Browse Print Publishing Reviews

Browse Print Publishing Reviews

Review: iScrapbook 2.1
Scrapbooking program offers high-quality design, easy layouts, and a seemingly unlimited supply of inspiration.
SneakPeek Pro enhances previews of graphics and publishing files
SneakPeek Pro enhances Mac OS X's Quick Look feature by adding support for a number of graphics and publishing files. It also provides much more information about those files within Quick Look previews.
Review: ColorMunki 1.1
The ColorMunki product line achieves very good color management at a reasonable price. Both the hardware and software are easy to use and the digitizing features of the Design and Photo software make it an indispensable tool for those who need to match colors to paints, fabrics, and other physical objects.
Review: Mellel 2.6
Do you outline your thank-you notes, number (and then renumber) the items on your shopping lists, or use footnotes in e-mail? Then Mellel is probably the word processor for you. Writers of long technical documents will love the control that Mellel offers over outlines, cross-references, footnotes, table of contents generation, figures, and more.
Review: FontExplorer X Pro 2.0
FontExplorer X Pro 2.0.1 is an advanced, feature-complete font-management tool. It's as if the developers asked hundreds of designers and prepress professionals what they wanted, and then delivered everything on the list.
Review: iStudio Publisher 1.0.4
iStudio Publisher aims to fill the gaping hole in the page layout software market that lies between Apple’s Pages and the pro-level powerhouses, QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign.
Review: Suitcase Fusion 2
If you don't need to share a font library across a workgroup and you're looking for a font management utility, Fusion 2 has plenty of unique features to get excited about. It adds and activates fonts in a snap and you can preview your fonts on your actual layout.
Review: Pages ’09
With Pages ’09 Apple has hit a sweet spot: it added necessary features, enhanced existing tools, fixed minor annoyances, and gave users exactly what they asked for, although there are still some minor issues Apple needs to address in order the make the program perfect.
Review: Adobe InCopy CS4
InCopy CS4 is a tempting upgrade. It addresses a major omission in previous versions by adding the ability to edit and track changes in tables. Add to that the conditional-text and cross-reference features, a more powerful Links panel, and a variety of interface enhancements.
Review: InDesign CS4
InDesign CS4 would be welcome on any layout designer’s desktop. But it may not be worth the price of an upgrade in and of itself; the degree of change is not nearly as strong as users saw in the move to InDesign CS3.
Review: QuarkXPress 8
QuarkXPress 8 marks a major change to the user interface of the venerable page-layout and design program for the Mac. At the same time, version 8 offers very little in the way of new features, thus making the interface change its hallmark.
Painter Essentials 4
If you’re the least bit creative, Painter Essentials 4 could be the most fun you’ve had in front of a computer in years (though you’ll want to spring for a graphics tablet). It’s affordable and the new interface makes it an absolute joy to use.
Painter X
If you’re an artist, using Painter X is natural and intuitive. For the aspiring artist, Painter is a great way to learn—the digital advantage being that every canvas, brush, and tube of paint is free.
SketchUp Pro 6
If you’re interested in using Google’s SketchUp as a 3-D modeler, start with the free version. If you get comfortable with the program’s 3-D drawing environment, and you need to export your models to formats not supported by the free version, then consider the Pro version.
Pages '08 shines, but leaves room for improvement
Pages ‘08 is a great word processing and page layout program. For most individuals, it should be a perfect fit for day-to-day needs. But if you want to share and edit files on a network, or if you need robust mail-merge features, Pages will not be enough to fulfill your needs.
InCopy CS3
If you use InCopy, you’ll want to upgrade to CS3 at the same time that your colleagues in the design department move to InDesign CS3 for the sake of compatibility.
Illustrator CS3
Upgrading to Adobe Illustrator CS3 is a no-brainer for longtime Illustrator users. I was hoping that some of the older tools would get some tweaks—especially the 3-D tools and the color picker, and I’d love to see the ability to create multiple-page documents.
InDesign CS3
Despite a few wrinkles and omissions, InDesign remains the most capable page layout software available. The more I use this new version, the more I appreciate the subtle retooling throughout, not just the obvious new features. InDesign CS3 is an upgrade that you’ll grow to like.
Quark Interactive Designer 1.0
Quark Interactive Designer 1.0 is a great tool for any QuarkXPress 7 designer who wants to create interactive content with Flash or who has existing content to convert for Web use.
Universal QuarkXPress boosts speed on some Macs
The Universal QuarkXPress 7.01, which shipped in August, eliminates the sluggish performance on the Intel platform, but XPress 7.01 is even slower than version 7.0 on Power Macs.
Print Explosion Deluxe 3.0
Beautifully designed templates, extensive clip art collections, integration with iLife, and ease of use all combine to make Print Explosion Deluxe 3.0 an excellent tool for all your personal creative design endeavors.
FontLab Studio 5.0
FontLab Studio 5.0.2 is the most capable font editor you can buy today, but it is hard to learn. If you can live without Studio’s advanced features, then you will probably be happier with Fontographer.
Fontographer 4.7
For nearly any font editing task you’d want to accomplish, Fontographer is still, after 21 years, the quickest and most intuitive way to go. Fontographer 4.7.3 has one of the best interfaces ever developed for a Mac program.
QuarkXPress 7
Quark has added some good features to XPress 7. But the new territories Quark is staking out will hardly excite the broad design community, and they're difficult to learn.
The Print Shop for Mac 2.0
The Print Shop for Mac 2.0 is a great program for anyone who wants to create fun print projects for home, school, or small business. New layout controls and enhanced image effects make this version a worthy upgrade.
Suitcase Fusion
Suitcase Fusion 1.0 is a powerful and capable font manager for creative professionals, and well worth the upgrade price.
Pages 2
Pages 2 provides excellent word processing features in a package that can also act as a top-notch desktop publishing application.
Painter Essentials 3.0
Painter Essentials 3 is an extremely powerful program that gives beginning artists the ability to create beautiful artwork, as well as the freedom to experiment in ways they may never have dreamed possible.