Microsoft has temporarily halted development work on some aspects of its upcoming professional graphics application as it tries to bring companion tools and its next-generation Windows Vista operating system to market. The application--called Expression Graphic Designer--was first released in test form in June last year, and is based on Expression, the tool Microsoft acquired with its 2003 purchase of Hong Kong company Creature House. But despite being widely seen as a rival for Adobe Systems' Photoshop and Illustrator products, Microsoft does not see the product as a standalone offering.

"At the moment, there's no great reason for us to release it as a standalone product," Wayne Smith, the company's senior product manager for Europe, the Middle East and African professional designer markets, said last week. In an interview with ZDNet Australia, Smith explained that Microsoft was taking so long to bring Graphic Designer to market because the company had put "a lot" of the development work for the application "on pause" until sibling products and Vista could be finalized.