Serif Europe
Serif (Europe) Ltd is a privately owned British developer and publisher of software. It provides software and associated products direct to customers through its website and contact centre in the United Kingdom, and through retailers.
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Limited company | |
Industry | Software |
Founded | 1987 |
Headquarters | West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom |
Products | List of Serif products |
Owner | Serif Senior Management |
Website | http://www.serif.com |
The wider 'Serif Group Ltd', also operates a question and answer support website called CommunityPlus and a now closed gifts and gadgets website called Gizoo.[1][2]
History
Serif was founded in 1987 by a small team of software engineers, with the objective of creating lower-cost alternatives to existing Desktop Publishing (DTP) software packages using the Microsoft Windows platform.[3][4]
The first Serif product to be released was called PageStar: a simple, low-cost advertisement layout program for Windows 2.0. This was expanded in 1990 with their follow-up, PagePlus (originally for Windows 3.0),[4] which would go on to win 'Best Software' at the Computer Shopper Awards 2014.[5] In subsequent years, this was accompanied by other software products in the 'Plus' range, including DrawPlus (1994),[6] PhotoPlus (1999),[7] WebPlus (2000),[8] and MoviePlus (2003).[9]
In 1996, Serif was acquired by American company Vizacom (formerly known as Allegro New Media); however, ownership was sold back to Serif senior management in 2001.[10][11]
The successor to their DrawPlus product, Affinity Designer (a vector art & design package) was launched in 2014 for macOS.[12] It was Serif's first product for macOS, and had been written from scratch specifically for it.[13] This was followed in 2015 by the second Affinity product (and successor to PhotoPlus), Affinity Photo (a photo editing & design package).[14]
In 2016, following the release of Affinity Designer and Affinity Photo for Windows, Serif ceased development for their 'Plus' product range to focus exclusively on the Affinity product range.[15]
Affinity Publisher, the successor to PagePlus and the third addition to the Affinity product line, was released in 2019.[16] There are no current plans by Serif to replace the WebPlus and MoviePlus product lines in the Affinity range.[17][18][19]
Products
The following are all software packages, for the following applications:
Maintained products
- Affinity Designer: Vector graphic design software for macOS, Windows and iPad
- Affinity Photo: Digital image editing software for macOS, Windows and iPad
- Affinity Publisher: Desktop publishing software for macOS and Windows
Legacy products (No longer for sale or maintained)
- PagePlus: Desktop publishing software for Windows (replaced by Affinity Publisher)
- DrawPlus: Graphic design software for Windows (replaced by Affinity Designer)
- PhotoPlus: Digital image editing software for Windows (replaced by Affinity Photo)
Discontinued products
- WebPlus: Website design software for Windows
- MoviePlus: Digital video editing software for Windows
- Digital Scrapbook Artist: Digital scrapbooking software for Windows
- CraftArtist: Digital scrapbooking software for Windows
- PanoramaPlus: Image stitching software for Windows
- PhotoStack: Image editing and organisation software for Windows
- AlbumPlus: Image organizer software for Windows
- Scan, Stitch, and Share: Document mosaicing software for Windows
- FontManager: Font management software for Windows
References
- "CommunityPlus". serif.com.
- "GIZOO Trademark Information". trademarkia.com. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "About Serif". 2012. Retrieved 2012-01-04.
- PagePlus 10.0 Companion (PDF). Serif (Europe) Ltd. 2004. pp. 5–6.
- "PagePlus X8 wins 'Best Software' award at the Computer Shopper Awards 2014". Serif Blog. November 28, 2014. Retrieved 2015-08-27.
- "Serif DrawPlus X8 Review - Pros, Cons and Verdict". TopTenReviews. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "Serif PhotoPlus X8 Review - Pros, Cons and Verdict". TopTenReviews. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "Serif WebPlus X8". www.comparedandreviewed.com. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "MoviePlus Video Editing Software (for Windows) Review". TopTenReviews. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "Vizacom Sells Its Software Operations Company to Receive $1,137,500 From Serif". Vizacom release, dated 2 April 2001, from the PR Newswire archives. The Free Library, by Farlex website. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
- "Software Publishing Corporation - The Personal Computer Museum, Brantford, Ontario, CANADA". pcmuseum.ca. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "Affinity Designer is a new graphics design suite available for Mac". iMore. 2014-10-02. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "Serif reveals its best-kept secret – Affinity Photo for Windows is coming". TechRadar. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "Serif releases Affinity Photo". ArtStation Magazine. 2015-07-10. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "Digital Craft: Serif discontinues its Pageplus, Drawplus and Photoplus designing software to focus on its(Serif) new Affinity range of Professional graphic design software - ANINO". ANINO. 2017-08-10. Retrieved 2018-08-13.
- "Affinity launches professional desktop publisher for Mac with integrated vector design and image editor apps". 9to5Mac. 2019-06-19. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
- Pesala, Bhikkhu. "WebPlus". www.softerviews.org. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "WebPlus has been discontinued". www.serif.com. Retrieved 2018-08-06.
- "MoviePlus has been discontinued". www.serif.com. Retrieved 2018-08-06.