Fractal Design Introduces Expression - Revolutionary Natural-Media Drawing Software; Next-Generation Tool Creates Traditional Art Styles Using Vector-Based Drawing Techniques.APTOS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 17, 1996--Fractal Design Corporation (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : FRAC FRAC Food Research and Action Center FRAC First Responder Authentication Credential FRAC Foreseeable Risk Analysis Center FRAC Frame Aligner Circuit FRAC Fleet Replacement Aircrewman FRAC Francophone Regional Advisory Committee ) today announced a significant new product in graphic illustration software with the introduction of Fractal Design Expression. Expression is a Natural-Media illustration program that melds the stylistic expressiveness of vector-based brush strokes Brush Strokes was an Esmonde and Larbey sitcom set in South London and depicting the (mostly) amorous adventures of a good-looking, wisecracking house painter, Jacko (Karl Howman). with the speed, editability, compact file size and resolution independence of an advanced drawing application. For the first time, computer artists can mimic the natural look and style of traditional art tools in a vector drawing See vector graphics. environment. This new product is the result of collaboration between Fractal Design and Creature House Creature House is a company acquired by Microsoft in September of 2003. They developed a powerful vector graphics software package called Expression which has since become developed and released as Microsoft Expression Graphic Designer as part of the Microsoft Expression Studio Ltd., the Hong Kong-based developer behind this innovative technology. Available for both Macintosh and Windows platforms, the product will be demonstrated for the first time this week at PC Expo A trade show for resellers, corporate managers and technical professionals from CMP Media LLC, a subsidiary of United Business Media. First held in New York in 1983 with 120 exhibitors and 9,600 attendees, the show grew from the personal computer's early years to 550 vendors and more than in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Fractal Design booth #3854, Jacob Javits Convention Center. "We are excited to bring the next generation of graphic illustration tools to market - the first fruit of the Fractal Design and Ray Dream merger," said Mark Zimmer, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Fractal Design. "Expression re-invents Draw in the same way that Painter* re-invented Paint giving illustrators the kind of expressive freedom that will revolutionize their creative process." "Expression is a terrific companion to existing drawing programs like Adobe Illustrator A full-featured drawing program for Windows and Macintosh from Adobe. It provides sophisticated tracing and text manipulation capabilities as well as color separations. Included is Adobe Type Manager and a selection of Type 1 fonts. , CorelDRAW and Macromedia FreeHand," said Joan Carol Brigham, graphics analyst at International Data Corporation. "By allowing designers and artists to add character to their vector illustrations, Fractal has really extended the creative range of the vector medium. Expression represents an important advancement in Natural-Media tools and in the illustration software category," she said. Expression combines the expressive quality of traditional art tools and human gestures with the advantages of vector-based line art. At the heart of Expression is its revolutionary Skeletal Stroke technology which combines sophisticated, multiple drawing elements into a single stroke. Each stroke is itself a piece of vector artwork. These strokes can be applied using a wide variety of drawing tools including freehand See Macromedia FreeHand. , Bezier pen, polyline and b-spline. The strokes themselves remain editable, so at any time a user can select all the strokes in a particular style and replace them with another; for example, instantaneously turning an impressionist painting into a wood carving. There are three different classes of strokes: Natural-Media strokes, graphic elements, and multi-view strokes. Natural-Media strokes mimic traditional artist tools such as brushes, pencils and pens. Graphic elements are individual vector illustrations, similar to vector-based clip art. With Expression, these elements can be varied based on the stroke attributes such as width, length and mitre. Multi-view strokes are strokes that contain several different views of the same subject, allowing the creation of special effects. The Natural-Media experience is further enhanced by Expression's full support of pressure sensitive tablets. Using pressure to define stroke width gives graphic artists the same gestural freedom to sketch or draw as they would with traditional tools. Expression also goes beyond traditional illustration programs by supporting transparency, allowing artists to apply brush-like color build-up effects to their illustrations. Strokes are stored with a graphic preview in the Stroke Warehouse palette where users can choose from pre-defined strokes, or combine any number of drawn elements into their own custom strokes. Once defined, these strokes can be stored in different directories and called up through the Stroke Warehouse. Expression includes over 150 Natural-Media and multi-view strokes. Cross Product Image Support Expression provides strong interoperability with illustration standards such as Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia FreeHand and CorelDRAW, with direct support for Illustrator and Corel file formats (FreeHand reads and writes Adobe Illustrator format). Artists can import these files, use Expression's tools to give their art a Natural-Media flavor, and then re-incorporate these modified designs into their layouts. A full complement of familiar Bezier drawing and editing tools are provided within Expression's drawing environment, so artists will find it easy to move back and forth between Expression