Microsoft PhotoDraw

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Microsoft PhotoDraw version 2 box

Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 is a vector graphics software developed by Microsoft in 1999 for release with Microsoft Office 2000 Premium Edition. It spans 2 CDs. It needs to be installed separately since it is not available from the main installer for the core Office programs. It was also released as a stand-alone product. A later version called Microsoft PhotoDraw 2000 Version 2 was released around 2000, featuring 3 CDs. Both versions are branded as "Microsoft Office Application," though both versions were bundled only with the largest Office suite, Premium Edition (Version 2 was included with the SR-1 release). It was nevertheless indeed a "member of the family," as were other Microsoft business applications (most notably Publisher) of that time.

PhotoDraw fills a hole in the Office productivity suite, which includes software programs for word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation, but lacks a capable image creation program. Office typically includes Microsoft Photo Editor, a light weight bitmap editor. PhotoDraw, on the other hand, was a full-featured dual-type (vector and bitmap) graphics software much like Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW or Macromedia Freehand, developed for professional business use.

PhotoDraw includes a vast library of clip-art, and a good collection of additional fonts.

The proprietary PhotoDraw file format has the extension ".mix". This type of file can be imported by Microsoft Office 2000 and later, as well as Adobe Illustrator.

PhotoDraw was a capable software program, sufficient for non-professionals. Version 2 was released as an upgrade with a larger collection of clip-art pictures and fonts, and with Windows XP compatibility.

Microsoft decided to discontinue PhotoDraw after Version 2 was released. PhotoDraw did not become a very popular software product over its lifetime. On the other hand, it was very easy-to-use for and thus popular among untrained, unprofessional office workers: at least 440 (as of October 23, 2006) satisfied users demanded to bring it back but the actual number of PhotoDraw users is presumably far beyond. As positioned mainly as a MS Office family companion and a business graphical solution suite, it was not useful enough for home users, who are more interested in manipulating digital pictures - which are bitmaps - than creating vector graphics. Microsoft has responded by bundling Windows Picture and Fax Viewer with Windows XP, developing Microsoft Picture It!, as well as creating Microsoft Office Picture Manager for Microsoft Office 2003 to expand on Microsoft Photo Editor. Furthermore, PhotoDraw was also not good enough to challenge Illustrator, the de facto standard for graphics professionals. In spite of its commercial mediocrity, PhotoDraw Version 2 regularly sells on eBay for U.S. $50–$100. PhotoDraw works fine with later versions of Microsoft Office, up to version 2003.

As of September 2006, the upcoming version of Office, Microsoft Office 2007 still lacks a graphic solution of the power and ease of PhotoDraw. Another future product line of Microsoft, namely Expression is told to be filling the gap, but compared with PhotoDraw, the still-beta Expression is somewhat controversial.