Screenshot of Creature House Expression 3.3.372 |
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| Developer(s) | Creature House, now acquired by Microsoft |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 3.3.372 / Nov 2003 |
| Operating system | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X |
| Type | Vector graphics editor with skeletal stroke capability |
| License | Freeware Proprietary EULA |
| Website | www.microsoft.com |
Creature House Expression was a vector graphics editor initially developed by Creature House in Hong Kong, then Ray Dream, then Fractal Design Corporation and later MetaCreations as a companion to then-Fractal Design/MetaCreations Painter. At the time, Creature House was an independent Hong Kong software studio. Expression tried to duplicate Painter's UI as close as possible and was available for Mac OS and Windows.
Some time after Fractal Design and MetaTools merged into MetaCreations, a public company, management decided to thin out the product portfolio and focus on a more specific audience. Expression ended up back with Creature House who released two versions of the software under their own brand name, Expression 2 and Expression 3.
Eventually, Microsoft purchased Creature House and continued development under the code name Acrylic. In 2007, the original Expression application became part of Microsoft's Expression Studio suite of applications, rebranded and rewritten in WPF as Microsoft Expression Design. Windows XP and Vista versions are available, although Mac OS X support has officially been discontinued.
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Expression uses a unique technology called skeletal stroke. There have been a few research papers on this technology, including the work of Alex S. C. Hsu and Irene H. H. Lee,[1] who are the original developers of Expression.