The WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation) is a graphical subsystem for rendering user interfaces in Windows-based applications. It was formerly known as Avalon . WPF is a part of .NET Framework 3.0. Fundamental technology for WPF is DirectX, which provides advanced UI Features like transparency, gradient and transforms. WPF provides a uniform programming model for building windows applications. It defines clear separation between User Interface and business logic. A WPF application can be installed on the desktop or hosted in a web server. It also gives good control over design, and development of the visual aspects of Windows programs.

Microsoft Silverlight is a web-based representation of WPF which enables advanced graphics in Flash-like web and mobile applications with the same programming model as windows applications.

WPF ships with lots of features, some of them are:

• Transformations to move, scale, and rotate elements.
• Multimedia controls to include audio and video in applications.
• Easy building and manipulating three-dimensional UI objects.
• New controls give new layout options.
• FlowDocument controls help in building complicated documents containing text, shapes and images.