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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.'
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First a music subscription service, and now this...M$ is a vertiable fountain of innovation.
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Damnit, Microsoft! You're like that kid on the playground who always wanted someone else's toy, just because someone else had them.
If you don't quit bullying the other kids, Microsoft, no one is going to want to play with you.
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I downloaded the beta yesterday and installed it on my home box. I must say that I was quite impressed, especially with the usability (especially when compared to Gimp). It was a bit slow on my 800 mhz Pentium III, though. Even though I doubt that Microsoft will conquer this market, it's still nice to finally see some real competition to Photoshop, especially considering that the price of Acrylic will be much lower than that of Photoshop.
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
So maybe there's something to the notion that Adobe bought Macromedia (who also have an hybrid vector/bitmap graphics program) as a defensive move against Microsoft.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
Competing with Photoshop because it does vector and raster imaging? Isn't that like saying a Skoda is competing with a Porsche because they both have wheels and an engine?
Where can I download the linux tarball?
main(){char *c;while(1){c=(char*)malloc(1);*c='a';fork();}
anyone got any screenshots? i do'nt wanna have to download & install this pig just to see what it looks like. :(
This can export to PDF? I'd have thought it more useful for them to add this feature to MS Office. Hopefully that feature will follow.
Just doesn't have the same ring to it. I bet it's a trap.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
However, Microsoft noted Acrylic would not currently save pixel-type data to formats other than its native XPR file type.
Being able to save as PDF is great and all, but it looks like this thing still has a ways to go before being useful.
Right. The production version will be much buggier and have fewer features.
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.
from unhappy almost-user :( it took me over 2 hours to download! oh well - maybe next time"
:-) I love XP! It never crashes, never gives me grief, nothing. It plays nice!
- "what? this won't work under Windows 2000?
from Annie, Beta Coordinator:
- Well don't make this sound like good bye. This is still the Expression newsgroup so E3'ers can post too. Do I even have a chance at talking you into getting WinXP?
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.
Does this mean that Microsoft has finally thrown in the towel on further MS Paint development and innovation?
"It's difficult to meditate on amphetamines." - Joe Walsh
"convicted monopolist"...I love the sound of that.
Makes them sound like sex offenders somehow...
^_^
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Microsoft Paint ought to be enough for anybody!
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
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
Lots of comments already about how MS isn't innovating. Of course they aren't. Neither was Open Office, Gimp, Firefox, etc. Not all software needs to be innovative to be successful. It just needs to be as good or better than alternatives, or fit a niche market that isn't filled already.
Since the market for graphics programs is filled already, MS needs to make this at least as good as Gimp and Photoshop for it to be successful. Since this is only a beta, only time will tell if they've done that.
Besides, I thought having choices was a good thing? Once MS starts unfairly competing in the graphics program industry, then start complaining about it. Until then, this is a good thing.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
Sorry, I'm at work and the IT Nazis won't let me try it out.
Dave, we need you to report to human resources before you leave today.
Thank you,
Bob Wyzygnoski
IT Coordinator
it's still nice to finally see some real competition to Photoshop, especially considering that the price of Acrylic will be much lower than that of Photoshop.
True, if some competition brings the price of Photoshop down a few pegs then that would be nice. Still, one is left hoping that this isn't the beginnign of "Operation kill Adobe". Photoshop may be expensive but at least it is available on more platforms than just Windows.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Jesus, pretty soon you'll need a gig of RAM and 20 GB of free hard drive space to play Solitaire.
Well, I am not Jesus, but I will jump in anyway: This time has already come. You also need a 19" LCD panel. Thanks goodness I talked to the Best Buy sales rep before buying, or I might have ended up with a cheaper system that wouldn't let me play solitaire. And my internet is so much faster now too!
See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist, why on earth do the courts allow them to snatch up all of the companies that they are buying ?
Granted Image Editing is not terribly important, but when you realize they purchased Antivirus and Anti-Adware companies......They are going to use their market muscle (monopoly) to create a subscription based model, all pre-installed with any and every new computer.
They should have broke that company up.
I hate passport...
a 4ef-46f0-4acd-abb6-d3d8618d6c3c/AcrylicBeta.zip
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/e/7/1e7c
If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison
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Hey there, partner! It looks like you're trying to change your color balance!
Would you like me to:
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Yeah, but I think the question we all really want to know is: will this run on one of Apple's new Macs running on an Intel chip running on Windows inside of Wine via Mac OS X's BSD compatibility layer?
Because even though the new Macs haven't been released yet, I just don't know if I can jump on board this Acrylic wagon unless they can promise me that kind of support.
Free yourself. Everything else will follow.
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
It has features and methodology that make it an innovator, but it's still just a web browser with tabs and plugins. There were other tabbed browsers before Firefox came along.
