Now that you have all those Great Pictures
what do you do with them?
Serif PagePlus X2 has the Answer!
by Mickey Maguire
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Why do we take photographs? The question is simple enough. If you are a professional photographer, you might take pictures for advertising. You might shoot weddings. You might shoot portraits. If you are a journalist, you are recording news and events. The vast majority of people take snapshots of family events, vacations, holiday gatherings, graduations... in short, you're saving memories. It used to be that families took their snapshots and tossed them into a cardboard box or put them in some sort of photo album for long-term storage. There were some more energetic folks who made scrapbooks. With the rise in popularity of digital cameras, people have started printing pictures at home. This has coaxed a lot of photo-bugs into trying their hand at image editing and using computer software to make their own calendars, cards, even scrapbook pages. The latest rage in scrapbooking is going digital, no, not cameras, I'm talking "DTP", that's desktop publishing for those unfamiliar with the term. It is the electronic replacement for what used to be called "layout and paste-up" in the newspaper business. While there are a lot of applications out there to do the job, one stands above all the rest. It's called PagePlus X2, and it is published by Serif, a software company in the UK. PagePlus X2 is Serif's latest version of this application (version 11 was the previous incarnation). I've actually been using it for years. When I got married, I bought my wife PagePlus, also. Most of the graphics used in DSLR-MAG and Tricorn Publications are made with PagePlus. We used it to create the PDF editions of our books. We used it to create our "Inspired Images" note cards and calendars. |
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Here are some screen shots (click to see a larger view)
a shot of my Hocking Hills 2008 calendar in development
a shot of my Blue Angels 2008 calendar in development
this is a scrapbook page I designed for my wife after a stay in Ravenwood Castle
this is a shot of the built-in image browser, a new feature in PagePlus X2... very nice
this is a shot of the built-in tutorials in the left margin that are available on demand (or hidden)
this is a shot of my book Frame That Shot in the multi-page view
PagePlus X2 makes digital scrapbooking easy. Your only limit is your imagination. You have tools available to create a layout in 12x12 inch format, the popular scrapbook format used by paper companies. You have handy tools on the right side of your screen to make buttons and three-dimensional objects, add drop shadows, raised capital letters, and lots of magazine-like features to give your work a professional edge. The tutorials that come with PagePlus teach you every technique commonly used so it won't be long before you are making some really great layouts.
If you are not interested in scrapbook design, PagePlus still offers a boat-load of templates and features that will serve you well. You can make brochures, business cards, greeting cards, announcements, banners, calendars, and design your own websites. There are lots of neat extras to make things easy for you. There are a huge number of templates to use or you can start from scratch. There is no limit to what you can do!
The image browser shot above gives you a glimpse of this hot new feature in PagePlus X2. I have used many image browsers, but, this one is really slick. You don't have to spend any extra money to get it - it's built in the program. Just click "insert" in the menu. Click "picture" and "from a file" and up pops the browser. It gives you a folder preview and individual file previews. It loads very fast and you can glance through your images in a jiffy. You can use this feature to find things a lot faster than using a separate program. What a time and resource saver.
When you are finished with your creations, save the work as a PagePlus X2 document (filename.ppp). You can also make and save your own templates. You can export your document as a PDF file, and read it with Adobe's Acrobat Reader®. You can also convert your document into a picture file and upload it to those scrapbooking websites that have become so popular. There is even an option to save your work as a PDF slide-show. I have not tried that new feature, but, knowing Serif, I am sure that it works beautifully.
PagePlus X2 can be compared to PageMaker, FrameMaker and Quark Xpress. It can do everything the HIGHER-PRICED competition does for a lot less. If you want great results without spending a ton of hard-earned money, you can check out PagePlus X2 on Serif's website:
By the way, I have been using PagePlus X2 during the writing of this article. I have made the two calendars mentioned, browsed all over my image archives, made a few updates to my book, and even opened projects made with earlier versions of the program. I have not found a bug yet. I haven't had a lock-up or a crash. I give PagePlus X2 a big thumbs up... excellent work Serif!
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