Microsoft is offering an update to its design tool to leverage Windows Presentation Foundation, namely .NET Framework 3.0, .NET framework 3.5. Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Preview went live on the download center on September 25, 2008. According to the Redmond giant, the SP1 Preview release of Expression Blend 2 is set up to permit developers to tailor their content developed with Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2 to the final version of Microsoft's Adobe Flash killer.

“This Service Pack provides you with all of the functionality you had with our earlier Expression Blend 2.5 June 2008 Preview. Besides allowing you to create new projects for WPF, Silverlight 1, and Silverlight 2 RC, we are also exposing new platform functionality like Font Embedding / Subsetting for Silverlight 2 projects,” stated Kirupa Chinnathambi, Program Manager for Expression Blend.

Microsoft emphasized the fact that applications built with Expression Blend Service Pack 1 Preview would no longer be compatible with Silverlight 2.0 Beta 2. The Redmond company is making headway toward the final delivery of Silverlight 2.0, planned for later this year and, in this regard, it is catalyzing the evolution of Expression Blend SP1 Preview in order to deliver support for the same technology as Expression Blend 2.5. The software giant informed that the Expression Blend 2 SP1 Preview is being developed as an update to version 2 of the design tool and that it would offer full compatibility with .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1.

“One thing to note, which is different from how we handled releases in the past, is that Expression Blend 2 SP1 Preview will install on top of Expression Blend 2. This will not be a side-by-side installation. This service pack is also an evolution of Expression Blend 2.5, so there will be no future Expression Blend 2.5 releases,” Chinnathambi added.

Microsoft Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Preview is available for download via this link.