#indesign — Public Fediverse posts

Why Does This Brand Guidelines Brochure Template Work So Well in Adobe InDesign? I’ll Tell You. https://weandthecolor.com/why-does-this-brand-guidelines-brochure-template-work-so-well-in-adobe-indesign-ill-tell-you/212252

#design #graphicdesign #brandguidelines #branding #indesign

A creative resume template that makes the photo optional, not the point. E-Type's new InDesign layout (US Letter + A4, CMYK, print-ready) puts typography and structure first. Here's who it actually fits and where a two-column layout can work against you online. https://weandthecolor.com/this-is-the-creative-resume-template-for-adobe-indesign-that-stands-out/212196

#resume #cv #resumetemplate #indesign #design #graphicdesign

There is a preference setting in Adobe InDesign that can really sabotage your documents and your workflow. Here's how to turn it off: https://youtu.be/QU4fWguIx44 #indesign #layout #a11y #design

A black-and-white, texture-driven A4 art book template for Adobe InDesign, built for portfolios, exhibition catalogs, and photo books. Strong grid logic and confident typography, though custom spread types mean some manual framework. It’s a solid pick if minimalism is the whole point of your project. https://weandthecolor.com/this-minimalist-art-book-template-turns-a-blank-indesign-file-into-a-gallery-catalog/212084

#design #graphicdesign #artbook #booktemplate #indesign #adobeindesign

My Full InDesign Test of Jozef Micic’s Company Profile Brochure Template. https://weandthecolor.com/a-company-profile-brochure-template-with-infographics-for-adobe-indesign/212038

#indesign #companyprofile #design #graphicdesign #infographics

RE: https://sueden.social/@subraumpixel/117291874089928459

Natürlich auch 21.x betroffen.

#InDesign

Adobe has more than twenty apps in Creative Cloud. Only four of them (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Premiere) actually run the business. A breakdown of why these four became the industry standard, what their 2026 Firefly AI upgrades really do, and why the new "generative credit" pricing has designers frustrated, even as Adobe's revenue keeps climbing. https://weandthecolor.com/adobe-creative-cloud-and-its-four-apps-that-really-matter/211978

#adobe #photoshop #indesign #adobeillustrator #adobepremiere #design #graphicdesign

#Affinity 一応 #InDesign のファイルも読めるようになったのか！
まあプロプライエタリなあれだから再現性とか互換性はあまり期待できなさそうだけど、「とりあえず開ける」のはよいことだ

I rebuilt three real decks with the CLIMB presentation template. Here's how it held up in InDesign and Canva, slide by slide. https://weandthecolor.com/climb-brand-project-presentation-template-review-of-20-slide-test-in-indesign-canva/211883

#design #graphicdesign #indesign #canva #presentation

#CERN has a position open for a #graphicdesign #student with experience in #Adobe suite. It's 12-month contract based in #Geneva.

You must be a national of a CERN member state or associate member state and you have to be currently enrolled at a university. More details:

https://family-forum.web.cern.ch/t/graphic-designer-opportunity-at-cern-admin-student/886

List of member states: https://home.cern/about/who-we-are/member-states/

#Photoshop #Illustrator #InDesign #joboffer #fedihire

In a PDF from the early days when InDesign was »born« it was explained how the single-line and the multi-line composers work.

At that time it was possible to change the preferences of the multi-line composer. As far as I see this is no longer possible? True?

Here's the link to the source:
https://ku-viscom.com/type2/images/InDesign_howto.pdf

#InDesign #Adobe

Wessen Gehirn noch nicht ausgelastet ist mit den InDesign-Tastaturkürzeln: Auch in MadeToTag kann man so gut wie alles per Tasten ansteuern – allerdings werden dann die InDesign-Tastaturkürzel temporär abgeschaltet.