and other vector drawing programs. Artwork created in Fractal Design Expression can also be rasterized and saved in bitmap file formats for import into Painter, Adobe Photoshop* or other image editors. "Expression breaks the constraints of traditional drawing programs by giving me much more freedom, with the added benefit of being fully editable," said Mark Jenkins, senior designer at Rucker Design Group. "It's a very different way of thinking about drawing on a computer, an approach which seems less inhibited by the tools and more creative and spontaneous." Key Features Expression represents a significant achievement in drawing software, giving computer artists a new way of working with vector-based art. Some of Expression's key features include: - Skeletal Stroke technology allows artists to draw sophisticated multi-element components using a single vector path. - Variable width strokes set through pressure sensitive tablet. - Vector-based transparency. - A full complement of professional level drawing tools and functionality. - Pre-defined natural media strokes, multi-view strokes, graphic element strokes, hatching, paper grain and other vector patterns. - Ability for users to define their own strokes and patterns from any vector artwork, either created in Expression or imported from other drawing applications. - Anchoring of specific points within strokes. - Repeatable areas within strokes. - Multi-view strokes that allow for "randomization randomization (ranˈ·d  ·m " of Natural Media. - Multi-view strokes can be interpolated interpolated /in·ter·po·lat·ed/ (in-ter´po-la?ted) inserted between other elements or parts. and rasterized to create QuickTime, or AVI (Audio Video Interleaved) A Windows multimedia video format from Microsoft. It interleaves standard waveform audio and digital video frames (bitmaps) to provide reduced animation at 15 fps at 160x120x8 resolution. Audio is 11,025Hz, 8-bit samples. movies. - Multiple levels of undo. - Layers - Windows and Macintosh cross-platform file compatibility. Import/Export File Formats - Adobe Illustrator versions 3, 4, 5 and 6. - CorelDRAW versions 3, 4 and 5. - WMF (filename extension) wmf - The filename extension for a Windows Metafile. - CGM (1) (Computer Graphics Metafile) An ISO/IEC standard format for 2D graphics images introduced in 1987. Primarily a vector graphics format for technical illustrations and geophysical visualizations, CGM also supports raster graphics and text. - PICT Export Only - Adobe Photoshop 2.5, including Alpha channel support. - TIFF - BMP (1) (BitMaP) Also known as a "bump" file, it is the native, bitmapped graphics format in Windows. A BMP can be saved in several color options: 1-, 4-, 8- and 24-bit color provide 2, 16, 256 and 16,000,000 colors respectively. BMP files use the .BMP or . - PCX (1) A bitmapped graphics file format that handles monochrome, 2-bit, 4-bit, 8-bit and 24-bit color and uses RLE to achieve compression ratios of approximately 1.1:1 to 1.5:1. Images with large blocks of solid colors compress best under the RLE method. See PC Paintbrush. - EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) A PostScript file format used to transfer a graphic image between applications and platforms. EPS files contain PostScript code as well as an optional preview image in TIFF, WMF, PICT or EPSI, the latter being an ASCII-only format. Animation File Format Support (Export Only) - AVI - QuickTime System Requirements Windows 3.1, NT, 95 Minimum system requirements for Fractal Design Expression include a 486, Pentium or Pentium Pro based computer with FPU (Floating Point Unit) A computer circuit that handles floating point operations. FPU - floating-point unit and 8 megabytes of application RAM when running Windows 3.1, and 12 megabytes of RAM when running Windows 95 or Windows NT. A color display (24-bit recommended), a hard disk, and a CD-ROM drive. For optimal performance, Fractal Design recommends 12 megabytes of RAM or more when running Windows 3.1, and 16 megabytes of RAM or more when running Windows 95 or NT. Macintosh and Power Macintosh Minimum system requirements for Fractal Design Expression include a 68K-based Macintosh computer with FPU and 8 megabytes of RAM or a Power Macintosh with 12 megabytes of RAM; System 7.1 or later, a color display (24-bit recommended), a hard disk and a CD-ROM drive. Fractal Design recommends 12 megabytes of application RAM or more for 68K-based systems and 16 megabytes of RAM or more for Power Macintosh systems. Pricing and Availability Fractal Design Expression is expected to be available from Fractal authorized resellers and directly from Fractal in the third quarter of 1996 at a suggested retail price of $449. For more information, please call 1-800-846-0111. Fractal Design Corporation is a major force in multi-platform graphic software, developing and marketing next generation products that unite traditional artist techniques with digital technology. Fractal Design products are designed to facilitate and extend the range of creativity for artists and designers working on desktop computers. World Wide Web: http://www.fractal.com. -0- Note to Editors: Fractal Design Expression, Painter, Ray Dream Studio and Natural-Media are trademarks of Fractal Design Corporation which may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Creature House, the Creature House logo and Skeletal Strokes are registered trademarks of Creature House Ltd. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are properties of their respective holders. CONTACT: Fractal Design Corp. Teri Campbell, 415/960-0768 x 121 teri@raydream.com or McLean Public Relations public relations, activities and policies used to create public interest in a person, idea, product, institution, or business establishment. By its nature, public relations is devoted to serving particular interests by presenting them to the public in the most Eileen Ebner, 415/513-8800 ebner@mcleanpr.com |
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