Print Artist Platinum 23

Unless you are the creative type, artistic tasks such as producing an eye-catching newsletter can be a chore.

Print Artist Platinum allows users to borrow some ideas from the professionals in the form of 25,000 pre-prepared templates divided into 35 categories and supplied with the software on three DVDs.

Now into its 23rd version, this is a well-known program so we had high expectations. The garish green toolbars and cartoon-like icons did seem rudimentary at first glance, but a closer look revealed a polished and user-friendly interface.

Print Artist presents users with plenty of templates to choose from on starting the program. However, despite the number available, it isn’t overwhelming, because they are divided into logical categories so the user can choose the appropriate one: anything from useful greetings cards to more esoteric dog training stickers. The detailed template previews were quick to load and to scroll through, which made it a pleasure to search for the one you want.

We were also impressed by useful touches such as a wizard that configures printing settings for double-sided projects by asking a series of questions. Print Artist also comes with a comprehensive printed manual, aimed at novice users.

The program places a lot of emphasis on including personal photos in projects. There are some easy-to-use but effective photo-editing tools with options such as the ability to crop photos into a selection of shapes, which worked well. The quality of the templates varied: for instance some of the photo album templates were quite cluttered for our liking while the greetings cards were mostly excellent. Some were genuinely funny and at a quality level akin to shop-bought cards.

There’s enough here to satisfy most home users’ needs although experienced users may want to look at the more expensive and powerful desktop publishing programs available.