Developer(s) Serif Europe Type Desktop publishing | Written in C++ | |
Initial release 1990; 27 years ago (1990) Stable release X9 / 19 November 2015; 15 months ago (2015-11-19) Operating system | ||
PagePlus is a desktop publishing (page layout) program developed by Serif for Microsoft Windows. The first version was released in 1991 as the first commercial sub-£100 DTP package for Microsoft Windows. The latest release is PagePlus X9, which was released in November 2015.
Contents
History
Serif was founded in 1987 by a small team of software engineers who wanted to create the first low-cost alternative to the high-end desktop publishing packages used by professionals.
The first product to be released was called PageStar – a simple low cost display advertisement layout program for Windows 2.0 – which was the forerunner to PagePlus. The first release of PagePlus was launched in 1990 and was the first sub £100 desktop publishing program for Windows 3.0. Three years later, in spring 1993, PagePlus 2 was released and provided full colour printing support. Since then, a new version of the product has been released more or less annually.
The latest version – PagePlus X9 – will be the last. Serif have dropped further development of all "Plus" products to focus efforts on their Affinity products for Mac. Affinity Publisher will be released in 2017, and will be ported to Windows later.
Serif's vector graphics editor, DrawPlus was launched as an accompanying product to PagePlus in 1994.
Overview
While PagePlus is generally targeted at the "entry level" DTP user, some of the functionality present in the market leading applications (Quark's XPress and Adobe's InDesign) is present in PagePlus, such as working in the CMYK colour space, OpenType Feature support, and Optical margin alignment (Optical Justification). PagePlus also has the ability to view, create, edit and publish PDF files, and publish E-books in *.epub or *mobi formats suitable for the Kindle store. It also includes support for EPUB3 fixed layout eBooks for textbooks, children’s books etc.
There is a free version of the software, called PagePlus Starter Edition 4.0. It is based on the previous version of the software (PPX7). Make sure that you get the latest version from the Serif site – some earlier version install a download manager (which installs start.mysearchdial.com toolbar hijacker etc., if you are not careful), then get an activation code through their email in order to unlock the software. The user has access to free designs and templates to download at the site.
PagePlus is primarily written in C++ using Visual Studio 2008, with a heavy dependence on the MFC framework. The Windows GDI library was discarded early in development in favour of an in-house composition engine supporting advanced bitmap and typeface operations. The text engine supports Unicode text entry.
Supported platforms
PagePlus was developed for Microsoft Windows and supports Windows XP, Windows Vista (32/64bit), Windows 7 (32/64bit), Windows 8 (32/64bit) and Windows 10 (32/64bit).
Reception
PagePlus has generally always been well received by its users and the press especially its value for money when compared to expensive alternatives like Adobe InDesign.
Serif PagePlus remains popular among its users with 95% of those surveyed saying they would recommend it to family or friends and receiving an average start rating of 4.32 out of 5 from 540 users.