Review: Serif Pageplus X3 desktop publishing software

The last upgrade of Serif’s veteran desktop publishing (DTP) program made it a bit of a jack of all trades.

As well the page layout features you'd expect it also included features for creating slideshows and presentations using PDF files, embedding documents into emails and even a smattering of business graphics tools for creating flowcharts.

However, this latest version, Pageplus X3, is a bit more focused, and its most important new features all concentrate on the graphical side of DTP work.

Our favourite new feature is the Logo Studio, which is a kind of program-within-a-program that focuses specifically on the task of creating logo artwork.

Most DTP programs provide tools for creating effects such as running text along a path, but the Logo Studio goes into this process in much more depth than we’ve seen elsewhere. There are predefined paths for curved text, or you can run the text along a freehand path that you draw yourself.

There’s a wide range of additional text effects available, such as shadows, 3D effects and metallic textures, and you can also draw your own logo graphics, select from a wide range of clip-art symbols or import your own photos and other artwork as part of the logo.

Once you’ve created the logo you can make it part of a master page that can then be re-used for other documents in the future. It’s a nice idea and will be very handy for home workers and small businesses that need to design their own stationary and marketing materials.

Another related tool is the Cutout Studio, which is used to select parts of a photo and remove them from the photo’s background image, so that they can be used them for logos or elsewhere in documents.

There’s also a new set of special effects filters that can be used to enhance photos and other graphics. These include a variety of blur, transparency, reflection and lighting effects, so there is plenty of scope for experimenting with artwork and logo designs.

Serif doesn’t just focus on fancy graphics, though. There are some very practical new features in Pageplus X3 too, such as the duplex wizard that allows users to print documents on both sides of paper even for those using low-cost printers that don’t normally allow double-sided printing.

The manual could be a little more helpful. It has a tendency to stray into jargon sometimes but for the most part Pageplus X3 is very easy to use, and can be recommended to home users of small business users who need a straightforward but versatile DTP program. And, with a price cut from £100 to £80, it’s good value too.

See also:

Review: Coreldraw Graphics Suite X4 design software

Easy-to-use but powerful drawing software  29 Apr 2008

Power Publisher 2

A complete home publishing package at a knock-down price.  28 Jul 2003

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