Can I Use Indesign to Create Large Designs
The 7 best InDesign alternatives
Looking for InDesign alternatives? Adobe's desktop publishing (DTP) package has been the industry standard for a long time now – incredibly it was first launched way back in 1999 – and it looks set to retain that dominance for the moment. However, many the downside is that it requires a commitment to a monthly subscription, either to InDesign alone or to Adobe's full Creative Cloud suite (note that you can get a free trial to give it a go before you subscribe though – see below for a link).
If you've tried InDesign but don't want to make that commitment to a subscription, there are InDesign alternatives that charge either a one-off fee or, in some cases, no fee at all. In the guide below, we'll analyse the pros and cons of all of the best InDesign alternatives to help you to decide. If you do opt to stick with InDesign, see our Adobe Creative Cloud discount page or our guide to how to download InDesign. For other non-Adobe software ideas, we also have a list of the best Photoshop alternatives.
The 7 best InDesign alternatives
01. Affinity Publisher
The best InDesign alternative overall
Specifications
Price model: One-off fee
System: : Windows, Mac
Recommended for: Professional designers
Reasons to buy
+Feature-rich +cheap +Interoperable with other Affinity apps
Reasons to avoid
-Not available for Linux
Affinity Publisher is our top choice as a subscription-free alternative to InDesign. Launched in 2018, it offers a very similar interface to InDesign and it's generally capable of performing most of the same tasks, with excellent page layout features for both printed and online media. You can import InDesign files, as well as raster and vector files, and it also now offers full preflight checking to alert you to any possible errors in your documents.
Available for both Mac and PC, Affinity Publisher can be used as part of the Affinity suite of interoperable apps (with the vector editor Affinity Designer and/or the image editor Affinity Photo), or on its own. There's no iPad version yet, but you can open, edit and export Publisher documents in Affinity Designer for iPad and the iPad version of Affinity Photo. At a cost of £49.99 / £48.99, with a few templates thrown in, Affinity Publisher offers a good value if not 100% complete alternative to InDesign.
02. VivaDesigner
High-end DTP with lots of features
Specifications
Price model: One-off fee
System: : Windows, Mac
Recommended for: All, but especially pros
Reasons to buy
+Feature-rich +Runs on all desktop operating systems and all browsers +Compatible with Adobe and MS
Reasons to avoid
-Complex for standard users
VivaDesigner is a desktop and browser-based publisher with an impressive range of features. It can do pretty much anything you would do in InDesign, and it works seamlessly with Adobe software, too, thanks to its native file import capability. There's a free version, but you get way more features with the premium edition, which costs a one-off $139 / £99 for the personal edition and $399 / £279 for a commercial licence.
VivaDesigner offers a clear and intuitive interface, while features include change tracking, character inspectors, clipping, extended image search, multilingual text editing and a lot more. The price is extremely reasonable for such high-end software.
03. Xara Page & Layout Designer 11
A great value InDesign alternative.
Specifications
Price model: One-off fee
System: : Windows
Recommended for: Beginners
Reasons to buy
+Affordable +Easy to use
Reasons to avoid
-Short on pro features
There's a lot to like about Magix's Xara Page & Layout Designer 11, particularly the price. At $89.99 / £49.99 it's neither suspiciously cheap nor horrifically expensive, and it gives you more than your money's worth. The interface looks a little dated, but it's easy to get to grips with, and it comes with plenty of templates to get you up and running quickly. It even supports Pantone colours and exports PDF/X files for accurate print reproduction.
It doesn't have the scope of a package like InDesign or QuarkXPress (see below), but if you're getting started or only occasionally use DTP and don't want to spend a huge amount, you'll definitely get a lot of mileage out of this software while your fine-tune your layout skills. You can try before you buy with a free seven-day trial version.
04. QuarkXPress
The most popular InDesign alternative among veterans
Specifications
Price model: One-off fee, or annual fee for updates
System: : Windows, Mac
Recommended for: Veteran users
Reasons to buy
+Feature-rich +Can import InDesign files
Reasons to avoid
-Expensive
Back in the 1990s, QuarkXPress ruled the world of desktop publishing, and many designers, publishing houses and corporations who used it before InDesign came along continue to do so. Launched in 1987, it still offers a reliable, feature-rich package that can do almost everything that InDesign can do, so much so that it seems almost a little unfair that InDesign stole its place. Available for PC or Mac, it continues to be updated on an annual basis, usually around late spring/early summer. It can be used to create everything from posters and flyers to brochures, catalogues, and magazines, as well as ebooks and web and mobile apps
QuarkXpress offers impressive functionality for both print and digital design, and, crucially it can import InDesign files. However, one of the main reasons QuarkXpress lost ground is the cost. Even today, the pricing still seems aimed at the corporate market, with a licence for the 2021 version starting at $828. That's often reduced by around 40 per cent, so it's certainly worth considering when there's a discount on, but the price means this is really an InDesign alternative for those who've used it before and have a personal preference – or because you're applying for a job or a project that specifically require it.
