Acrylic Software

Once upon a time, there was a software program called Expressions, written by a company called Creature House. Expressions was a vector-based image graphics program. It apparently gained a strong foothold in the animation and cartoon market (so I understand).

Microsoft liked it so much that they bought the company, and now a beta version of the next version – now renamed as "Acrylic" – is available for free download and testing here.

I note that Microsoft talks of the software as being "innovative" and offering "exciting creative capabilities" for designers working in print, web, video and interactive media. "Innovative" is usually marketing-speak for "it’s got a bizarre user interface that is completely different from anything else you’ve ever used". Similarly, "exciting creative capabilities" means: "so you’ll bang your head against the wall while you try and learn it, and feel inordinately proud of yourself once you’ve succeeded in produced something that looks better than a child’s finger-daub painting".

Clearly, Microsoft would like to move into the highend creative graphics market, currently sewnup and owned by Adobe. Whether Acrylic is the product that is going to do it remains to be seen. Meanwhile, if you’d like to try it out, be my guest – just tape a cushion to the wall first.