Review: Magix Page & Layout Designer includes advanced tools for beginner users

Printed media may seem to be heading the way of the dinosaur, but until the proverbial meteor hits a stack of business cards, box of letterhead, or freshly-printed brochures on their way to a conference, we'll continue adding paper and ink (and the odd PDF) to our marketing cache.

MAGIX Page & Layout Designer ($150)  anticipates the needs of a growing business by providing a single source for designing anything from a single logo to business cards to a multi-page brochure. However, if you are a Xara Photo & Graphic Designer ($89) fan, you will recognize the UI instantly, and may be left feeling ripped off. It's so hard to find a difference between the two apps, it seems that MAGIX has repackaged Xara with added templates and an inflated pricetag (although Page & Layout Designer is currently on sale for $90).

About a dozen template themes are included in the MAGIX Page & Layout Designer download (you can't access or view them all in the trial). Choose a theme that suits your business, then open business card, brochure, and letterhead templates that all match the theme and are fully customizable with your own logo, text, images, etc. There are about 100 templates in total. All are royalty-free, and many verge on stylish, but organization isn't great. It can be hard to find the matching brochure to your business card design.

MAGIX Page & Layout Designer's slide-out bitmap gallery could mean you never need to hunt and gather on the server for your company's logo again.

Customizing the templates is pretty easy with MAGIX Page & Layout Designer, even if you don't have any design training or experience. For example, a snap function helps you align objects, text is set to automatically flow around your images, and you can chose to work without or without layers.

If you do have prior experience, setting up a page from scratch also is simple and intuitive. Plus, you can easily use MAGIX Page & Layout Designer to create logos and other vector drawings without too much difficulty; and use the photo tools to adjust and manipulate your images. Refer to the Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 review for more detail on how drawing and image editing tools work, since these are identical.

Currently, Magix Photo Manager MX Deluxe ($59) is included in the Page & Layout Designer download for free, and also includes some additional basic photo manipulation tools as well as the ability to organize your images. On the surface, this looks like a great deal. However, you may not need Photo Manager at all, as MAGIX Page & Layout Designer includes a slide-out bitmap gallery. With it, you can save and access all of your logos, logotypes, images etc. for any of your projects. However, I wish it were easier to organize things, and would love to be able to add text boxes (so you never again have to cut and paste your mission statement and other often-used blocks of text).

It seems like MAGIX is trying to reach a new audience with Page & Layout Designer, with no mention of its powerful vector drawing tools and super-easy photo editing in their marketing of the product. But the non-sale pricetag is steep unless you were actually considering also purchasing the bundled Photo Manager MX Deluxe. If you already own Xara Photo & Graphic Designer (or Xara Designer Pro, the $299 heavy-lifter in the family) you are going to be an unhappy T-Rex who'll want to eat MAGIX for lunch.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

From PC World. Electronics product reviews and advice for best reference

Review: Magix Page & Layout Designer includes advanced tools for beginner users

Printed media may seem to be heading the way of the dinosaur, but until the proverbial meteor hits a stack of business cards, box of letterhead, or freshly-printed brochures on their way to a conference, we'll continue adding paper and ink (and the odd PDF) to our marketing cache.

MAGIX Page & Layout Designer ($150)  anticipates the needs of a growing business by providing a single source for designing anything from a single logo to business cards to a multi-page brochure. However, if you are a Xara Photo & Graphic Designer ($89) fan, you will recognize the UI instantly, and may be left feeling ripped off. It's so hard to find a difference between the two apps, it seems that MAGIX has repackaged Xara with added templates and an inflated pricetag (although Page & Layout Designer is currently on sale for $90).

About a dozen template themes are included in the MAGIX Page & Layout Designer download (you can't access or view them all in the trial). Choose a theme that suits your business, then open business card, brochure, and letterhead templates that all match the theme and are fully customizable with your own logo, text, images, etc. There are about 100 templates in total. All are royalty-free, and many verge on stylish, but organization isn't great. It can be hard to find the matching brochure to your business card design.

MAGIX Page & Layout Designer's slide-out bitmap gallery could mean you never need to hunt and gather on the server for your company's logo again.

