In May Microsoft released new previews of Expression Graphic Designer, Expression Web Designer and Expression Interactive Designer.

It’s clear that Microsoft is preparing a new suite of applications aimed at a new target market - designers and creative professionals. So how are the new pretenders shaping up?

Expression Graphic Designer (Design)

expression graphic designer beta

Vector and bitmap graphics are central to any successful design suite and with Expression Graphic Designer, Microsoft has chosen to tackle both in the same product. It’s taken a shortcut however by buying up the longstanding Expression package from Hong Kong developer Creature House. This ensures that Expression Graphic Designer will be a powerful package for an apparent first release, but it does have a major downside: the interface. Unless radical changes are made, the working environment looks fussy and dated for a supposedly next-generation application.
Get to grips with the interface though and there’s certainly plenty of power. Key here is the use of so-called “skeletal strokes” (hopefully the terminology will have changed by the time of the full release). Each skeletal stroke is essentially a path along which other vector elements or bitmaps are either repeated or stretched. The resulting strokes can look like anything from pen strokes or air brushes through to photo-realistic ropes or marching ants. Plenty of preset strokes are provided and it’s simple to create your own and, thanks to their vector underpinning, each stroke’s path, width and formatting remain fully editable.
Alongside this skeletal stroke system, Microsoft has extended the power of Expression in a number of ways. The addition of Live Effects is especially powerful making it possible to apply a range of filter effects to both bitmap and vector-based objects. Options include core colour corrections, such as varying hue, saturation and brightness, along with more artistic filters. Like the skeletal strokes, each live effect can be retrospectively fine-tuned.
Most impressive is the work Microsoft has put into developing Expression’s bitmap capabilities. Now you can add a bitmap-based pixel layer as easily as you can a vector layer with the toolset on offer changing accordingly. As with its skeletal stroke brushes, the range of pixel-based brushes is extensive and you can also edit and create your own using a component system. You can also add 3D depth effects and control whether underlying paint is picked up by your brush strokes. Bitmap rushes can also apply basic retouching effects such as cloning, blurring, sharpening and red eye removal, but Photoshop is certainly not under threat.
Serious photo editing is not in the picture so how does Microsoft imagine Expression Graphic Designer being used? The answer is primarily as a graphical partner to its other applications. You should be able to copy and paste both vector and bitmap graphics into Office applications complete with full alpha channel transparency support – particularly useful for creating eye-catching PowerPoint presentations – though this is currently buggy. With its Pixel Preview and HTML Export you can also create rollovers for use in Visual Studio, FrontPage and Web Designer. And with its XAML support you can design rich graphics that you can then bring alive in Expression Interactive Designer.
Based on this integration and combined vector and pixel-based power, Expression Graphic Designer looks like it will prove a valuable creative all-rounder.