A beta of an upcoming graphics program, code-named Acrylic, shows that Microsoft plans to compete with Adobe in the professional graphics market. Although Acrylic has an interesting combination of features, it falls short of either Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator. Possible reasons for Microsoft's entry into the market include a desire to win over one of the last remaining Mac strongholds, the need to fend off a platform threat posed by Adobe's pending acquisition of Macromedia and its Flash technology, or a desire to lay a foundation for future design tools for Longhorn and Avalon.

Acrylic was originally developed by Hong Kong—based Creature House and sold under the name Expression. Microsoft acquired Creature House in Nov. 2003.

Interesting but Incomplete Features

Acrylic allows graphic designers to create both vector and pixel graphics within the same document.

Pixel graphics are composed of a two-dimensional grid of pixels, each of which is assigned a color. Pixel programs, such as Adobe Photoshop, give artists the electronic equivalents of painting tools such as airbrushes and paint sprayers and allow artists to apply a wide variety of effects. Pixel programs are particularly useful for retouching photographs. Pixel images, however, cannot be easily resized and made larger without a loss in image quality.

Vector graphics, on the other hand, are composed of objects, such as lines, curves, and fills, that can be scaled up or down with no loss of quality. They are often used for posters and logos. The most widely used vector-graphics program is Adobe Illustrator.

Acrylic documents can combine vector and pixel elements. For example, a designer can apply a natural-looking effect, such as watercolor, to the border of a vector-based shape, and then fill the center using paint techniques such as airbrushing. In theory, combining both vector and pixel graphics in a single program enables artists to create complex illustrations without having to use two separate programs. In addition, Acrylic allows artists to vary the thickness of their strokes by changing the pressure they apply to a Tablet PC screen.

However, Acrylic is no match for either Photoshop or Illustrator in terms of features. For example, Acrylic offers far fewer brushes and filters (used for special effects) than Photoshop, and its interface is very rough compared with either Photoshop or Illustrator. Furthermore, many professional artists prefer the Macintosh, and it is unclear whether Acrylic will support the Mac. Expression, the product on which Acrylic is based, was available on the Mac when it was acquired by Microsoft, and Microsoft's initial "preview" version of Acrylic (released in 2003) supported the Mac, but the beta does not, and Microsoft has not announced any plans for a Mac version.

Why Challenge Adobe?

Given Adobe's dominant position in the professional graphics market, the loyalty professional artists show to Photoshop, and Adobe's support for Windows, why would Microsoft choose to enter the professional graphics market?

One possible explanation is that the company sees an opportunity to convince one of the last remaining strongholds of Mac users that Windows is a viable alternative. Another possible explanation is that Microsoft sees an emerging platform threat in Adobe's cross-platform technologies, such as Acrobat and its portable document format (PDF) combined with the Web-based Flash and other technologies that Adobe will gain from its pending acquisition of Macromedia. In the case of PDF, Microsoft announced at its 2005 hardware developers conference that Longhorn will offer an alternative to PDF as part of a revamped printing system.

One final explanation, however, lies in Avalon—the new graphics engine that will be part of the next version of Windows, code-named Longhorn. Microsoft has long said that it will need new tools to exploit Avalon. At its Oct. 2003 Professional Developers Conference, it spoke of a new generation of tools that will enable professional artists and programmers to better collaborate and more easily create user interfaces with sophisticated graphics, sound, and video. Acrylic, with its combination of vector and pixel graphics, contains some of these technologies and could represent a precursor to future Avalon and Longhorn design tools. However, the combination of limited features in the first version, lack of support for the Mac, and Adobe's strength in the graphics community pose serious obstacles.

Resources

The beta of Acrylic can be downloaded from www.microsoft.com/products/expression.

Avalon's challenge to Flash is described in "Avalon Takes on Flash and Applets".

For information on the need for tools for Longhorn and Avalon, see "Tools for Longhorn and WinFX Face Schedule Crunch" on page 18 of the Nov. 2004 Update.

Office's competition with PDF is described in "Office Document Processing Platform Emerging".