Get a Pro-Level Desktop Publishing Program for $17

Remember the good old days when affordable desktop-publishing apps were plentiful? For the most part they've gone the way of the dodo (D'oh!), leaving small businesses few options for designing newsletters, brochures, business cards, and the like.

Indeed, you might think your only recourse is pricey old-guard heavyweights Adobe PageMaker and QuarkXPress, which sell for $500 and $700, respectively. Thankfully, there's an extremely budget-friendly alternative: Serif PagePlus X4.

Smashing the you-get-what-you-pay-for rule, PagePlus offers pro-level desktop publishing tools but sells for just $99.99. If you head to Buy.com, you can get PagePlus X4 for just $41.99. And if you don't mind mail-in rebates [PDF], your final price drops to $16.99.

Though I was weaned on PageMaker, I switched to PagePlus years ago and haven't looked back. It's a terrific program (you don't have to take my word -- read PC World's glowing review), with enough publishing power to handle just about any print (or Web) project.

It can generate four-color seps, press-ready PDFs, and so on. Version X4 comes with a logo designer, a photo editor, and tons of templates.

If you have even the slightest need for a desktop publishing program, I can't recommend PagePlus X4 highly enough. Especially at this price. (Note: The rebate offer ends Nov. 8.)