Mehr dazu und ein PDF fürs Unters-Kopfkissen-Legen:
https://hilfe.axaio.com/m/madetotag-handbuch/l/746538-schneller-arbeiten-mit-tastaturbefehlen-das-flyout-menu

#axaio #MadeToTag #InDesign
#a11y #accessibility #Barrierefreiheit #Zugaenglichkeit

Sehr schön: »Die neue MadeToTag-Version berücksichtigt die Änderungen von InDesign und gleicht bestehende Unzulänglichkeiten aus.«

Danke für die ständige Weiterentwicklung, axaio, obwohl andere da immer mal Steine in den Weg legen…

Wegen der ganzen Verschlimmbesserungen bei Tabellen und Alt-Texten empfehle ich trotzdem, lieber weiter mit InDesign 20.5.5 zu arbeiten.

#InDesign #MadeToTag
#a11y #accessibility #Barrierefreiheit #Zugaenglichkeit

Younger than ever!

(Naja, 27 heute)

#InDesign

I really need to settle on some keyboard shortcut replacements. Stupid #Adobe isn't consistent.

I use Command-Shift-P in #Acrobat all the time to look at page dimension settings.

But Command-Shift-P in #InDesign adds a new blank page to the document, and I'm ALWAYS hitting that instead.

Page dimension settings for InDesign are accessed via Option-Shift-P instead.

🤦‍♂️

#TalesFromThePrintShop

#WTF #Indesign

New version of Alt-Text-4-InDesign has been released

- You have now better object recognition.
- You can update the metadata in linked images.
- You have two new automated actions available for MathML and metadata.

https://exchange.adobe.com/apps/cc/1c6b7a83/alt-text-for-indesign

#Accessibility #InDesign

Why? Because this would allow us, as developers, to notify users to double-check the consistency of these alternative texts or to remove only those specific ones.

Any other opinions or proposals?

Here's my feature request: https://indesign.uservoice.com/forums/913162-adobe-indesign-sdk-scripting-bugs-and-features/suggestions/51605951-property-for-detecting-ai-generated-alt-text

#indesign #extendscript #uxp #accessibility

With the feature for generating ALT text using AI in the latest versions of InDesign, two new properties have been added to the script DOM:

ObjectExportOptions.altTextGenerationError
ObjectExportOptions.altTextCropSyncRect

However, in my opinion, there are still some properties missing:

ObjectExportOptions.aiGenerated
ObjectExportOptions.labeledAsAIGenerated

#indesign #extendscript #uxp #accessibility

I'm looking for a replacement for MS Publisher. It has been my go-to application for anything that needs a detailed layout for printed materials (e.g., #academicPosters, #flyers, table tents, #businessCards). Now that #Microsoft will stop supporting it in October, I need a new idea.

What is everyone else using for desktop publishing?

#Canva is great for some projects, but the translation to printed materials has issues (like not being able to set margins). I've also tried #InDesign, but that has a steep learning curve and is overkill for what I need.

And no Word or PowerPoint. I've tried those too. This is not what they are designed for.

🖨️ #mspublisher #publisher #desktoppublishing #print #poster #academia #academicmastodon #printlayout #STEM #education #research #foss #newsletter

Adobe InDesign vs. Affinity Layout: I Built a Real Ebook in Both, and Only One Made Me Swear

For an increasing number of graphic designers among you, the question of whether Affinity is a genuine alternative to Adobe InDesign is no longer merely hypothetical. It actually became a budget question. When I laid out “The Ultimate Creative Business Playbook,” my own ebook, I swapped my usual InDesign workflow for Affinity’s Studio “Layout” for the entire project, start to finish, and paid attention to every place it made me stop and think.

Adobe InDesign has been my default layout tool for longer than I’d like to admit. It’s the app I reach for without thinking, the one where my hands already know where the panels live. So, for me, testing Affinity wasn’t a casual glance at a competitor. It was a deliberate attempt to break a habit and see what actually happens when the habit disappears. And of course, I also really enjoy trying out new software and learning new things.

So, Can Affinity’s Layout Persona Really Replace InDesign for a Real Book Project?

Short answer: for a text-and-image ebook without complex data automation, yes, mostly. Longer answer: it depends entirely on what kind of publisher you are and how much friction you’re willing to tolerate in exchange for not paying a monthly fee.

