Microsoft adds to graphics software palette

Microsoft is readying at least two new products aimed at professional designers as part of an aggressive push into the graphics software market.

On Monday, the company is expected to release a second test version of a program code-named Acrylic that's aimed at allowing designers to easily create art for Web pages. Microsoft released an initial prerelease version of the Acrylic software in June. So far, there have been 200,000 downloads of the product, said Forest Key, a group product manager in Microsoft's developer division.

Key also confirmed that Microsoft is working on a separate graphics product, which was recently described by server and tools chief Eric Rudder during a presentation at a company meeting for financial analysts.

News.context

What's new:
A Microsoft executive confirms that the software giant is in fact readying a second new graphics product--Expressions Studio.

Bottom line:
Along with the product code-named Acrylic and the new Metro printing engine, Redmond's moves could be seen as a direct assault on Adobe Systems, though Microsoft execs have sought to downplay the competitive threat to Adobe.

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"We mentioned before that we're doing a new suite for designers; we're going to call that Microsoft Expressions Studio," Rudder said at the event in Redmond, Wash. "We'll have some very cool tools that combine the best of vector, some very cool tools for animation."

Although some observers had assumed he was referring to Acrylic, Key said Rudder was referring to a new, second product. He would not offer any further details on the Expressions Studio product, or how it differs from Acrylic. Adding to the confusion, Acrylic is based on a program called Expression that Microsoft obtained as part of its 2003 acquisition of Creature House.

The new graphics products, along with Microsoft's Metro printing engine--which has been described by some analysts as a "PDF killer"--add up to what could be seen as a direct assault on rival Adobe Systems, which sells the popular Illustrator and Photoshop tools.

An Adobe representative was not immediately available for comment.

Microsoft executives have sought to downplay the competitive threat to Adobe. Key said that Acrylic is largely complementary to the graphics tools already on the market.

Adobe has largely avoided competition with Microsoft over the years by concentrating on areas that the software giant tended to neglect. However, with Windows Vista--the next release of Windows that was formerly code-named Longhorn--Microsoft has taken a greater interest in the graphics tools market.

As part of Vista, Microsoft has developed a more advanced graphical presentation system, called Windows Presentation Foundation. That graphics system--developed under the code name Avalon--will also be made available separately as an add-on for Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Acrylic and Microsoft Expressions Studio are aimed at making it easier to build Web applications on top of Windows Presentation Foundation, which Microsoft hopes will in turn lead to greater sales of Vista.

Avalon will "better equip Microsoft to compete for developer hearts and minds in the battle to maintain desktop dominance," according to a recent report from Forrester Research.

Rudder noted in his talk to Wall Street analysts that any revenue Microsoft generates from its graphics business will represent new growth for the company.

"That's all upside for us today, because we don't really play there," Rudder said.

Tie-ins to Office, other software
Although images created in Acrylic can be output to all kinds of media, the focus with the tool is to help design images that can be used in Web site creation and for PowerPoint presentations. One of the new features in this test version is the capability of pasting images from Acrylic into PowerPoint, Microsoft's presentation software and part of the company's Office bundle, while retaining their transparency.

Another new feature in the updated test version is the ability to take designs created in Acrylic and export them in Extensible Application Markup Language, or XAML, a new file format Microsoft has created as a means of tapping into the next-generation graphics engine, which will debut with Vista. This means that developers can use familiar tools to design software interfaces, but then export their projects into code that developers can put directly into their software.

"You can then start to put together some very impressive applications," Key said.

Although Microsoft is building XAML options into Acrylic, the company also is looking for other software makers to include such abilities in their products. So far, no big-name companies have publicly committed to offering the functionality, though Microsoft said a few smaller outfits have.

At the same time, one of Microsoft's evangelists, Michael Swanson, last month posted a blog on how he had created an XAML export tool as an add-on to Adobe's Illustrator by using the company's software development kit. He posted the software as a free download.

The goal of having the XAML output, Key said, is so that designers can see their work directly added to software code. Today, he said, it is more typical for a designer to create a look in an illustration tool and for programmers to attempt to use code to closely mimic that design. With Acrylic, he said, "that discrepancy goes away."