Customizing the templates is pretty easy with MAGIX Page & Layout Designer, even if you don't have any design training or experience. For example, a snap function helps you align objects, text is set to automatically flow around your images, and you can chose to work without or without layers.

If you do have prior experience, setting up a page from scratch also is simple and intuitive. Plus, you can easily use MAGIX Page & Layout Designer to create logos and other vector drawings without too much difficulty; and use the photo tools to adjust and manipulate your images. Refer to the Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 2013 review for more detail on how drawing and image editing tools work, since these are identical.

Currently, Magix Photo Manager MX Deluxe ($59) is included in the Page & Layout Designer download for free, and also includes some additional basic photo manipulation tools as well as the ability to organize your images. On the surface, this looks like a great deal. However, you may not need Photo Manager at all, as MAGIX Page & Layout Designer includes a slide-out bitmap gallery. With it, you can save and access all of your logos, logotypes, images etc. for any of your projects. However, I wish it were easier to organize things, and would love to be able to add text boxes (so you never again have to cut and paste your mission statement and other often-used blocks of text).

It seems like MAGIX is trying to reach a new audience with Page & Layout Designer, with no mention of its powerful vector drawing tools and super-easy photo editing in their marketing of the product. But the non-sale pricetag is steep unless you were actually considering also purchasing the bundled Photo Manager MX Deluxe. If you already own Xara Photo & Graphic Designer (or Xara Designer Pro, the $299 heavy-lifter in the family) you are going to be an unhappy T-Rex who'll want to eat MAGIX for lunch.

Note: The Download button on the Product Information page will download the software to your system.

From PC World. Shop computer and accessories from Amazon here

MAGIX Photo Manager MX Deluxe Organizes Your Photos...But May Not Be Your Best Option

It wasn't that long ago that storing images meant a shoebox under your bed, and sorting/filing them meant a choice between sticky pages or sticky photo corners in a paper album. Casual photography has changed the way we treat our images, but one thing hasn't changed: we still need to be able to find the shot we want. MAGIX Photo Manager MX Deluxe includes tools to do just that.

Photo Manager offers you many options for nondestructive image editing, plus an option for launching Photo Designer, MAGIX's free photo editing tool.Unlike many image management software, notably free Picasa, and Serif's Photo Organizer (which comes bundled with PhotoPlus X5) Magix Photo Manager MX Deluxe has you create the photo database yourself. If you have gigabytes of images, this may seem a little daunting, but you simply navigate to the folders you want to add to Photo Manager MX and you have far greater control of which images you add and when you do it. Unfortunately, the UI in Photo Manager MX is so confusing it's really difficult to see what you've added and how to find things. Ironically if your pictures are a mess on your hard drive, they're going to be a mess in Photo Manager MX. Not a good start to helping me get more organized.

Once you're ready to start organizing, you can create as many categories within Photo Manager MX as you need, and nest them as deep as you dare to go and assign icons to each of your categories. This is very similar in function to PicaJet FX ($60 photo organization and optimization software), although I like that in PicaJet FX you can pick a photo to use as your icon and don't have to browse to its location as you do with Photo Manager MX. After all, shouldn't Photo Manager know where the image is better than I do? The other thing I disliked with Photo Manager is that there seems to be no indication when you add an image to a category, other than going back and looking. Plus it is much more labor-intensive, difficult, and confusing than PicaJet FX.

Magix Photo Manager MX does have facial recognition built in. On my test photos, it was so slow it would have actually been more effective to look every individual thumbnail myself. However, it did pick out most of the shots where eyes faced the camera. If you don't want to use Picasa's very effective facial recognition because of Google's Privacy Policies (Picasa is Google's free image management software), Photo Manager may be a good option.

Also, Photo Manager MX includes basic image correction tools, which are as good as you would expect from a program not billed as an image editor. Although Photo Manager MX's "automatic" red eye detection didn't seem to do anything much to correct my test image, the manual version worked very well once I got the hang of it. I also liked Photo Manager MX's frequent and easy links to MAGIX Photo Designer, a free photo editing tool that's not as fully-equipped as Adobe Photoshop, but certainly does the trick if you need to clean up or adjust an image more than Photo Manager can handle.

