According to a short article on the front page of the MSDN Subscriptions Home page, the full Microsoft Expression Studio 3 is now available to premium MSDN subscribers. This is great news as the first 2 releases of this design tool only had certain portions of the product available to MSDN subscribers (Blend and Web if I recall correctly) and now we get the full complement of functionality via our subscription. While I didn't use the version 1.x at all, I have had the opportunity to use Expression Web 2 for a couple of projects, and I've found the design elements of the tool very useful. It's compliance to HTML, XHTML, and CSS standards made my work of creating simple web interfaces rather easy and I recommend any developer who has an opportunity to check out the new release to do so.
Here's what the full package of the new release offers:
- Expression Blend 3 – A .Net WPF and Silverlight design tool.
- Sketchflow – A sketch tool that allows you to conceptualize your designs and ideas.
- Expression Web 3 – A standards compliant HTML / ASP.Net / PHP designer and editor.
- Expression Design 3 – A powerful graphic design tool.
- Expression Encoder 3 – A media encoder and live screen capture tool.
For more information, visit the Expression Studio 3 web site on Microsoft.com.
If you have an MSDN subscription, visit the MSDN downloads page to get the ISO and check it out for yourself.