The fourth Community Technical Preview (CTP) version of Expression Graphic Designer, a painting and illustration tool, and the first CTP version of Expression Interactive Designer, which can help designers and developers build 3-D animation and graphics, are available for download from Microsoft's Web site.
Jered Cuenco is a Portland, Ore.-based multimedia developer at Avenue A/Razorfish, an interactive marketing and technology services unit of Seattle-based aQuantive Inc. He said that although the beta releases of Expression are rough, the tools offer some promise.
"Interactive Designer is clearly still in its infancy," said Cuenco, noting kinks in its workflow and complexity that make it difficult to learn. "Do I think that Interactive Designer is the killer of Macromedia Flash? No. Do I think that it is a direct competitor? Only somewhat."
The suite, which also includes Expression Web Designer, can be used by developers to transform graphics into Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) code for creating dynamic applications, according to Microsoft.
That capability should speed up workflow between designers and developers and eliminate the need for designers to use separate applications such as Macromedia Inc. 's Fireworks or Adobe Systems Inc.'s Photoshop, said Scott Stanfield, CEO of Vertigo Software Inc., a software developer in Richmond, Calif. Product Features
The Expression suite is part of the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), a framework for creating user interfaces for desktop and Web applications running on the next-generation Windows Vista operating system. WPF is part of WinFX, an object-oriented, managed application programming interface for building Windows applications that can run on Vista.
Vista is due for release by the end of this year.
Scott Golightly, a consultant at Keane Inc., a Boston-based services firm, said that using Expression to easily import graphics and objects created by designers into XAML code will likely lead to improved user interfaces.
"If designers and developers both start using Expression and XAML, we might see a lot fewer applications that look like they were designed by developers," he said.
Microsoft will likely release a CTP version of Expression Web Designer during its professional Web developers conference in March, according to a source.
Forest Key, director of product management at Microsoft, declined to disclose a final release date for the Expression suite.