altsys Corporation was a Texas-based software company founded by James R. Von Ehr II. It was an early Apple Macintosh developer and publisher. Altsys' best known product was FreeHand, which was licensed to Aldus Corporation, was a vector drawing program that competed with Adobe Illustrator.2 It is part of Macromedia.1 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1984Founded1
  • Industrysoftware development1
  • HeadquartersTexas1
  • Legal formcorporation1

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Altsys Corporation was a Texas-based software company founded by James R. Von Ehr II. It was an early Apple Macintosh developer and publisher.2

Corporate structure

Altsys is part of a group headed by Macromedia. 3 entities, 1 country on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0); major holders from Schedules 13D and 13G. Each entity in the chart links to its source.

The story

Founded by James R. Von Ehr II in 1984.1

Leadership

Who has led Altsys, and when. Pick a name to see everywhere that person has worked.

Products and brands

Fontographer for Windows and Mac OS - font editor

Font-O-Matic for Windows - font transformer

FreeHand for Windows and Mac OS - vector editor

Virtuoso for NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP and Solaris - vector editor

Read the full text

A version was announced, advertised and demonstrated for Windows NT, but never released.

Metamorphosis for Mac OS - font utility

Art Importer for Mac OS

From Wikipedia’s article on Altsys, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1995Acquired Acquired by Macromedia1
  2. 1984Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
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