Exporting XAML from Photoshop & Illustrator

From the mailbag…

John B. of Chicago asks: I am a UI designer that is interested in exploring XAML, WPF and Silverlight. Is there a way I can leverage my current set of tools (Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks) when working with Expression Blend, or do I need to start using Expression Design?

As a vector and raster graphic design tool, Expression Design is a great companion to Blend and it offers some advanced options and features when exporting artwork to XAML. But thankfully you don’t have to forgo years of Illustrator experience to get your designs into Blend.

There are several free plug-ins available that let designers export their existing files, artwork and layouts to XAML from industry-standard design tools like Photoshop, Illustrator and Fireworks:

• Michael Swanson offers a free plug-in that enables export from Adobe Illustrator to WPF and Silverlight compatible XAML. You can download his AI to XAMLExport plug-in here.

• Psd2Xaml from flowlabs.net is a free open-source tool for converting Photoshop .PSD files to XAML. Psd2Xaml saves vectors and layout data as in XAML and creates a folder containing the bitmaps from the PSD file. As a bonus, it also supports limited .SWF conversion to XAML.

• For Fireworks users, the Infragistics Fireworks to XAML Exporter is an extension that allows you to easily convert artwork created in the Fireworks to XAML.

 Thanks for your question, John.

Comments

[Sarah Waters]

Psd2Xaml works by simply putting the original picture in the code and listing it as a source document. Not a true "conversion".

[Justin Chase]

Time to update the blog Anthony! Blend will feature Photoshop import in v3.