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MS Unveils Beta of New Image Editing Program
docdude316 writes "CNET is running a story about Microsoft's new photo editing software, Acrylic. The new program is based on Expression, which Microsoft purchased in 2003. From the article: 'Microsoft describes the software--currently available as a 77MB free download--as bringing together pixel-based painting and vector graphics features. These capabilities will put the product squarely in the market currently dominated by software maker Adobe Systems with its pixel-focused Photoshop and vector-driven Illustrator products. Acrylic appears to support opening and exporting to Photoshop and Illustrator file formats, as well as other standard graphics formats. In addition, the application appears to be able to export to Adobe's Portable Document Format, or PDF.'
It's funny it requires Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2. Sorry M$, GIMP and Photoshop run just fine on my WIN2k boxes.
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Mod Parent up for both being relavent AND using a wonderful Fark Cliche!
Any windows application can export to PDF via the miracle of PDFCreator.
Not as fast as an Oo.o export to PDF, but export to PDF is hardly a world-shattering feature.
SCO employee? Check out the bounty
This is not a rival to Adobe products, definetly not Photoshop. It's primarily a vector graphics program with some unique features in that area. It was orignally a program Creative House Expressions which Microsoft bought in 2003.
e xpression.htm
"Creature House Expression (formerly Fractal Design Expression) is a vector-based drawing tool featuring "skeletal strokes," a 2D drawing primitive which offers complete editability and scalability."
http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/illustration/gr/
This new Acrylic beta is essential version 4 of that program.
Giving the timing of the release of a program that Microsoft had seemingly killed off years ago. I'd say they were planing to use it for vector creation in Avalon.
AFAIK, Corel Photo-Paint does already "bring together pixel-based painting and vector graphics features".
I have discovered a truly marvelous proof of killer sig, which this margin is too narrow to contain.
FTA - "Microsoft noted Acrylic would not currently save pixel-type data to formats other than its native XPR file type" Well, that diminishes usefullness!! I recently had some pictures forwarded to me in PictureIT file format and they took 45 minutes to open...
You can save to jpg, gif, tif, etc by using "File/Export."
Same result, just a different part of the menu. XPR is analogous to a PSD file. You can still create jogs of your work when you're done.
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
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You can save to JPG, GIF, TIF, etc by using the export feature. It would be nice to have them in the save as dialog, but it's not like they'r enot there at all. When you do a File/Save, all you get is XPR. Everything else is under export.
I don't see the problem here.
"Moderate drinking can help prevent amputated limbs" -- Abigail Zuger, NYTimes, 12/31/02
I hate passport...
a 4ef-46f0-4acd-abb6-d3d8618d6c3c/AcrylicBeta.zip
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/e/7/1e7c
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It's enough for some people.
http://www.deviantart.com/view/17908194/
The free beta version "expires" October 1, 2005. Someone may figure a way around that, but it suggests that MS probably does not intend to give away the release version.
If you check the Yahoo! Expression3 mailing list (Yahoo! registration required), it seems that you can get around the installer by unpacking the file and install Acrylic on pre-SP2 machines including Windows 2000. Running the installer, however, would detect your system and prevent it from installing on pre-SP2 machines on purpose; so it may just be another lure for you to install SP2 =( .
Also, Expression 3.3 (click the Previous Versions on the Acrylic project page) can run under Linux with WINE:
http://frankscorner.org/index.php?p=expression3
Requirements aren't in TFA they are on the download page.
Almost all profesional tools accept importing of those files. Adobe gives out the specs for these file formats so there is no reverse engineering.
This should be modded as a troll.
Tabbed browsing is an innovation? Safari, MyIE2, SlimBrowser, and more all had Tabbed Browsing long before Firefox ever existed.
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000