05. Scribus
The best free InDesign alternative
Specifications
Price model: Free
System: : Windows, Mac, Linux
Recommended for: Indie publishers on a budget
Reasons to buy
+Free, +Includes free templates +Available for Linux
Reasons to avoid
-Can't import files from InDesign or QuarkXPress
If you're looking for a free, open-source alternative to InDesign, we can recommend taking a look at Scribus. It offers an interface that's very similar to InDesign, and it boasts a surprisingly wide range of features for a free tool. Launched in 2001, Scribus has an enthusiastic developer community that keeps it updated with new features and ensures its stability. It supports most of the desktop publishing features you'd find in paid software, including support for OpenType, CMYK colours, spot colours, ICC colour management and versatile PDF creation, and there are some unexpected extras like vector drawing tools, emulation of colour blindness and the rendering of markup languages like LaTeX or Lilypond.
There are a lot of good forums and documentation around Scribus that will help you get up and running quickly, and the software even comes with a free selection of templates for the likes of business cards, brochures and newsletters. The biggest drawback is that you can't open files from other desktop publishing software, such as InDesign or Quark. But while Scribus isn't likely to ever become as powerful or feature-rich as InDesign, it's a great alternative if you're working on an indie publishing venture or personal side project and want a free DTP package. It's available for Mac, Windows and Linux.
06. Swift Publisher
A budget Mac-only InDesign alternative
Specifications
Price model: One-off fee
System: : Mac
Recommended for: Time-poor DTP beginners (and Mac users)
Reasons to buy
+Cheap +Wide range of pre-made templates
Reasons to avoid
-Less powerful than other tools -Mac-only
Swift Publisher is a budget desktop publishing app for Mac only. It comes with more than 500 templates for a range of specific projects, including bi-fold and tri-fold brochures, catalogues, business cards, social media, disc labels and covers, address labels and more. You also get access to a collection of 2D and 3D heading presets, 2,000 free clipart images, 100 image masks. The tool boasts some sophisticated page layout features, including two-page spreads, unlimited layers, master pages, customisable grids, rich-text tools, printing to RGB or CMYK, and export to PNG, TIFF, JPEG, EPS and PDF.
It's not a patch on InDesign, but costing a mere $19.99, it's a decent budget option if you only need to make quite specific layout designs and would rather use a quick template than work from scratch. There's a free trial, so you can give it a go before you buy.
07. LucidPress
A browser-based DTP option
Specifications
Price model: Freemium
System: : Web browser
Recommended for: Those who want an intuitive browser-based DTP
Reasons to buy
+Nothing to download +Easy to use +Wide range of pre-made templates
Reasons to avoid
-Much less powerful than other tools -Free version is limited
Lucidpress is an intuitive, web-based drag-and-drop tool that allows you to create content for print and digital, including flyers, brochures, business cards, invitations, leaflets, newsletters, magazines and photobooks. It's mainly targeted at those with minimal DTP skills rather than experienced designers, and it offers both free and paid-for templates to make things really easy. The software integrates with Google Docs, YouTube, Dropbox, Flickr, Facebook, Unsplash and others (see more cloud storage options) to allow you to import existing content.
These integrations allow you to publish your designs online, embed them in emails or webpages, push to social media, download them as print-ready files, or order directly from the Lucidpress print shop. The package isn't hugely sophisticated or feature-rich, but if you're new to desktop publishing and aren't ready to take the plunge to learn to how to use professional software, this is a quick and easy path for creating basic designs. Unlike Swift Publisher, you can use it on any computer with a web browser. Note that the free version is fairly limited. You'll need to upgrade to the $9.95 a month subscription to get features like unlimited shapes and documents, custom fonts and print-quality PDFs.
Read more:
- InDesign tutorials: Level up your skills
- Download Photoshop: How to try Photoshop for free or with Creative Cloud
- After Effects plugins: Amazing plugins to transform your process
Tom May is an award-winning journalist and editor specialising in design, photography and technology. He is author of Great TED Talks: Creativity, published by Pavilion Books. He was previously editor of Professional Photography magazine, associate editor at Creative Bloq, and deputy editor at net magazine.
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Can I Use Indesign to Create Large Designs
Source: https://www.creativebloq.com/features/indesign-alternatives
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