Corel Ventura 10

Ventura was the first professional DTP package for the PC and set the gold standard by which all future publishing applications were judged. With a difficult transition to the Windows environment, however, it began to lose out to simpler and more hands-on applications like PageMaker. Corel snapped up the ailing giant and grafted on some design-intensive know-how, but misunderstood the program's long document strengths and the user-base haemorrhaged. After skipping a release, Corel came back with the much stronger, A-Listed Ventura 8, but still found it difficult to win back the market share.

It's now been over four years since version 8, and it was beginning to look like Corel was letting Ventura slip away. But, thankfully that's not the case and, after another skipped release, Ventura is back. So what's new this time, and is it enough to put Ventura back on the top?

Nothing's changed at first glance, with the toolset, toolbars and docker windows all left pretty much untouched. It's a serious disappointment, as no-one could call Ventura an easy program to get to grips with. And the one attempt Corel has made to make the interface more user-friendly has backfired. By adding icons next to every command on the menu bars, Corel clearly intends to give the environment a more recognisable face. But there's no way you can differentiate between hundreds of slightly different icons, so it adds to the program's complexity.

I wasn't too concerned by this, though, as Ventura has long offered excellent customisation control, and this has been greatly expanded in version 10. Sure enough, not only can you now control which commands appear on which menu and toolbar, but also save and exchange the customised workspaces you create. You're also now able to dig down and customise the text of the commands and tooltips and change, or even pixel edit, each icon. If you're feeling reckless, you can even choose to make the menus semi-transparent. In other words, it's possible to do just about anything apart from switch off the command icons.

After such a long break away, the most immediately important new functionality for a DTP application is support for the latest file formats. Ventura has always prided itself on close integration with word processors, so support for the latest WordPerfect and Word formats is crucial. Even more welcome is the new ability to control precisely what happens to imported formatting, with options to ignore styles, style attributes or local attributes. Style handling is also more intelligent - if a style already exists, it's formatted according to the Ventura tag settings; if it doesn't, an appropriately formatted tag is created.

With over 40 import filters, Ventura's graphics support is even more comprehensive. As expected, Corel's own formats are at the forefront, with direct support for CorelDRAW, Photo-Paint, Painter, Picture Publisher and Designer files, although rivals' standards such as Illustrator, FreeHand and Photoshop are also included. However, the level of support is mixed. I was impressed that I could import both DRAW and Illustrator 10 files and break them into separate editable objects, but - under the press gold master, at least - Photoshop PSD files were converted to greyscale, while FreeHand 10 files were rejected. In most circumstances, it's advisable to stick to the vector EPS and bitmap TIFF staples, although the new PDF import makes it possible to think of all-PDF workflows.

If you embed your bitmap files rather than link to them, a range of new options opens up. Corel no longer includes a copy of Photo-Paint in the Ventura box (WordPerfect has also been dropped), but it does make use of its Photo-Paint experience to provide a wide array of bitmap-based power. There are over 50 new filters, making more than 100 in all, which offer everything from advanced colour correction through to artistic stroke-based effects and 3D rotation. The creative options are enormous, and having the power right there in your DTP application makes it more likely that you'll take advantage of them.