Key would not say when a final version of Acrylic might ship, but he said its development is ahead of Windows Vista, which is slated to debut by the end of next year. As for Acrylic's pricing, Key said it would be in the range "of what professional tools for this audience cost."

Acrylic combines vector and pixel-based design capabilities. Vector graphics are composed of points or lines, while pixel, or bitmap graphics are typically photographic images.

The new Acrylic download is 81MB in size and is free. It will expire at the end of December, Microsoft said.

Ain't Gonna Happen...

List for me the number of successful graphics apps MSoft has
built...

Yeah, that's what I thought. There is a belief that anything with the
MSoft name is bound to dominate its respective market. If
FrontPage is any indication, they haven't the slightest chance.

[Scott W]

i hope you're right

we can only hope you are right. luckily the graphics market is mature, which leaves it harder for MS to penetrate with their inferior products. add to the fact that they aren't "integrating" it into windows and giving it away (*cough, office, *cough) then this leaves them with a strong opponent in adobe.

Oh come on!

Frontpage, Internet Explorer, Microsoft is all over web technologies,
quite possibly the best of what's available! *rolls eyes*

Whistling past the graveyard...

List for *me* the number of companies that took your attitude and were successful at holding MS back.

Yeah, that's what *I* thought.

MS has never seriously gone after this market in a coordinated way before. Go talk to Lotus about what happens when MS gets its act together.

[Earl Benser]

I think that I'll pass on this one...

Acrylic Version Alpha-1 was such a loser's disaster that I have no
interest in what MS may have done to this graphical latrine pit. MS
just doesn't have a clue about graphics. So Ta Ta MS, i'd rather go
with Adobe - which holds the championship belt for bloatware, but
does understand graphics.

[JuggerNaut]

Microsoft trying to pull rug from under OpenGL!

Go to OpenGL.org to find out what exactly is going on...

http://www.opengl.org/

Metro worries me

MS Windows is the ONLY modern operating system that doesn't
support the ability to create PDFs or read PDFs natively. One
MUST download and purchase Adobe products to do this. OS X
and Linux have PDF creation and reading built in. PDF is an
open, well-documented, free standard, thanks to Adobe.

When I ask my Windows colleagues to stop emailing me Word
documents, and instead print them to PDF and email those
instead, their eyes glaze over. I don't want to read what they
have to say using a $300.00 editor. PDF will do just fine,
thanks.

Why won't MS support PDF natively? Well, its clear now.
Introduce Metro, make it proprietary, and push users to
exchange memos using Metro. Users will be overjoyed with this
"innovative" technology. And they'll be locked in.

Same old story.

Adobe would be smart to release their PDF Printer for free to the
Windows world, educate users on the benefits of printing to PDF,
and hope to curtail Metro.

[JuggerNaut]

Use the Export to PDF in StarOffice/OpenOffice.org

It is quite crazy that most Windows users are still unaware of PDF
and its cross-platform greatness. I recently showed a friend how
to export to PDF using StarOffice 8 beta and he said that he'd buy
SO for just that feature alone. I use PDF extensively for emailing
read-only documents to friends and colleagues. The great thing
about PDF is that it's everywhere.

[Stan Johnson]

Adobe is the graphics king.

Microsoft is just playing games. They can't touch Adobe or the professional graphics market as it stands now. Their new products won't attract anyone who is serious about graphics. On PDF, it is here to stay for the graphics professionals, especially when considering PDF-x1a for CMYK print production. Of course exclusive Office users will love this new stuff from Microsoft. Adobe is for the professional designers. MS is for amatures that need more to play with.

[FisherKingKQJ]

'acrylic'

I had Front Page, but it was too large for the hard drive at the time. The same goes for Debian Linux. Now the hard drives are big enough maybe VMe on Lindows is the way to go for "acrylic" :) :) :)

[Mendz]

Something to watch...

It's as bloated as Photoshop but it has interesting features that are uniquely useful not available to Photoshop.

Oh Geeez.....

... And here we go again.