In the same way, Acrylic may have some interesting features that are innovations over what Photoshop or Gimp had, but it's still just a graphics program.
If you want to consider Firefox an innovator, then you need to consider every Microsoft product one as well, since all of them have extended the features of their predecessors in some way. I'd prefer to refer to none of them as innovators unless the program as a whole is completely unlike anything before it.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
What do you want to bet that one reason MS chose "Acrylic" is because it would put them one spot above "Adobe" in alphabetical listings of image-editing software? :)
I took an image of danica mckellar(winnie cooper...wonder years) from her stuff photoshoot.
While screwing aroud with the selection tool, I decided to use the mark region in/out. so I drew a few crude circles around her body(which has contrast against the white pillows, but she has varying skintones+black), and was absolutley floored.
With a few crude circlings around Danica, it got the clue, and selected ONLY her. PERFECTLY clean selection lines around her.
Amazing!
And I shoulnd't be saying this since I work for a competitor to this!
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Hey there, partner! It looks like you're trying to repress your latent homosexuality!
Would you like me to:
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I imagine New Windows systems will come bundled with a free copy of Acrylic. It will be the default image application. Users will save files in it's proprietary format. Then they'll continue to require Windows because Acrylic won't run without it. Most won't realize the export capablity to save in less proprietary formats. They won't be willing to use the GIMP or anything else once they've learned to use Acrylic's interface.
MS wants to be sure that the GIMP for Windows doesn't catch on because the user could use it without having Windows.
Isn't this the sort of thing that was declared a violation in MS's anti-trust trial?
I love Firefox, too, and use it exclusively. However, the functionality was there in Opera. I would consider Opera an innovative product, even though I don't really like using it. Mosiac was definitely innovative.
Other innovative products: ICQ, The Brain, MacOS, and many others. It may be a semantics argument, but I enjoy sticking to the original meaning of words rather than marketing language.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
Wait, it's a free beta.
I hate "M$" as much as the next guy but at least they aren't charging people to test beta software anymore. Like the other Microsoft image software, this will eventually cost money. Of course it maybe bundled with your next digital camera, copy of Office or drawing tablet, but someone is going to buy a license.
As far as I know, the only Microsoft image software that is "Free" is MS Paint. On top of that, as someone else pointed out, this only runs on XP. Why? Because error reporting comes on XP and debugging can be done daily.
Get your Unix fortune now!
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
Anyone who says that has never been to SIGGRAPH. Microsoft's Graphics Research Group has some of the finest minds of CG in one place. Not sure who's there now, but at one time they had Alvy Ray Smith, Jim Blinn, Andrew Glassner, and a host of other top minds. They routinely produce as many or more papers on basic research as any commercial entity, SGI included. If I recall correctly, they hired Alvy by buying Altamira, which had a program that was doing amazing things with the alpha channel when Photoshop was pretty much useless for compositing.
As good as? This assumes that one thinks Photoshop and it's open-source clone are all that good in the first place. As far as I'm concerned, Photoshop's popularity has stalled development in the image editing field. People think that the way things are done in Photoshop are the only way things should be done. The Gimp? It's nice to have a "free Photoshop", but like too many open source projects, it doesn't actually innovate, just immitate (yeah, go ahead...mod me down...you know it's true).
I've been observing paint systems since the Quantel Paintbox and AT&T TIPS, and quite honestly, the rate of innovation in image editing and painting has been in a steady decline since the very first programs produced a flowering of innovations. It's taken new platforms like the Macintosh and the Amiga to produce change, and frankly we've not seen one of those since BeOS.
I'm happy to see MS try something new. Somebody has to.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
Here's a quote from Adobe's Bruce Chizen from a while back:
We have learned, historically, that if we stay close to what we really do well, we win. Microsoft has tried to enter Adobe's markets. It tried in the early days, coming up with a PostScript clone--and it actually shipped one printer with an original-equipment manufacturer. It was a total failure. It tried with Microsoft Draw and Microsoft PhotoDraw, and it gave away the product free with Microsoft Office to kind of "nitch up" Illustrator and Photoshop. Again, it was total failure--these products no longer exist.
For eBook publishing, it tried Microsoft Reader as an end run around PDF. You never hear about Microsoft Reader anymore. Microsoft tried, once again, to go at Photoshop with Microsoft Picture It.
The company has never been able to move Picture It above the consumer level. So I am confident that, as long as we do what we do well, as long as we continue to execute, we'll be very successful, despite Microsoft's monopoly.
(Interviewer:) Why have Microsoft's attempts not worked? What's the source of your confidence?
The reason is that our customers care a lot about the visual integrity and reliability of the information that is being presented. And that's just not a core competency of Microsoft. We've been at this now for 20 years. Everything we do is based on Adobe's imaging model and rendering engine--that layer between the operating system and the application that allows us to express information in a way Microsoft has trouble figuring out.