Serif CraftArtist Platinum Edition review

Serif CraftArtist Platinum Edition is geared towards hobbyists who are more familiar with scissors and glue than the cascading style sheets of the web. This five-CD set caters for the creation of just about any paper-based project, from gift bags to cake decorations.

CraftArtist’s interface shares a great deal in common with Serif’s budget DTP application, PagePlus. Although experienced users are ably catered for when it comes to creating projects from scratch, most people will have an easier time using one of the many templates as a starting point. These appear in the New Project wizard when the application is first launched and are presented as a series of thumbnail previews that give a very clear idea of what the finished article will look like. The templates are grouped into broad categories and further options appear once one is selected. Choose a greetings card, for example, and the extensive list of designs can then be further filtered by type (from anniversary to wedding invitation, with everything in between), style (cartoon, contemporary, traditional, and so on) and even colour. Alternatively, cards can be browsed by theme, so it’s easy to make 2011 the year of the robot when it comes to printed communication.

Most templates can be used as is, with little or no additional editing, but the whole point of using an application like this, rather than popping down to Clintons, is personalisation. CraftArtist makes it straightforward to change such things as the position, orientation and fill colour of anything that’s already editable on a template-based project, but not all templates are so equipped — some are little more than a background image, for example. Even so, each template does come with its own set of clipart for drag-and-drop use, ranging from small ‘embellishments’ to text styles and fill textures. Better still, these are all thematically consistent for the current template, so while it’s easy to add an LED-style age to a birthday card, for example, adding an incongruous Easter bunny is not. DTP newbies are also well-served by the on-screen tips that appear when certain tools are deployed. Drag a stencil onto the page, for example, and a suggestion to flow up with the spray brush tool appears, while dropping a clipart photo frame on to a page prompts an invitation to check out the Photos option for something to fill it with.

Although the creative opportunities offered by CraftArtist’s huge range of templates cater to all skill levels, depending on the amount of time and effort expended on personalising them, more creative computer users with greater DTP experience can just opt for a blank page. CraftArtist uses the same layout principles as PagePlus and other DTP applications, along with a similar set of tools for everything from creating text or image frames and drawing text paths onwards. This route still offers the chance to include suitable clipart, but a built-in (and quite comprehensive) effects editor, along with an easy-to-use tool for creating cut-outs, provides plenty of scope for imported photos, too.

Complete novices, on the other hand (including young children) can be guided through a project from start to finish with CraftArtist’s “Make And Do” option. This offers a handful of project types split into three skill levels, and gives a complete list of materials and tools required to produce the finished article. The project is then presented step-by-step style, complete with instructions for what to print, cut out and stick together — a little like having an adult on hand to supervise.

While there’s little here that can’t be achieved with a handful of different applications and some clipart CDs, the tight integration of Serif CraftArtist Platinum’s various features, diverse selection of templates and novice-friendly touches make it a great choice for hand-crafters at all computer skill levels.