There's a free version of Photo Manager, but the tool is far more basic (it doesn't include detailed search or sorting for example, or image editing) than Photo Manager MX Deluxe. And the Deluxe version includes a plethora of features that could be very exciting if you're on the lookout for them. For example, it can try to correct the curved lines and converging verticals in your architectural shots, record commentary and sound and add it to your images, create travel route animation, and put together video slideshows.

Without these special tools, MagixPhoto Manager MX Deluxe is much like a very nice-looking shoe box. It's hard to get a handle on organizing your images, and you are going to have to put a lot of time and effort in at the front end to create your database. Although you may feel a little out of control of your images at times, Photo Manager MX Deluxe has some cool add-ons that, if they're something your looking for, could make it worth paying $60. If you're looking for an easy organizer, try $60 PicaJet FX instead.

--Clare Brandt

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

Free Image Editor MAGIX Photo Designer 7 Gives You Pixel-by-Pixel Control

It's hard to know what to expect from a free image editor. After all, if all was fair, we'd be getting Photoshop minus about $700 worth of features. But many free editors, MAGIX Photo Designer included, have great strengths that serve a niche, and make them invaluable: If they do what you need them to.

Although Photo Designer's selection of preset art filters is very complete, they all seem to result in an uncannily similar effect.As a lover of Xara products, I was really excited to try out Magix Photo Designer 7, billed as the free version of Xara Photo & Graphic Designer ($89). But the products are so different they are barely recognizable as even half-sisters, and few of the features I love about Xara are in Photo Designer's gene pool.

Photo Designer's red-eye reduction tool worked very well on the image I tested. Unlike the step-up versions, Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 7 or Xara Designer Pro ($299), Photo Designer creates an iris-sized stamp that you use with one or two clicks to gray over the red-eye parts of your images. I found it to be just as effective as the gray dot you need to somewhat accurately draw using the more expensive versions--and it's certainly easier to get the hang of.

I also preferred Photo Designer's Clone Tool over the Xara software. Photo Designer's version works more like Photoshop in that you chose the clone and then paint over the area you want to replace. It's simple and a lot more effective than the new Xara method.

These were the only features of Photo Designer that really impressed me, however. Like other Xara photo editors (and high-end products like $700 Adobe Photoshop), Photo Designer has the tools to select groups of pixels and make changes specifically to the selection. The tool is an exciting addition, but its effectiveness depends greatly on the Photo Designer brush you have selected, and there's not much in the way of help: Rather, you're left to experiment. If your experimentation goes well, however, expect to be able to apply blur, fill, brightness, and color adjustments to selected pixels within your image.

Photo Designer includes fewer features than GIMP (a free, open source image editor), which makes it less intimidating. And much like Serif's PhotoPlus X5 ($89), Photo Designer includes a Task Assistant, which takes you step-by-step through common tasks like creating panoramic images, isolating parts of your image, and optimizing colors. PhotoPlus X5's version is much more detailed, however, and although it's a nice feature in Photo Designer, it oftentimes left me wanting help with the next step.

Photo Designer includes a number of interesting presets to turn your image into a painting, drawing, or other style of artwork. These filters worked relatively quickly, but not very well, and certainly nowhere near with the same finesse as FotoSketcher, a free tool that excels at turning images into fine art. I found myself adjusting the settings manually to differentiate Photo Designer's preset effects from one another.

If you're looking for a free image editor to manipulate specific parts of your images---down to a pixel by pixel level of detail---or make quick changes, Photo Designer 7 may be a good fit for you. It's a little clunky and unpredictable, especially compared to sister product Xara Photo & Graphic Designer, but the ability to 'Shop images for free is worth the tradeoff.

--Clare Brandt

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

Competent, Easy-to-Use Magix Digital DJ

Magix Digital DJ 2 ($50, feature-limited demo) is very nice representation of what would've once been about $10,000 worth of DJ audio equipment. It's rather sedate in appearance compared to the skinnable VirtualDJ and Mixxx, but it's also logically designed and makes it very easy for you to get to relevant tools and functions.