I built my playbook across dozens of pages, with chapter dividers, pull quotes, a table of contents, footnotes, and a fair number of custom graphics pulled straight from Affinity’s own vector and pixel tools. Not a magazine with forty contributors and a print deadline at 6 a.m. But a real, structured, professionally formatted document that needed to look like something a reader would pay for.

And it did look like that. That’s the part that surprised me most.

The Two Systems in Plain Terms

InDesign is a dedicated layout application. It does one job and has done it since 1999, refining paragraph composition, typography, and print production with a level of obsession that only comes from decades of professional feedback loops.

Affinity, since its relaunch under Canva in late 2025, isn’t three apps anymore. It’s one free application with three “personas”: Pixel (what used to be Affinity Photo), Vector (what used to be Affinity Designer), and Layout (what used to be Affinity Publisher). You switch between them inside the same document with a click: no exporting, no relinking files, and no juggling three separate programs.

That single-file structure changed my workflow more than any individual feature did. When I needed to touch up an image or adjust a vector icon mid-layout, I didn’t leave the document. I just switched personas and kept working.

Where Affinity’s Layout Persona Genuinely Holds Its Own

Let’s give credit where it’s due, because a lot of comparisons skip straight to complaining.

Master pages work well. Paragraph and character styles work well. Table of contents generation is solid and updates automatically as you edit. Basic threading of text frames across pages behaves exactly how you’d expect. None of this felt like a downgrade.

For a standard nonfiction ebook, a portfolio PDF, a lookbook, a report, or a single-author book with a linear structure, the Layout persona covers essentially everything you need. I didn’t hit a wall building chapter templates, applying consistent heading hierarchies, or setting up bleed and margins for print export. The tool simply did its job.

And here’s something most comparisons get backwards: Affinity’s EPUB support is actually stronger than InDesign’s in one specific area. Fixed-layout EPUB, the format that preserves a print-style design in ebook form, has barely been touched by Adobe in years. Affinity built proper reading-order controls into it, separate from layer order, which makes accessible ebook production noticeably less painful.

What’s Missing in Affinity

No GREP, No Data Merge, No Scripting Ecosystem

This is where things got frustrating. InDesign’s GREP find-and-replace lets you run regex-style pattern searches across an entire document in seconds. I use it constantly for cleaning up quote marks, fixing spacing errors, and batch-formatting repeated elements. Affinity has nothing equivalent yet.

Data Merge, InDesign’s tool for pulling structured data (think spreadsheets of names, prices, or product specs) directly into a layout, also doesn’t exist in Affinity. If your work involves catalogs, variable business cards, or any kind of templated bulk production, this alone might decide the question for you.

Scripting is the other gap. InDesign has a mature ExtendScript and UXP scripting ecosystem built over two decades. Affinity’s automation options are thin by comparison. If your studio runs custom automation scripts to speed up repetitive layout tasks, you’ll feel that absence immediately.

The Typographic Ceiling

I want to name this one directly, because it’s real and it’s specific: Affinity hits what I’ll call a Typographic Ceiling. This is the point where a layout tool’s text engine simply can’t reach the same level of polish, no matter how much time you throw at it.

Adobe InDesign’s paragraph composer looks at an entire paragraph at once when deciding line breaks, which produces noticeably more even spacing across a text block. Its optical margin alignment and OpenType feature handling, things like contextual alternates and fine-tuned kerning pairs, are still ahead of what Affinity offers. For body-heavy long-form books, that difference shows up in subtle rag patterns and spacing that a trained eye will catch, even if a casual reader won’t.

Pantone and Prepress Extras

Adobe pulled the built-in Pantone color libraries from InDesign years ago over licensing costs, so this isn’t purely an Affinity weakness anymore. Both tools now require workarounds for accurate spot color matching. Affinity supports CMYK and ICC profiles well, but if your printer demands exact Pantone-numbered swatches, expect to hunt for current values manually in either app.

