The Startup Assistant offers links to video tutorials plus a wide range of high quality templates – perfect for people without the time or the design skills to start from scratch.

It still supports Windows XP and modest hardware, and is extremely spritely on a reasonably modern PC. Software with this long a pedigree often feels overburdened with features, but its various panels are sensibly laid out and labelled, its menus are mercifully straightforward, and key features are quick to locate. Serif PagePlus X9 is looking remarkably fresh-faced considering it's been around for 26 years. You could design them in a word processor or image editor, but a dedicated desktop-publishing application is much better equipped for handling text and images across multiple pages.

Desktop publishing seems quaintly old fashioned in this age of Twitter and WhatsApp, but there are still lots of times when we need printed documents: invitations, business cards, complement slips, invoices, flyers, brochures, and restaurant menus to name but a few.

Serif drawplus x9