As with nearly every other DJ program, Digital DJ 2's interface is based around a library, two players/turntables, and a balance control to manage the output level of each player. You load files from the library into the players, play them, and do your cross-fades with the balance control. Also on hand are other DJ essentials such as cue for auditioning, one-hundredth second precise alignment forward and back, waveform display with loop marking, individual tempo and volume sliders, and so on. There's an entire section dedicated to looping as well.

Though not as flashy as MIXX or VirtualDJ, Digital DJ 2's interface is logical and well thought out.I have two very minor complaints about the Digital DJ 2 interface. First, it lacks tool tips--those little hints that pop up when you hover over screen elements and controls. Their absence makes it a bit harder to get up to speed, though it should still be very intuitive to anyone with DJ experience. Second, I'd like to be able to right-click and send all the files I've selected in the library to a new playlist. As of now, you must drag them to an existing one.

As far as file support is concerned, Digital DJ 2 understood WAV files up to 96 kHz/32-bits, WMA, MP3, Apple normal and lossless, OGG, and FLAC. It didn't recognize APE, and it loaded, but wouldn't play, Windows lossless files--but those are two rarer file types. Digital DJ 2 ships with and utilizes the free ASIO4ALL audio driver, which reduces the latency of your audio system down to around 5 millisecond. Though adequate for playback, the normal WDM audio drivers respond far too slow for implementing real time FX such as tempo changes or scratching.

A DJ's most important talent is people skills--knowing what a crowd of people want, what they will react to, how they'll react, and when to press the right button. Digital DJ 2 will only provide the button, but it does so in a very comprehensive and logical, if not glamorous, manner.

Note: The Download button takes you to the vendor's website, where you can select the correct version for your system. Also, the audio drops out every 4 minutes in the Digital DJ 2 demo, but it is otherwise feature intact. Take it for a spin (very bad pun intended).

--Jon L. Jacobi

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here

Magix Audio Cleaning Lab MX Removes Clicks and Pops

Magix Audio Cleaning Lab MX ($60, seven-day free trial) is the friendliest audio restoration, editing, and rendering program I've ever used--at least for the basics. It's especially easy for those who want to record and import audio from CDs, vinyl, and cassettes. In fact, much of the interface is dedicated to making that task easy. But what counts in audio restoration is how the audio sounds after the noise removal process. In that regard, Audio Cleaning Lab MX does a good job--roughly equivalent to the free Audacity.

Audio Cleaning Lab MX has the friendliest basic interface of any audio restoration program I've tested.Audio Cleaning Lab MX has a sophisticated interface and features given the price. It displays audio as mono, stereo, surround, as well as spectral analysis. You can cut, delete, trim, draw volume curves and perform other relatively advanced tasks.

Audio restoration tools include a de-clicker, de-crackler, de-clipper, de-rumbler, de-hisser, and direct spectral editing, i.e., grabbing certain frequencies at a specific time and deleting them. The latter is very difficult to do well without a scrubbing (auditioning) tool, which is not provided.

Audio Cleaning Lab MX also has a number of what it calls mastering tools, including a stereo expander/narrower, harmonic enhancement, reverb, and chorus. All work well--however, the feature I find particularly brilliant is the Inverse function found in the de-clicker and de-crackler. As all filters and FX are applied in real time, selecting Inverse allows you to hear only the sound that's being removed. It's a great way to hear if you're losing material you want in addition to defects.

For all my audio restoration testing I use an analog recording of "Manoir De Mes Reves / Daphne" from Afternoon in Paris, a 1971 vinyl recording by violinist Stephane Grappelli. Jazz violin is an especially good test for the task, as the bow noise and attack from the instrument is very much in the same range as clicks and crackles--of which there are plenty of in this recording.

The job Audio Cleaning Lab MX did restoring audio was roughly equivalent to the results I get with Bias SoundSoap 2 and Audacity. Like those programs, you can get better results if you make multiple passes. That is, remove noise, save, then remove noise again. That said, in no way can it match Izotope RX 2 in results, but then again it's only about one-sixth the price.

If you want something that's super easy, and does a very good job of transferring audio from cassettes, vinyl, and CDS then Audio Cleaning Lab MX is a good bet. And, it's a full functional trial for seven days.

--Jon L. Jacobi

From PCWorld. Visit Amazon Computer and Notebook Center here