What InDesign Still Does Better

Beyond the Typographic Ceiling and the automation gap, InDesign wins on ecosystem maturity. Templates, plugins, print-shop familiarity, and a twenty-five-year library of tutorials and community troubleshooting all favor Adobe. If you send a file to a commercial printer, they know InDesign’s PDF/X export settings intimately. Sending them an Affinity-produced PDF works fine technically, but you’re occasionally the first person asking a specific prepress question.

Adobe also just pushed its Firefly AI Assistant into InDesign in a public beta this past June, letting it apply brand updates, styling, and print-readiness checks across a document automatically. It’s early, and it’s a beta, but it signals where Adobe wants InDesign to go next: less manual formatting and more automated brand governance.

The Workflow Comparison: Building the Same Ebook Twice, Mentally

Here’s the part that actually matters for your decision. I’ll call the friction of moving between different modes inside a project the Persona Switch Cost. In InDesign, editing a photo means leaving the app entirely, opening Photoshop, editing, saving, and relinking. In Affinity, it means clicking the Pixel persona, editing in place, and clicking back to Layout. That cost dropped close to zero.

But there’s a second cost I hadn’t fully appreciated until I hit it: the Workaround Tax. Every time InDesign has a built-in feature that Affinity lacks, you pay in manual hours instead. No GREP meant I hand-corrected spacing inconsistencies that would have taken one regex pattern in InDesign. No Data Merge meant nothing, because my ebook didn’t need it, but if it had, I’d have paid dearly.

Net result for my specific project? Affinity’s Persona Switch Cost savings roughly offset InDesign’s typographic refinement advantage. It was close. For a project with heavier automation needs, the math tips hard toward InDesign.

What Changed Since I Built My Ebook

I finished the playbook in late 2025, right around when Affinity’s unified free app first launched. Since then, Affinity shipped meaningful updates. Version 3.1, released in March 2026, added Light UI, a faster raster-to-vector “Convert to Curves” tool, an updated raw engine, and document tab improvements. A June 2026 bug-fix release specifically patched EPUB export issues, including accessibility validation warnings that were tripping up DAISY compliance checks.

None of these updates closed the GREP or Data Merge gap. But the pace of releases tells me Serif’s team (now operating as Affinity by Canva) is iterating fast, faster than InDesign’s release cadence historically has moved. If you tested Affinity a year ago and walked away unimpressed, it’s worth another look now.

My Verdict: The Layout Sufficiency Threshold

I’m introducing one more term here because I think it’s the actual decision-making tool readers need: the Layout Sufficiency Threshold. This is the point where a tool’s feature set covers one hundred percent of a specific project’s requirements without forcing a manual workaround.

For single-author ebooks, portfolios, reports, and most self-published nonfiction, Affinity’s Layout persona clears that threshold. For catalog production, data-driven templated documents, or heavy regex-based text cleanup across long manuscripts, it doesn’t, not yet.

My prediction: within the next twelve to eighteen months, Affinity closes the scripting gap, at least partially, given how aggressively Canva has been layering AI automation into the app already. Data Merge is the harder problem, because it touches enterprise print workflows Adobe has owned for two decades. I don’t expect that gap to close before 2028.

Quick Comparison Table

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Affinity’s Layout persona good enough to replace InDesign for an ebook?

For a single-author, text-and-image ebook without data-driven templates, yes. I built a full ebook with it and shipped it without needing Adobe InDesign at any point.

What is the biggest missing feature in Affinity compared to InDesign?

GREP find-and-replace and Data Merge. Neither exists in Affinity yet, and both are heavily used in professional InDesign workflows for text cleanup and templated bulk production.

Does Affinity support EPUB export?

Yes, both reflowable and fixed-layout EPUB, and its fixed-layout support is currently more actively developed than InDesign’s, which hasn’t seen major updates to that format in years.

Is Affinity really free?

The core app is free with no subscription. Only the Canva-powered AI features, like generative fill and background removal, require a paid Canva Pro account.

