by M.Arief
At last, Microsoft is going to battle in graphic design application market. Their new product, MS Expression Graphic Designer, will compete against Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw. Currently, it’s still in RC1 (Release Candidate 1) version. Let’s have a look at the box art..
Operating System :
- Microsoft Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or later.
Minimum System :
- 733 Mhz processor with MMX or equivalent.
- 256 MB RAM.
- 400MB available hard disk space.
- 800 x 600 monitor resolution with 24-bit color.
- Mouse or digitizer tablet.
Recommended System :
- Intel Pentium 4 processor with MMX or equivalent.
- 512 MB RAM.
- 600 MB available hard disk space.
- 1024 x 768 or greater monitor resolution with 24-bit color.
Now, let’s have a look at the main interface..
As we can see above, the main interface is quite different with the other graphic softwares making it quite difficult for the first time. I’ve some difficulties with the tool bar. It was so small to click making it quite hard for fast tool-swapping. As you can see in the screenshot, it’s in 1024×768 screen resolution. I haven’t tried it in 1280×1024–my favourite resolution for drawing–yet, but it could be harder to click. The Paint Style toolbar also acting as properties bar. When you select an object, it will change into props bar which I don’t really like. The color palette also didn’t touch good.
Another annoying thing that I’ve found is the layer panel. It’s so small in the upper-right side of the drawing area (pictured in the upper screenshot). Probably it’ll cause more annuisance if you have more than 10 layers in that panel because you can’t see the label without hovering the cursor above them. Personally I’d prefer Firework’s-like layer panel (see below).
Let’s talk about it’s ability. As far as I can see, I couldn’t find any special/unique feature other than XAML export ability in this software. I mean, all it have is just a standard features in many other graphic design apps like color corrections, blurs, drop shadows, filterings, etc. Worst of all, I can’t see any plugin feature to extends its ability. I think MS still have to fix these problems before the final release.
But, despite of its lack of special abilities and bad GUI, I also found that this programs is a resources savy which means it could be used by many older computers. You can see it in my Task Manager screenshot below.
As you can see above, I have 4 vector-based image (as seen in the first screenshot) and it cost only 11MB of RAM and 57MB of VRAM. This is different (in comparison) with Macromedia Fireworks 8 which I only open 1 vector-based image with approximately the same level with the Expression has but it cost more around 37MB of RAM and 92MB of VRAM. I think with this resources savy, Expression will run in the old computer with 256 MB of RAM smoothly.
The other thing that we should note that Expression Graphic Designer came with a lot of Help and Tutorials.
As far as I can see, the Help are well-explained and the Tutorials are very helping in learning how to use Expression Graphic Designer. This could be another plus for Expression.
Conclusion
This is the first time Microsoft get into professional graphic design application market, and I think the Expression Graphic Designer is a fine program altough many pro-level designer wouldn’t be satisfied with. Probably, it’ll fit best with some starter graphic designers.
Pros :
- Well-explained Help and Tutorials.
- Resources savy.
- XAML*, PDF exportable.
Cons :
- Bad designed GUI.
- No plugins supported.
*) To be able to export design into XAML you’ll need .NET Framework 3.0 RC1.
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