A new Community Technical Preview (CTP) of Expression Design, a layout and graphic design tool similar to Adobe Illustrator, also became available today. The software was formerly known as Graphic Designer, and, before that, Acrylic. It will not be sold separately.

Users of any of the individual components of Expression, along with users of Visual Studio Standard or above -- as well as subscribers to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) -- can get the entire Expression suite for an upgrade price of $349. Microsoft also said the .NET Framework 3.0, the ASP.NET AJAX beta, and the latest CTP of the Windows Presentation Foundation Everywhere (WPF/E) is available today. .NET is the programming framework for Windows Vista.

WPF is the graphical subsystem for the .NET Framework 3.0 that uses a variant of the XML programming language called XAML. It is meant to help programmers and designers collaborate better by creating the same underlying code base for both graphical elements and script-driven interactivity. WPF/E, which will allow those features on non-Windows operating systems and Web browsers, will also be ready for final release in the first half of next year.