Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a

free and open-source Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

user interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

framework for

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

-based desktop applications. WPF applications are based in

.NET The .NET platform (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a free and open-source, managed code, managed computer software framework for Microsoft Windows, Windows, Linux, and macOS operating systems. The project is mainly developed by Microsoft emplo ...

, and are primarily developed using C# and

XAML Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML ) is a declarative XML-based language developed by Microsoft for initializing structured values and objects. It is available under Microsoft's Open Specification Promise. XAML is used extensively i ...

. Originally developed by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, WPF was initially released as part of .NET Framework 3.0 in 2006. In 2018, Microsoft released WPF as

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

under the

MIT License The MIT License is a permissive software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the late 1980s. As a permissive license, it puts very few restrictions on reuse and therefore has high license compatibility. Unl ...

. WPF's design and its layout language XAML have been adopted by multiple other UI frameworks, such as UWP, .NET MAUI, and

Avalonia Avalonia was a microcontinent in the Paleozoic era. Crustal fragments of this former microcontinent are terranes in parts of the eastern coast of North America: Atlantic Canada, and parts of the East Coast of the United States, East Coast of the ...

Overview

WPF employs

, an

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing data. It defines a set of rules for encoding electronic document, documents in a format that is both human-readable and Machine-r ...

-based language, to define and link various interface elements, and uses C# to define program behavior. WPF applications are deployed as standalone desktop programs. WPF supports a number of common

elements, such as 2D/3D rendering, fixed and adaptive

documents A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ', which denotes a "teaching" or "lesson": ...

typography Typography is the art and technique of Typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

vector graphics Vector graphics are a form of computer graphics in which visual images are created directly from geometric shapes defined on a Cartesian plane, such as points, lines, curves and polygons. The associated mechanisms may include vector displ ...

, runtime

animation Animation is a filmmaking technique whereby still images are manipulated to create moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Animati ...

, and pre-rendered media. These elements can then be linked and manipulated based on various events, user interactions, and

data binding In computer programming, data-binding is a general technique that binds data sources from the provider and consumer together and synchronizes them. This is usually done with two data/information sources with different languages, as in XML data bin ...

s. WPF runtime libraries are included with all versions of

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

since

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

and

Windows Server 2008 Windows Server 2008, codenamed "Longhorn Server" (alternatives: "Windows Vista Server" or "Windows Server Vista"), is the seventh major version of the Windows NT operating system produced by Microsoft to be released under the Windows Server b ...

. At the Microsoft Connect event on December 4, 2018,

announced releasing WPF as open source project o
GitHub
It is released under the

. Windows Presentation Foundation has become available for projects targeting the

software framework, however, the system is not cross-platform and is still available only on Windows.

Code examples

In WPF, screens and other UI elements are defined using a pair of files: a

file and an associated C# file with the extension .xaml.cs, often referred to as a "code-behind". The XAML file declaratively defines the layout, contents and other properties of the UI element, while the C# file allows exposure of code entry points for interactivity. A basic example of an interactive Hello, World! program could be created like so: MainWindow.xaml: MainWindow.xaml.cs: using System.Windows; namespace WpfExample In the above example, a UI element called MainWindow is declared as a subclass of the built-in Window class. The XAML file defines the layout, which in this example is a vertical collection of controls - a textblock outlining instructions to the user, a textbox for the user to type their name, a button to submit, and a results text block. When the button is clicked, the method SubmitButton_Click is called, which is defined in the .xaml.cs file. This function updates the final textblock to contain a message greeting the user, addressing them by their submitted name.

Features

Media and graphics

WPF supports most modern media types, including vector and raster images, audio, video, and can support both 2D and 3D rendering. It also supports implementing graphical effects on visual elements, such as

HLSL The High-Level Shader Language or High-Level Shading Language (HLSL) is a proprietary shading language developed by Microsoft for the Direct3D 9 API to augment the shader assembly language, and went on to become the required shading language ...

pixel shaders In computer graphics, a shader is a computer program that calculates the appropriate levels of light, darkness, and color during the rendering of a 3D scene—a process known as ''shading''. Shaders have evolved to perform a variety of spec ...

and built-in effects such as blurs and

drop shadow In graphic design and computer graphics, a drop shadow is a visual effect consisting of a drawing element which looks like the shadow of an object, giving the impression that the object is raised above the objects behind it. The drop shadow is of ...

s. WPF mainly relies on vector graphics, which allows most controls and elements to be scaled without loss in quality or

pixelization Pixelization (in British English pixelisation) or mosaic processing is any technique used in editing images or video, whereby an image is blurred by displaying part or all of it at a markedly lower resolution. It is primarily used for censorshi ...

