The fight is going to get bigger and tougher between two Software Giants. There is no need for introduction about Adobe and Microsoft. Adobe is a leading product developer in Digital Media and Content Development Software's such as Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Flash (Earlier Macromedia Flash), Adobe DreamWeaver (Earlier Macromedia DreamWeaver) and also Adobe Audition etc etc.
Adobe is the definitely and clearly market leader in above products and Particularly Adobe Photoshop is the standard professional photo editing tool,designing tool, Adobe PDF - defacto standard for document publishing/sharing. Almost many books are being published in Adobe Acrobat format.
Microsoft also has products like Digital Image Suite which is a photo album manager, photo editing software but does not have great professional tools like Adobe Photoshop.
Brief of Graphics platform: There are two types of imaging (Graphics) software's. Vector graphics and raster Graphics (also called as pixel graphics). Vector graphics does not store the actual drawing but stores the geometry (analytical geometry) of the drawing like x,y position, angle etc. When is called by drawing software it is redrawn based on co-ordinates (rendered). On the other hand raster graphics stores the actual pixel information of a given area. Though JPEG is a kind of representation of pixel and redrawn it still stores the pixel information and not geometry information.
Adobe Photoshop - is famous and professional standard Raster Graphics Editor
Corel Draw and Adobe Illustrator - are famous and professional standard Vector Graphics Editor
Now Microsoft is launching 4 new products.
1. Expressions Design
It is a vector graphics based Designing tool but is aimed not only at vector graphics but also on raster graphics. I am currently trying on CTP version of Expressions Design and i find the software is really excellent. I found in some blogs that Microsoft Expression design could not match Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop or Corel Draw. But it may not hold long, if Microsoft really pushes this as mainstream products.
- There is one negative point is that the controls are not well placed yet and not very clear.
- Rather there are great plus points such as
- You can create bevel and emboss being on vector platform.
- You can alternatively have vector and raster layers.
- Effect Lines, ultimately stunning.
- Variable painting effects.
- Free training videos and tutorials are available.
- Above all you can use EXPORT AS XAML (The next generation standard for graphics rendering via .net Framework 3.0 WPF) to Expressions Blend or any other similar design software.
So this is a direct contender for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw.
Further Application Developers like me would be more interested because i need not go to a vector drawing software/raster drawing software and create images, export and import to my applications/ web applications, where i will use XAML to render my graphics direct.
(I will write a new post .net Framework 3.0 and its advantages to developing platforms)
2. Expressions Blend
This is not a contender directly for Adobe or any other graphics designer. But it is definitely there to steal away market share due to its tight integration with Microsoft Expressions Design software.
This acts like a Coding Environment + Design Environment for Front end/ User Interface components. It uses either C# or VB as coding language. It Generates Visual Studio Solution Files which can be directly consumed by visual studio, to make further work flow.
This actually increases Designer to Developer collaboration and productivity.
3. Expressions Web (Available Today)
This is again direct contender to Adobe. Expressions Web is a web designing tool which replaces Microsoft Front Page. This support all latest technologies such as ASP.NET, HTML and CSS. Adobe DreamWeaver is the best and considered to be standard professional tool to develop web pages. But it is said to have (read in blogs) problems/no support with ASP.NET 2.0. This is big disadvantage when you are developing on asp.net 2.0 server. With this Microsoft Expressions web is going to stand as a contender to adobe.
4. Expressions Media
It is again a contender for adobe. To mention this product is already existing in the market and is a product of i-View Multimedia but is taken over by Microsoft. This is a contender in Photoshop Elements. To know more please visit the web pages. It has organizer, Photo Adjustments, RAW Image Editor etc.
So if you see the above products line up, we can assume that Microsoft is broadly trying to enter the space of Adobe. Above all these until now there is no equivalent tool to replace adobe flash. Even Microsoft Messengers, Microsoft presentations (in web), even MSN Soap Box all uses adobe flash/ flash player. It is because Flash player is cross platform and cross browser friendly. There holds the main success of it and also vector based animation tool.
There is answer to this also .. from Microsoft..
It is announcing WPF/E, which is a reduced code model of WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), which is also cross platform and Cross browser friendly. You can create great animations with XAML or XAML tools and render to web using WPF/E. The user experience is unmatched by all existing rendering platforms. For more information see Microsoft Link or this BLOG.
Below is the transparent clock rendered using WPF/E using Firefox browser.
So we can expect wonderful web experience from days to come. We do not know how much bandwidth is required for it. But i am sure that since it is a XAML representation (similar to XML) this is going to be really good and exciting.
So is that all over from Microsoft.. Not yet..
XPS
For those who do not know about XPS, this is XML PAPER SPECIFICATION is a open document format developed by Microsoft which is similar to Adobe PDF. This also includes DRM (Digital Rights Management). This is also part of WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation). So if you have installed WPF/E component or .net Framework 3.0 (Which contains WPF), you can read these documents natively, which now opens in web browser. However a reader will be available by mid of 2007. Since the specification if open any body can incorporate and develop the reader. Further it can be used in applications and custom development environments.
Adobe PDF though is considered to be Open Format, is not, when Microsoft wanted to use in Microsoft Office, it was not allowed by Adobe and filed a law suit against it. So Microsoft now (Still supports as added plugin) removed it from exporting to PDF.
It is very difficult for XPS to replace PDF because it has already established quiet well and the BEST so far. But if adobe is raising voices against Microsoft then Microsoft will be answering it in a different fashion.
So there is a big excitement ahead in 2007. After Official customer launch of windows Vista, we should see forward how these technologies are adopted and how these products come out and more importantly at what price.
I would expect these products to come out fast, and give a good stable platform for developers to deliver best user experience.
Final words
Though it is a head to head competition, the final thought for all the products and companies is the consumer or customer. If a customer is going to be benefited then definitely we got to welcome those products. If it gives more productivity either it is Microsoft or Google or Adobe or who ever it is, they will be a winner among the crowd. It is always good to have +ve competition so that new technologies and best things continue to be available for consumers.
Good night.
thanks for Reading.
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