[robbzerr]

An act of desperation

Microsoft needs new revenue streams and is desparate for any source. So, Acrylic. Who needs another version of Word when most of us use 10% of it? MS is a two hit wonder revenue-wise: Office and OS. It continues to try any model to continue the bonanza and monopoly it has tried so long. Perhaps it should spend more time working on security and an OS that doesn't crash. Some backward compatability perhaps in products? Acrylic is the Bob of the 21st Century.

PhotoDraw2006?

This sounds a lot like PhotoDraw2000. Microsoft dropped that product from its Office suite pretty quickly, but it's still my favorite graphics program. It does everything I need, but without the overkill that Adobe has. If you watch the demo video of Acrylic on their web site, PhotoDraw2000 did everything they demonstrate.

Etch A Sketch with a Broken Knob

Given Microsoft's history of product quality and
"innovation", (poorly executed Apple rip-offs), I'm even more
enticed to buy stock in Adobe.

PASS.

heh

I know it. It's like they're trying to be better than even Core Image, which won't happen. Core Image is pretty awesome, and it's free.

But like you said, this is Adobe's domain. Pushing away Photoshop Elements could be a bad move for MS.

[Llib Setag]

Windows can draw pretty pictures too...NOT!

PAST POSTING that needs to be seen again...

Get a clue Citizen Gates. You have bragged for years that
Microsith is a serious " business" software company.
NOW all of a sudden, gee Microsith can do "graphics & photos &
web design & music, etc. " just like that "toy computer" company
APPLE. Multimedia is hotter market now that the "old business"
model that you base MS on, fewer upgrades to MS-OS, fewer
upgrades to MS-OFFICE cash cow, fewer people updating or
buying WIN-PCs, Apple & Adobe are hotter than ever in the
consumer marketplace, so WAIT A MINUTE!, Windows can be
creative too! (Billion dollar campaign " Try XP " commercials
from computer software monopoly?)....

Gates is a geek bully & Jobs is a cool multimedia mogel.


MS Death Star to Adobe/Macromedia/Apple
Posted by: Llib Setag
Posted on: June 2, 2005, 6:01 PM PDT
Story: Longhorn photo support comes into focus
It is painfully obvious that Citizen Gates is out to be the Darth
Vader of creativity computing.

MS has attempted for years to topple Adobe & Apple in the
arenas of professional press publication, ColorSync, Acrobat &
digital photo / video processing.

Citizen Gates even went to the great lengths of buying millions
of photographic rights, building a huge digital photo database &
opening Corbis as his own company outside of MS, so he could
control & make billions of royalties from professional
photographers & publishing houses.

MS has lamely attempted to put out "prosumer" PhotoPC
software for years without success to the point that they have to
give it away with "Discount Dells".

Citizen Gates has also attempted to alter & undermine native
Java / Flash coding with "Windows-compatible" versions of their
own "interpretations" of Java/Flash in order to derail & dillute
NON-MS coding on the Internet.

Gates has recently be very public about developing an Adobe
Acrobat PDF killer-app within ShorthornOS in 2006/07/08/??.

MS doesnot have a built-in / included "Apple iLife Suite"
equivilant (not even close) with MSXP.

This is such a slimy attempt to kill Photoshop/iPhoto/RAW file
protocols within the entire digital creative industry in order to
have world dominance in the realm of digital media all being
"managed" through MSOS.

DOJ are splineless drones bowing down to the one they serve. All
Hail Darth Gates

[lancert]

This guy likes it...

This person reviewed it and seems to like it:

http://www.bd4d.com/blog/?p=50

I haven't tried it yet but plan to do so soon.

If it can do vector and pixel images in one ap, I'm there. I'm tired of shelling out big $$$ for Photoshop & Illustrator...

Lance

Lance

[ca5ter]

Duh You Need a Mac Version First

Well you would think that if MS really wanted to tap into the
professional design market they target the 90% of them that are on
Macs. Nope this is just another crappy program from Pinky
(Ballmer) and the Brain (Gates).

PS. Maybe they should save their money for the xbox.

It's about time

Until now, Microsoft has had only sporadic interest in the graphics market. But with this product, it looks like they are now serious about it.