Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer

I stumbled across this ZDNet article talking about the beta versions of Microsoft’s next generation of designer tools.  While I’m a huge fan of Macromedia’s and Adobe’s web tools, I decided to download Microsoft’s Expression Graphic Designer.  It seems to be very functional and have all the sorts of features you’d expect in a graphics package.  One cool thing that I noticed at first glance was a thumbnail tooltip that pops up when you mouse over a layer in the layer list.  This is extremely useful to know what layer you’re referencing without actually having to show & hide it.

The Expression Designer will probably never run on the Mac OS so I’ll be sticking to Fireworks and Photoshop.  It will be interesting to see what type of market share Microsoft will gain in the web design arena.  Most serious designers/developers stick with Macromedia and Adobe tools.

The beta version is free to download so give it a run.  I can’t see M$ charging more than $300 for the designer once it goes commercial.  This would put it at a price point that would make it more approachable than Photoshop, which currently runs around $650.

Hopefully this announcement means I’ll never have to look at a piece of Frontpage code again!