Tom Arah gets to grips with Microsoft’s new Expression Studio and Silverlight platforms and wonders how they will fare against Adobe’s Flash.

Recently I looked at how Adobe is reworking Flash in preparation for the coming battle with Microsoft over the Rich Internet Application (RIA) space and, with it, the likely future of computer-based design...

Tom Arah examines what the recent Flash-based developments mean for the future.

Amazingly, the Flash SWF format’s rise to dominance began with its ability to embed simple, cartoon-style vector animations into HTML web pages to give them a bit of a lift...

Tom Arah explains why the new Windows Presentation Foundation in Windows Vista is set to revolutionize computer-based design.

Recently I’ve looked at the history of computer-based design for both print and screen. It’s been a strange story with many twists and turns...

Tom Arah looks at the history, problems, solutions and future of designing for the screen.

Previously I looked at the history of desktop publishing (DTP) with its focus on print-based design and output to paper. However the advent of the Apple Mac and of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) into the mainstream of personal computing also heralded the opening up of an entirely new publishing medium and one that is set to become even more important than paper – the computer screen itself.

Tom Arah weighs up whether Microsoft’s new HD Photo format is good news or bad.

You might think that Microsoft’s recent announcement of its new continuous tone bitmap format, Windows Media Photo – since renamed HD Photo - would be greeted with universal acclaim...

Tom Arah investigates Google’s acquisition of SketchUp and what it might mean for browser-based 3D.

I've long been a big fan of a little program created by @Last Software called SketchUp which is designed to make producing 3D models as easy as 2D drawing – “3D for everyone” as their mission statement puts it...

Tom Arah investigates the use of the web as a free online photo source.

It's a common question : how do you find images for your creative projects – for free. And at first sight the answer might seem obvious...