Serif has been around for quite awhile, offering value-oriented software, mostly to the UK market. Web hounds may know of them through their promotional site freeserifsoftware.com, a site that offers free downloads of outdated versions of Serif’s products as a means of drawing paying customers to their latest programs. Having tried a few of those free products, namely their drawing & photo editing programs, I was pleased but not overwhelmed with their quality. However, having need of a relatively powerful DTP program at a period of low cash flow, I went scouring the Web and stumbled upon a mention of PagePlus that didn’t give details but did give it a positive rating. The price was competitive with Microsoft Publisher, so I was curious. Ironically enough, I had received a mailer from Serif earlier, offering PagePlus 9 at a substantial discount. I decided to give it a try, figuring one version older wouldn’t hurt much. I rang up the toll free phone number and promptly connected with a pleasant English accented gentleman. We chatted amicably for awhile, no high-pressured Manhattan style sales pitch, a real conversation sort of thing - remember them? Maybe it was his way of softening me for the sell-up, maybe not. Either way, it worked. As a past purchaser of Serif Software, I was eligible for a big discount on version 10, so I bought it.