- Microsoft Expression Blend
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Microsoft Expression Blend 
Microsoft Expression Blend 3 ScreenshotOriginal author(s) Gunjan Developer(s) Spardin Stable release 4 (4.0.20525.0) / June 7, 2010 Development status Active Operating system Microsoft Windows Platform Windows Presentation Foundation
Windows Workflow Foundation
Silverlight
Silverlight for Windows Phone
Windows 8 Metro Apps
Silverlight for Windows EmbeddedLicense MS-EULA Website Expression Blend Microsoft Expression Blend is a user interface design tool developed and sold by Microsoft for creating graphical interfaces for web and desktop applications that blend the features of these two types of applications. It is an interactive, WYSIWYG front-end for designing XAML-based interfaces for Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight applications. It is one of the applications in the Microsoft Expression Studio suite.
Expression Blend supports the WPF text engine with advanced OpenType typography and ClearType, vector-based 2D widgets, and 3D widgets with hardware acceleration via DirectX.
Contents
Availability
Expression Blend was code-named Sparkle, and originally the product was announced as Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer, before it was renamed Expression Blend in December 2006.
On January 24, 2007, Microsoft released the first public Community Technology Preview of Expression Blend as a free download on their web site. The final version was released to manufacturing along with other Expression products on 30 April 2007. The RTM news was announced at Microsoft's MIX 07 conference for web developers and designers.[1] Expression Blend Service Pack 1 was released in November 2007.[2] Expression Blend requires .NET Framework 3.0. Expression Blend and Expression Web are also available as part of the MSDN Premium subscription.
Expression Blend 2.0 supports developing Microsoft Silverlight browser-based Rich Internet Applications providing animation, vector graphics, interactivity and video playback capabilities. Version 2.0 supported only Silverlight 1.0 applications at release and Microsoft had planned Blend 2.5 for Silverlight 2.0 applications, however the capabilities of the preview version 2.5 have been added to Blend 2.0 Service Pack 1.
Expression Blend 3 was released on July 22, 2009, with the whole Microsoft Expression Studio suite at version 3. New features include support for PSD and AI files, SketchFlow,[3] TFS support and number of other significant improvements. Sketchflow is a user experience prototyping module implemented in Blend.[4][5]
Expression Blend 4 Release Candidate released April 26, 2010. Adds support for Silverlight 4 and WPF 4 while also remaining compatible with Silverlight 3 and WPF 3.5 SP1 applications. Other improvements and additions: shapes library, improved Photoshop file support, added pixel shader effects, path layout, transition effects, ListBox item transitions, Model-View-ViewModel pattern support, additional Behaviors, conditional Behaviors, sample data from CLR classes, design time resource resolution, easing functions for WPF 4, cleaner XAML, and .ZIP support for projects and templates.[6]
Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone, Preview 2, released May, 2010. Adds support for Windows Phone 7 projects to Expression Blend 4 Release Candidate.[7][8] Expression Blend 4 for Windows Phone will be free.[9]
Expression Blend 4 released June 7, 2010 as part of Expression Studio 4.
Expression Blend 5 Developer Preview was released along with Windows 8 Developer preview on September 15, 2011.
References
- ^ Expression Studio RTM news
- ^ Expression Blend SP1
- ^ SketchFlow Concepts: An Overview
- ^ SketchFlow – Sketching and Prototyping in Expression Blend
- ^ SketchFlow: A Bit of History
- ^ What’s New for Expression Blend™ 4 Release Candidate
- ^ Microsoft Expression Blend™ Add-in Preview 2 for Windows Phone Release Notes
- ^ Microsoft Expression Blend™ 4 for Windows Phone video
- ^ Blend FAQ
Resources
- "What is Expression Blend?". Microsoft Expression Blend Frequently Asked Questions. Microsoft Corporation. 2007. http://expression.microsoft.com/en-us/dd326839.aspx. Retrieved 2010-07-.
External links
- Product page at microsoft.com
- Expression Blend 3 features
- Microsoft Expression team blog
- Microsoft Expression Blend 3 Reviews
- Microsoft Expression Blend 3 Tutorial at Kirupa.com
Microsoft Expression Studio Current products Discontinued Microsoft development tools Development
environmentsOthersExpression Blend · Expression Web · Robotics Developer Studio · SharePoint Designer (FrontPage) · Small Basic · WebMatrixLanguages and
compilersVisual Basic · Visual Basic .NET · Visual C++ · Visual C# · Visual J# · Visual FoxPro · IronPython · IronRuby · PowerShell · XAML · F#Major APIs and
frameworksWindows API / SDK · .NET Framework · Managed code frameworks (Presentation · Communication · Workflow · CardSpace) · Silverlight · XNA · ASP.NET (ASP.NET AJAX) · LINQ · ADO.NET · DirectX (Managed DirectX) · Xbox Development KitDatabase tools
and languagesSQL servicesOtherSource control Deployment Driver development Performance Analysis Categories:- Microsoft Expression products
- User interface builders
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