Ignore the rumours. Desktop publishing is not dead
Desktop publishing (DTP) was all the rage in the 1990s, when home computers and laser printers gave everyone with a PC the chance to produce newsletters and magazines that looked almost as good as the ones in the shops. Although it’s unfamiliar to most users, DTP software is still the best and easiest way to do these kind of tasks, and you’ll find it’s suited to a surprisingly wide range of other projects.
If you normally turn to Microsoft Word or PowerPoint to make documents such as posters, promotional flyers and greetings cards, a DTP program is what you’re missing: it lets you put everything on the page (or pages) exactly where you want it, but with guides and grids available to line it all up neatly, and text controls to make anything from a quick notice to a full-length book look lovely.
Traditionally, publishing companies choose between Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress, the two established leaders in DTP software. But InDesign is only available as part of an Adobe Creative Cloud subscription at £46 a month (www.snipca.com/19965), while QuarkXPress (www.snipca.com/19966) is so expensive to buy that you really don’t even want to know. For over 25 years, the best low-cost alternative has been Serif PagePlus.
If you’ve never used DTP software before, it’ll take you a little while to get the hang of the tools. But PagePlus works very much like its pricier rivals, so at least you’ll be learning skills you can apply to more advanced programs. A Startup Assistant links you to some video tutorials and a big set of decent templates so you don’t have to start from scratch. In fact, just opening a template, typing over the default text with your own and replacing the pictures takes very little effort at all.
Mastering pages and text styles are the key to professional document design, and PagePlus handles these with an excellent breadth and depth of features. There’s a new option to create a formattable table from plain text, and you can even continue a table between pages. This kind of thing is a big help when you need to present data such as accounts or timetables – on which note, there’s also a new calendar generator.
For magazine-style layouts, PagePlus supports the ‘facing pages’ approach, where you design two-page ‘spreads’ as they’ll appear when finished and bound, but the software can output them in the different arrangement required to print and fold. It also supports the special PDF file formats required by commercial printers, including colour conversions, and provides ‘bleed’ guides to ensure graphics that go right to the edge of the page overlap enough for the printing press’s margin of error.
PagePlus has no direct competitors. Microsoft Publisher, part of Office 2016, has barely been updated for years, and although useful for some purposes, it’s not in the same league. Whether you’re thinking of launching your own magazine or just fed up with using unsuitable programs for everyday print jobs, Serif PagePlus X9 remains the first choice. Long live print!
VERDICT
Not just a specialist tool, but a versatile aid for a variety of large and small jobs. PagePlus X9 is well worth the investment.