Altsys
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founder | James R. Von Ehr II |
| Fate | Acquired by Macromedia in January 1995 |
| Headquarters | Texas , United States |
Key people | James R. Von Ehr II (founder) |
| Products | Fontographer, Font-O-Matic, Virtuoso (FreeHand), Metamorphosis |
Altsys Corporation was a software firm based in Texas, established by James R. Von Ehr II. It played a pioneering role as a developer and publisher for the Apple Macintosh system.
Among Altsys' principal offerings across PC, Macintosh, and NeXT platforms were:
- Fontographer for both Windows and Mac OS – a tool for editing fonts
- Font-O-Matic for Windows – software designed to modify fonts
- Virtuoso for NeXTSTEP/OPENSTEP and Solaris – a vector graphics editor (although a Windows NT version was demonstrated and announced, it was never commercially released)
The most prominent product from Altsys was Virtuoso, which was licensed to Aldus Corporation and marketed under the name FreeHand. This vector illustration program served as a competitor to Adobe Illustrator. Initially exclusive to Macintosh, FreeHand later expanded support to include Microsoft Windows. Following Aldus' acquisition by Adobe, Altsys' licensing terms prohibited FreeHand from being transferred, causing the publishing rights to revert back to Altsys. Additionally, the company released Metamorphosis, a font management utility for Macintosh.
In January 1995, Macromedia acquired Altsys. Subsequently, founder James R. Von Ehr II became a significant shareholder in Macromedia and joined its board of directors.
External links
- Altsys Metamorphosis Apple Inc. support article, circa 1990
- Softbase – comprehensive listing of Altsys software products for Windows