Data binding

WPF employs

, a technique of propagating changes between user interface elements and the

object model In computing, object model has two related but distinct meanings: # The properties of objects in general in a specific computer programming language, technology, notation or methodology that uses them. Examples are the object models of ''Java'', ...

of the program. For instance, a textblock defined in XAML could bind its contents to a

string String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

property stored on a C# object in the following way: public class ExampleViewModel This would make the textblock display the value of the Username property. The direction data binding happens is configurable - it can be defined to go UI-to-source (eg. text entered into a textbox being propagated to a bound string property in code), or source-to-UI (eg. a visual clock being updated to display the current time stored in code), or bi-directional. Data binding doesn't have any restrictions on types, and it is possible to bind

struct In computer science, a record (also called a structure, struct, or compound data type) is a composite data structure a collection of fields, possibly of different data types, typically fixed in number and sequence. For example, a date could b ...

s, classes, or

collections Collection or Collections may refer to: Computing * Collection (abstract data type), the abstract concept of collections in computer science * Collection (linking), the act of linkage editing in computing * Garbage collection (computing), autom ...

. Converters can be used to transpose the values and types being used during binding - for example, binding a textbox to a DateTime property, but using a converter to display the time as a formatted localised date string. Most properties on built-in controls can be databound, and custom-made controls can create bindable properties by defining Dependency Properties. MVVM, the architectural pattern encouraged by Microsoft for WPF developers, relies heavily on data binding.

Styles and templates

Using templates and styles, developers can define the visuals and structure of UI elements. A style is a combination of property settings that can be applied to a UI element with a single property attribute. For example, a "blue

radio button A radio button or option button is a graphical control element that allows the user to choose only one of a predefined set of mutually exclusive options. The singular property of a radio button makes it distinct from checkboxes, where the user ...

" style could be created and then be reused on any number of radio button controls throughout the program. Styles can alter collections of properties of controls, but are not intended for significant structural changes. Templates are a mechanism for defining alternative UI for portions of a WPF application. There are several template types available in WPF for different scenarios, but they all have the general purpose of defining the contents, layout and structure of a UI element.

Animations

In WPF, many visual properties can be animated. This is exposed through dependency properties, which is the same underlying system that data binding relies on. WPF animations are time-based, as opposed to frame-based. Animation classes are based on the .NET type of property to be animated. For instance, changing the color of an element is done with the ColorAnimation class and animating the width of an element (which is typed as a

double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

) is done with the DoubleAnimation class. Animations can be grouped into Storyboards, which are the primary way to start, stop, pause and otherwise manipulate animations.

Documents and text

WPF natively supports paginated documents. It provides the DocumentViewer class, which is for reading fixed layout documents. The FlowDocumentReader class offers different view modes such as per-page or scrollable and also reflows text if the viewing area is resized. It supports both the

XML Paper Specification Open XML Paper Specification (also referred to as OpenXPS) is an open specification for a page description language and a fixed-document format. Microsoft developed it as the XML Paper Specification (XPS). In June 2009, Ecma International adopte ...

and

Open Packaging Conventions The Open Packaging Conventions (OPC) is a container-file technology initially created by Microsoft to store a combination of XML and non-XML files that together form a single entity such as an Open XML Paper Specification (OpenXPS) document. OPC- ...

. WPF includes a number of text rendering features, including

OpenType OpenType is a format for scalable computer fonts. Derived from TrueType, it retains TrueType's basic structure but adds many intricate data structures for describing typographic behavior. OpenType is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corpora ...

TrueType TrueType is an Computer font#Outline fonts, outline font standardization, standard developed by Apple Inc., Apple in the late 1980s as a competitor to Adobe Inc., Adobe's PostScript fonts#Type 1, Type 1 fonts used in PostScript. It has become the ...