Should print professionals switch from InDesign to Affinity?

Not entirely, not yet. If your work depends on Pantone-precise prepress workflows, scripting automation, or Data Merge, InDesign’s ecosystem is still more mature and more universally trusted by commercial printers.

Will Affinity catch up to InDesign’s typography engine?

It’s closing the gap steadily. Based on the release pace since the 2025 relaunch, I’d expect meaningful typographic improvements within the next year, though InDesign’s paragraph composer will likely stay ahead for text-dense, long-form work a while longer.

Browse WE AND THE COLOR’s Technology and Graphic Design sections for more.

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Et paf, de l'IA en cachette !

Adobe génère des ALT texts sans demander l'autorisation dans InDesign

https://gusandco.net/2026/08/05/adobe-indesign-ia-jeux/

#ia #ia #caca #jeux #indesign

Ich warte noch mit dem Update auf InDesign 21.5.
Darum gibt es auch noch keine aktuelle Einschätzung auf InDesign-Status.de.

Warum noch kein Update? Mein meistgenutztes Plug-In MadeToTag ist leider noch nicht kompatibel, weil Adobe (mal wieder) im Hintergrund rund um die Barrierefreiheit geschraubt hat. Nun müssen Drittanbieter:innen (wie axaio, die Firma hinter MadeToTag) also erst einmal schauen, wie sie diese Änderungen auffangen können.

#InDesign #a11y #accessibility #Barrierefreiheit

Note 2:
@rainerklute and others have pointed out that the plugin MadeToTag is having problems with this update (at the moment).

#indesign #accessibility

With the InDesign update to version 21.5, two small but useful changes were made relating to accessible tables: Support for table captions and scope for headers.

Note 1:
If the table caption is set up as a list, you must select “p” for “Tag Export”. If you select [Automatic], the caption will not be detected properly when exporting as a PDF.

For ePubs, the only way I've found is to convert the numbering to text during export. But maybe one of you knows another way?

#indesign #accessibility

@interventions_numeriques

Concernant #INDD, c'est une toute autre affaire que #IDML... INDD est un format obfusqué, super mal foutu, et la seule personne qui à ma connaissance s'est frottée à sa rétroingénierie en est pas ressortie indemne. Selon lui c'est le pire format sur lequel il avait jamais bossé.

Une bonne pratique pour les utilisateurices de #InDesign reste d'exporter leurs fichiers en IDML... Qui peut être ouvert par #Scribus, avec un support partiel (mais meilleur que #OutDesign).

Mac users: if you want to keep InDesign working without issues, do not use the GoldenGate public beta. Risk of file loss. https://community.adobe.com/questions-671/indesign-freezes-save-and-close-become-disabled-causing-loss-of-work-on-macos-27-golden-gate-public-beta-1633364 #indesign #layout #macOS

@yann_t
Oh j'avais manqué cette information !

Bravo ! (En plus j'ai le bouquin).

Est-ce que d'après-vous il y a des choses possibles avec Scribus et son format .sla, aussi ?

#scribus #InDesign

Scribus

Scribus ist wie Indesign ein Layoutprogramm, das auch von Marketing- und Designfirmen verwendet wird.

Da Scribus auch auf Linux- und Windowsrechnern läuft, kannst du es einfach mal installieren und ausprobieren.
Zum Download geht's hier:
https://www.netzwelt.de/software-chooser/4535-scribus.html

Tipp von Cool_Sand_3506:
[...] Das Einzige, was man machen MUSS: Farbprofile installieren, wenn man eine Linux-Distribution verwendet. [...]

