You may have noticed that Microsoft has a new operating system on the way; Windows Vista. Central to its interface is the Windows Presentation Foundation and the WinFX API, now renamed .NET Framework 3. The new suite of design applications is designed to integrate with Vista development tools by exporting in the new XAML (eXtensible Application Markup Language) interface format, ready to plug into Visual Studio.
Expression Graphic DesignerVector and bitmap graphics are central to any design suite, and Microsoft has ambitiously chosen to tackle both in the same product. However, it’s taken
a shortcut by buying up the long-standing Expression package from Hong Kong developer Creature House. The downside is that while this is a powerful package for an apparent first release, the interface is both fussy and dated and that has carried through here. Unless some radical changes are made, the working environment won’t be that of a supposedly next-generation application.
Underneath the interface, though, there’s huge potential. Key to this is the use of skeletal strokes. Each one is essentially a path, along which other vector elements or bitmaps are repeated or stretched. The results can look like anything from pen strokes or airbrushes, through to photo-realistic ropes or columns of marching ants. Plenty of preset strokes are provided, and it’s simple to create your own. Also, because of their vector underpinning, each stroke’s path, width and formatting remain fully editable.
Alongside this system, Microsoft has extended the power of Expression in several 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 fine-tuned retrospectively.
Most impressive is Microsoft’s work in 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. The range of pixel-based brushes is extensive, and you’re able to edit and create your own using a component system. You can add 3D depth effects, and control whether underlying paint is picked up by your brush strokes. Bitmap brushes can apply basic retouching effects such as cloning, blurring, sharpening and red-eye removal. It’s all powerful and creative stuff, but Photoshop isn’t under any threat yet.
Although serious photo editing is out of the picture, Expression Graphic Designer is an excellent graphical partner to other applications. You’ll be able to copy and paste vector and bitmap graphics into Office applications complete with full alpha channel transparency support – particularly useful for creating eye-catching PowerPoint presentations. This is buggy in current builds, but it holds huge promise. With its Pixel Preview and HTML Export, it’s also possible to create rollovers for use in Visual Studio, FrontPage and Web Designer. And with XAML support, you’re able to design graphics that you can then bring alive in Expression Interactive Designer.
It’s this level of integration, and the combined vector and pixel-based power, that leaves Expression Graphic Designer looking like a highly creative all-rounder. We just hope the interface can be tweaked to reveal a little more of that.
Expression Web DesignerAnother area where Microsoft is looking to boost its design credentials is the Web. Its current offering, FrontPage, has changed radically in recent years, but its original poor support for standards means it will never gain professional acceptance compared to the likes of GoLive or, particularly, Dreamweaver. But Expression Web Designer already looks like a much more serious contender.
By keeping the underlying code of a webpage exposed, it’s a major progression from FrontPage, which did its best to keep it hidden. While Expression Web Designer is built around a main wysiwyg-layout window, it also offers tabbed access to code and split code/design views, and is bordered by technical task panes reminiscent of an advanced programming environment. It’s much more serious and professional than FrontPage, but usability hasn’t been forgotten – the latest CTP can already show Dreamweaver a thing or two about efficiency and productivity.
Ultimately though, it’s the quality and browser compatibility of the outputted code that will determine its professional acceptance and whether the ghost of FrontPage can be laid to rest. Here, Microsoft is making all the right noises about standards compliance and, crucially, each page can be based on a doctype, to which all code will then conform. You can also set a secondary schema for the compatibility checker so that otherwise correct code which isn’t supported, say in IE6 or IE5, is flagged.
