Group test: what's the best publishing software?

5. Extensis Suitcase Fusion 2

• Reviewed on: 12 February 10
• RRP: £76.40 inc VAT
• Rating:

Not everyone will require a specialist tool such as this, of course – and you'll need a working knowledge of typography simply to wade through the Suitcase manual – but if you're a designer or involved in business design work then Suitcase Fusion 2 will quickly earn its keep by streamlining your workflow and ensuring that you always have the right fonts to hand.

4. Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 6

• Reviewed on: 9 June 11
• RRP: £69 inc. VAT
• Rating:

Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 6 is a fully fledged creative suite for the price of an image editor. Xara doesn’t compromise on features in any area.

3. Adobe Acrobat X Pro

• Reviewed on: 21 October 10
• RRP: £441 plus VAT
• Rating:

Acrobat X Pro strikes me as a substantial upgrade. With Adobe software, such upgrades often involve a substantial learning curve - but in this case, Adobe has done well in making its upgrades more accessible to the nonprogrammers among us. Acrobat X Pro is a much-easier-to-use application that can bring in different types of content and display it in a consistent interface, with greatly improved collaboration tools.

2. DVD PixPlay Professional

• Reviewed on: 22 February 11
• RRP: £52 inc. VAT
• Rating:

DVD PixPlay Professional does suffer from a bland interface. And the fact that it doesn't support the latest PowerPoint file formats is an annoyance. But if you can overlook those two flaws, business users will appreciate how easy DVD PixPlay makes it to create high-quality slide shows that are easy to share.

 

 

1. Adobe Illustrator CS5

• Reviewed on: 10 May 10
• RRP: £624 inc. VAT
• Rating:

Despite long-hoped-for enhancements that have not been delivered, the new features and updates that are included in Adobe Illustrator CS5 are so compelling we're unable to say anything short of this: Illustrator CS5 is a great buy. Even if you have no need of all the new features - and we can't see anyone not benefiting from at least one of them - the zippier performance alone will pay back the cost of the upgrade in time that you don't have to wait for Illustrator to complete tasks.