, and OpenType CFF ( Compact Font Format) fonts. This means that WPF can support a wide number of text features, including ligatures, old-style numerals,

swash Swash, or forewash in geography, is a turbulent layer of water that washes up on the beach after an incoming wave has broken. The swash action can move beach materials up and down the beach, which results in the cross-shore sediment exchange. T ...

variants,

fraction A fraction (from , "broken") represents a part of a whole or, more generally, any number of equal parts. When spoken in everyday English, a fraction describes how many parts of a certain size there are, for example, one-half, eight-fifths, thre ...

superscript A subscript or superscript is a character (such as a number or letter) that is set slightly below or above the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. Subscripts appear at or below the baseline, wh ...

and

subscript A subscript or superscript is a character (such as a number or letter) that is set slightly below or above the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. Subscripts appear at or below the baseline, wh ...

small caps In typography, small caps (short for small capitals) are grapheme, characters typeset with glyphs that resemble uppercase letters but reduced in height and weight close to the surrounding lowercase letters or text figures. Small caps are used i ...

ruby character Ruby characters or rubi characters () are small, annotative glosses that are usually placed above or to the right of logographic characters of languages in the East Asian cultural sphere, such as Chinese ''hanzi'', Japanese ''kanji'', and Kor ...

s, glyph substitution, multiple baselines, and

kerning In typography, kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between Character (symbol), characters in a Typeface#Proportion, proportional font, usually to achieve a visually pleasing result. Kerning adjusts the space between individual le ...

. WPF handles texts in

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

, and handles texts independent of global settings, such as system locale. In addition, fallback mechanisms are provided to allow writing direction (horizontal versus vertical) handled independent of font name; building international fonts from composite fonts, using a group of single-language fonts; composite fonts embedding. Font linking and font fallback information is stored in a portable XML file, using composite font technology. The XML file has extension '. The WPF text engine also supports built-in

spell checking In software, a spell checker (or spelling checker or spell check) is a software feature that checks for misspellings in a text. Spell-checking features are often embedded in software or services, such as a word processor, email client, electronic d ...

. It also supports such features as automatic line spacing, enhanced international text, language-guided line breaking,

hyphen The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (en dash , em dash and others), which are wider, or with t ...

ation, and justification, bitmap effects, transforms, and text effects such as shadows, blur, glow, rotation etc. Animated text is also supported; this refers to animated glyphs, as well as real-time changes in position, size, color, and opacity of the text. WPF text rendering takes advantage of advances in

ClearType ClearType is Microsoft's implementation of subpixel rendering technology in rendering text in a font system. ClearType attempts to improve the appearance of text on certain types of computer display screens by sacrificing color fidelity for addit ...

technology, such as sub-pixel positioning, natural advance widths, Y-direction anti-aliasing, hardware-accelerated text rendering, as well as aggressive caching of pre-rendered text in video memory. ClearType cannot be turned off in older WPF 3.x applications.

Interoperability

Windows Forms Windows Forms, also known as WinForms, is a free, open-source graphical user interface (GUI) class library for building Windows desktop applications, included as a part of Microsoft .NET, .NET Framework or Mono, providing a platform to write c ...

features are possible through the use of the ElementHost and WindowsFormsHost classes. To enable the use of WinForms, the developer executes this from their WPF C# code: System.Windows.Forms.Integration.WindowsFormsHost.EnableWindowsFormsInterop(); WPF programs, via the

P/Invoke Platform Invocation Services, commonly referred to as P/Invoke, is a feature of Common Language Infrastructure implementations, like Microsoft's Common Language Runtime, that enables managed code to call native code. Managed code, such as C# or V ...

feature of the CLR, can access native functionality such calling functions from Windows

libraries A library is a collection of Book, books, and possibly other Document, materials and Media (communication), media, that is accessible for use by its members and members of allied institutions. Libraries provide physical (hard copies) or electron ...

. This allows the ability to communicate and operate other parts of the operating system, including unmanaged libraries.

Alternative input and accessibility

WPF supports

Windows Ink Windows Ink is a software suite in Windows 10 that contains applications and features oriented towards pen computing, and was introduced in Windows 10 Anniversary Update . The suite includes Sticky Notes, Sketchpad, and Screen sketch application ...

for pen-based input, and multi-touch input on

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

and above. It also supports

Microsoft UI Automation Microsoft UI Automation (UIA) is an application programming interface (API) that allows one to access, identify, and manipulate the user interface (UI) elements of another application. UIA is targeted at providing UI accessibility and it is a suc ...

to allow developers to create accessible interfaces, and to expose the UI to automated test frameworks.

