Serif PagePlus X3 review

Designing printed documents can be a daunting task, but PagePlus has always focused on making it as simple and enjoyable as possible.

Ten years ago, the program occasionally interrupted your work to invite you to a game of space invaders. These days Serif is much more serious about the job in hand, but the user friendly feel remains.

This is immediately evident in PagePlus X3's interface, which, with its context sensitive toolbar and tabbed and sliding docker windows, is a model of streamlined efficiency. You can now create your own keyboard shortcuts, a godsend for regular users. In fact, PagePlus does everything it can to help you create good results as quickly as possible, beginning with a choice of over 2500 templates and design elements to get you off to a flying start.

Horses for courses

Although PagePlus stresses its professional publishing credentials, it's not a realistic match for the likes of Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress. Serif recognises that its users are more likely to be producing a brochure than a newsstand magazine. Even small projects can be very demanding, especially if design isn't your day job, but PagePlus helps out with built-in graphics functions. Drawing tools include intelligent SmartShapes and Connector Lines, and for the cosmetics there are new glass, metal and outlining options and a particularly striking reflection effect. All told, PagePlus often feels more like a drawing package than a conventional desktop publishing application, and X3 takes this further with Logo Studio. Choose from a range of preset logos and flashes to insert, then double-click on the resulting artwork (or indeed on any drawn object) to open it into a dedicated editing window with comprehensive drawing tools.

If PagePlus X3's vector drawing capabilities are outstanding, its photo handling isn't far behind thanks to advanced functions such as image warping and irregular cropping. New features here include support for Microsoft's HD Photo format and the ability to load multiple images to place in turn. The new Image Cutout Studio helps you create advanced bitmap masks, which is useful, though DTP pros prefer to use vector clipping paths for most on-page cutouts. If this is too much effort, another way to break pictures out of the rectangular box is to use the Crop tool to apply a new soft feathering effect.

Mightier than the sword

Despite its graphical focus, PagePlus X3 doesn't forget the central importance of text handling. The annoying new Microsoft Word document format is supported, there's better spreadsheet-style handling of embedded tables, and AutoFit adjusts the point size of text according to the size of its container or, now, the length of the path to which it's attached. With the new ability to apply transparency effects and fills, it's easy to turn text into another high-impact element of your design.

Once your layout is complete, you're ready to print. For output to your own laser or inkjet, a new Duplex Printing Wizard can arrange pages ready to fold up booklet-style. For commercial printing, you can now package layouts, fonts and images ready for imagesetting. In practice, few printers will accept PagePlus files; it's not a format that's widely recognised. Fortunately, PagePlus can also output to Adobe's PDF format, using the PDF/X-1 standard for colour-separated CMYK files.

PagePlus X3 is a great package that takes you right from template to printing. Who needs space invaders, when DTP can be this much fun?