- History (or Lack Thereof) of Graphic Tools at Microsoft
- Working with Expression Graphic Designer
- Stitching Graphics Together with PhotoMontage
- Working with Developers and Designers
- Comparing Apples with Apples
- Summary
- Tip Sheet
Working with Expression Graphic Designer
Expression Graphic Designer is first and foremost a graphics tool. Although it might sound obvious, with all the talk that will surround the Expressions tools about integration with XAML and the Web, it might be easy to forget that Graphic Designer is a graphics tool.
There are a number of tools that work very well with Graphic Designer: a hybrid environment, vector painting, bitmap painting, and path manipulation.
A hybrid environment allows you to manage both vector- and raster-based graphics in the same tool. In the following figure, you can see how both vector brush tools and raster tools create a final drawing.
I was surprised to see the high level of control you have with the vector path tools in Graphic Designer. The following figure was created completely from vector paths.
The raster images can be seamlessly laid alongside the vector images. A number of pixel tools even allow you to convert vector illustrations to raster images.
Path control is fundamental to any illustration you create. Graphic Designer gives you the same level of control over your paths that you are already familiar with in Illustrator.
These tools and many more give you the foundational drawing tools you need to tackle today's design challenges.