XAML

Following the success of

markup language A markup language is a Encoding, text-encoding system which specifies the structure and formatting of a document and potentially the relationships among its parts. Markup can control the display of a document or enrich its content to facilitate au ...

s for web development, WPF introduced eXtensible Application Markup Language (

; ), which is based on

. XAML is designed as a more efficient method of developing application user interfaces. XAML is a

declarative Declarative may refer to: * Declarative learning, acquiring information that one can speak about * Declarative memory, one of two types of long term human memory * Declarative programming, a computer programming paradigm * Declarative sentence, a t ...

language, meaning the developer (or designer) describes the behavior and integration of components without the use of

procedural programming Procedural programming is a programming paradigm, classified as imperative programming, that involves implementing the behavior of a computer program as Function (computer programming), procedures (a.k.a. functions, subroutines) that call each o ...

. Although it is rare that an entire application will be built completely in XAML, the introduction of XAML allows application designers to more effectively contribute to the application development cycle. Using

to develop user interfaces also allows for separation of model and view, which is considered a good architectural principle. In XAML, elements and attributes map to classes and properties in the underlying APIs. As in web development, both layouts and specific themes are well suited to markup, but

is not required for either. Indeed, all elements of WPF may be coded in a

language ( C#,

VB.NET Visual Basic (VB), originally called Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), is a multi-paradigm, object-oriented programming language developed by Microsoft and implemented on .NET, Mono, and the .NET Framework. Microsoft launched VB.NET in 2002 as the ...

). The XAML code can ultimately be compiled into a managed assembly in the same way all .NET languages are.

Deployment

WPF applications are Windows-only standalone desktop

executable In computer science, executable code, an executable file, or an executable program, sometimes simply referred to as an executable or binary, causes a computer "to perform indicated tasks according to encoded instruction (computer science), in ...

s. Historically, WPF supported compiling to XBAP, a file format intended to be shown in

web browser A web browser, often shortened to browser, is an application for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's scr ...

s via a

NPAPI Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) is a deprecated application programming interface (API) for web browser plugins, initially developed for Netscape Navigator 2.0 in 1995 and subsequently adopted by other browsers. In the ...

plugin, but NPAPI and XBAP support was phased out of support by browsers, and XBAP compilation is now no longer included for WPF for .NET.

Usage and influence

WPF is used to develop

Visual Studio Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) developed by Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including web site, websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development ...

, Microsoft's flagship IDE, and was used for developing Microsoft

Expression Blend Microsoft Blend for Visual Studio (formerly Microsoft Expression Blend) is a user interface design tool developed and sold by Microsoft for creating graphical interfaces for web and desktop applications that blend the features of these two type ...

. WPF and its layout language, XAML, have influenced multiple other UI frameworks.

Silverlight Microsoft Silverlight is a discontinued application framework designed for writing and running rich internet applications, similar to Adobe's runtime, Adobe Flash. While early versions of Silverlight focused on streaming media, later version ...

(codenamed WPF/E - WPF Everywhere), released in 2007, is a

deprecated Deprecation is the discouragement of use of something human-made, such as a term, feature, design, or practice. Typically something is deprecated because it is claimed to be inferior compared to other options available. Something may be deprec ...

cross-browser

browser plugin A browser extension is a software module for customizing a web browser. Browsers typically allow users to install a variety of extensions, including user interface modifications, cookie management, ad blocking, and the custom scripting and styl ...

. Silverlight had a WPF-based implementation, including using XAML for layouting, that supported video, vector graphics, and animations. Using add-ons, it was supported on

Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements curren ...

Internet Explorer 6 Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) is a web browser developed by Microsoft for Windows operating systems. Released on August 24, 2001, it is the sixth, and by now discontinued, version of Internet Explorer and the successor to Internet Explorer ...

and above,

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

42 and below and

Apple Safari Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc., Apple. It is built into several of List of Apple operating systems, Apple's operating systems, including macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS, and uses Apple's open-source software, open-source bro ...

. Microsoft encouraged developers to stop using Silverlight in 2015, and support was officially ended in 2021. After becoming open source in 2018, WPF inspired the development of

, an open-source .NET cross-platform XAML-based UI framework, distributed under the

. While WPF only is intended for Windows, Avalonia also supports builds for web (via

WebAssembly WebAssembly (Wasm) defines a portable binary-code format and a corresponding text format for executable programs as well as software interfaces for facilitating communication between such programs and their host environment. The main goal of ...

MacOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

, Android,

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, and

Linux Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...

. Avalonia's name references WPF's in-development codename ("Avalon"), and markets itself as "a spiritual successor to WPF". Avalonia is currently used in tools made by

Unity Unity is the state of being as one (either literally or figuratively). It may also refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpoo ...

GitHub GitHub () is a Proprietary software, proprietary developer platform that allows developers to create, store, manage, and share their code. It uses Git to provide distributed version control and GitHub itself provides access control, bug trackin ...

and

JetBrains JetBrains s.r.o. (formerly IntelliJ Software s.r.o.) is a Czech software development private limited company which makes tools for software developers and project managers. The company has its headquarters in Amsterdam, and has offices in Ch ...

OpenSilver OpenSilver (formerly CSHTML5 or C#/XAML for HTML5) is an open-source framework designed to facilitate the development of rich internet applications (RIAs) using C# and XAML. It was developed as a successor to Microsoft Silverlight, enabling deve ...

is framework designed to migrate WPF solutions to web using

. OpenSilver 3.1, released in December 2024, included a XAML designer for use in

Visual Studio Code Visual Studio Code, commonly referred to as VS Code, is an integrated development environment developed by Microsoft for Windows, Linux, macOS and web browsers. Features include support for debugging, syntax highlighting, intelligent code comp ...

. XAML, which was first designed for WPF, has been adopted for other similar Microsoft-developed UI libraries, such as UWP, designed for

Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...

Windows 11 Windows 11 is a version of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system, released on October 5, 2021, as the successor to Windows 10 (2015). It is available as a free upgrade for devices running Windows 10 that meet the #System requirements, Windo ...

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

and Xbox Series S/X applications, and .NET MAUI (formerly Xamarin.Forms), designed for creating cross-platform native Android and

apps.

Development

Developers of WPF applications typically use

Microsoft Visual Studio Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) developed by Microsoft. It is used to develop computer programs including websites, web apps, web services and mobile apps. Visual Studio uses Microsoft software development platforms ...

. Visual Studio contains a combination XAML editor and WPF visual designer, beginning with Visual Studio 2008. Prior to Visual Studio 2008, the WPF designer add-in, codenamed Cider, was the original release of a

WYSIWYG In computing, WYSIWYG ( ), an acronym for what you see is what you get, refers to software that allows content to be edited in a form that resembles its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web ...

editor for creating WPF windows, pages, and user controls. It was available for Visual Studio 2005 as a ''Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 CTP'' for the initial release of WPF. Visual Studio is not strictly required to develop WPF projects, as solutions can be built in the command line using

MSBuild Microsoft Build Engine, or MSBuild, is a set of free and open-source build tools for managed code under the Common Language Infrastructure as well as native C and C++ code. It was first released in 2003 and was a part of .NET Framework. MSB ...

Microsoft Blend Microsoft Blend for Visual Studio (formerly Microsoft Expression Blend) is a User interface builder, user interface design tool developed and sold by Microsoft for creating graphical interfaces for web and desktop applications that blend the fea ...

is a designer-oriented tool that provides an artboard for the creation of WPF applications with 2D and 3D graphics, text and forms content. It generates

that may be exported into other tools and shares solution (sln files) and project formats (csproj, vbproj) with Microsoft Visual Studio.

Microsoft Expression Design Microsoft Expression Design was Microsoft's commercial professional illustration vector and raster graphic design tool for web images based on Creature House Expression, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2003. It is available free of charge fr ...

is a bitmap and 2D-vector graphics tool for exporting to

References

Bibliography

* Adam Nathan: ''Windows Presentation Foundation Unleashed (WPF)'', December 21, 2006, Sams Publishing, * Chris Anderson: ''Essential Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF)'', April 11, 2007, Addison-Wesley, * Chris Sells, Ian Griffiths: ''Programming WPF'', August 28, 2007, O'Reilly Media, * Arlen Feldman, Maxx Daymon: ''WPF in Action with Visual Studio 2008'', November 21, 2008, Manning Publications,

External links

MSDN Library: Windows Presentation Foundation

Rich typography with Windows Presentation Foundation

Windows Presentation Foundation User Education
{{Authority control .NET terminology 2006 software Formerly proprietary software Free and open-source software Presentation Foundation Microsoft free software Microsoft Windows multimedia technology Software using the MIT license Widget toolkits Windows-only free software