Den ganzen Kommentar von Cool_Sand_3506 findest du bei Reddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/scribus/comments/1nvlsw2/how_good_is_scribus_compared_with_professional/?tl=de

Du bist nicht zufrieden damit, dann kannst du es ja wieder deinstallieren. 😄

8/x

Hashtags:
#Layoutprogramm #DTP #Scribus #Indesign #europäischeAlternativen #diday #DID #DUT #Datenschutz #Datensicherheit
#Grüne #Gruene

QR-Font. Works in InDesign with the “Adobe World-Ready Paragraph Composer.” (Thanks to @TiroTypeworks) There are (currently?) some issues with certain special characters. (via @pixelambacht)

qr.jim.sh

#qrCode #font #indesign

Faking variable-height column rules by abusing the Paragraph Rule and Paragraph Shading settings is my passion #indesign

@cyrielle_chatelain

Un premier pas, peut-être plus réaliste, serait d'interdire d'imposer l'usage des logiciels propriétaires dans les appels d'offre, comme ça peut être le cas avec les missions de graphisme ou d'édition. #InDesign y est demandé dans les actes d'engagement (c'est Kévin Donnot qui nous apprenait ça durant la journée d'étude organisée par @nolwennm et @julieblanc) et favoriser les réponses à ces marchés proposant l'usage de logiciels libres, plutôt que les empêcher.

@BertrandCaron

Hello. Yes, archiving is definitely one of the motivations. It is basically the same problem we faced with DOC/DOCX in the 2000s, which eventually led to the standardisation of the #OpenDocument format. We need to be able to escape from #InDesign!

(Funny that you toot that when I am currently working in one of the research rooms of the BNF...)

RE: https://mastodon.design/@yann_t/116561002939311309

In Gent at #iPRES2024 we were discussing #BnF 's preservation policy for graphic design, and we briefly touched upon #InDesign / IDML files.

https://ipres2024.pubpub.org/pub/lcc9guaw/release/1

#OutDesign, by @yann_t, is a project that converts IDML files to Docbook, that can in turn be converted to multiple file formats by #pandoc

RE: https://mastodon.design/@yann_t/116561002939311309

Now, english.

Hello Masto 🐌

Two months ago I introduced you #OutDesign, a #freesoftware and a universal converter for #InDesign files, based on @pandoc. I am talking about it again because I am #hiring an intern for 2027!

In one toot:

🗻 6 months
🏕️ Statutory remuneration
🏖️ In #Paris
🏝️ #Engineering
🏞️ #Frontend #development
🏔️ #design / #computerscience / #hci #research

More info there ➡️ https://www.yanntrividic.fr/stage

Retoots are more than welcome!

#Job
#JobSearch
#floss
#opensource
#FediHire

RE: https://mastodon.design/@yann_t/116560894601961442

Bonjour Masto 🐚

Il y a deux mois je vous présentais #OutDesign, un #logiciellibre et un convertisseur universel pour #InDesign, basé sur @pandoc. J'en reparle aujourd'hui car je recherche un·e #stagiaire pour 2027 !

En un pouet :

🗻 6 mois
🏕️ Rémunération légale
🏖️ Sur #Paris
🏝️ Profil plutôt #ingénierie
🏞️ #Développement #frontend
🏔️ #Recherche #design / #informatique / #IHM

Toutes les infos sont à retrouver ici ➡️ https://www.yanntrividic.fr/stage

Repouet plus que bienvenu !

#JeRecrute
#Stage

Now, english.

Hello Masto 🐌

Two months ago I introduced you #OutDesign, a #freesoftware and a universal converter for #InDesign files, based on @pandoc. I am talking about it again because I am hiring an intern for 2027!

In one toot:

🗻 6 months
🏕️ Statutory remuneration
🏖️ In #Paris
🏝️ #Engineering
🏞️ #Frontend #development
🏔️ #design/#computerscience/#hci #research

More info there ➡️ https://www.yanntrividic.fr/stage

Retoots are more than welcome!

#Job
#JobSearch
#Hiring
#floss
#opensource
#FediHire

Does anyone here use localized metadata?

It's definitely a niche topic, I think, but sometimes it's just fun to dive into the rabbit hole. And hey, more metadata can't possibly be a bad thing. 😎

#metadata #xmp #accessibility #indesign

In der Norm DIN 5008 steht, dass im Deutschen zwischen einer Zahl und einem Prozentzeichen ein Leerzeichen zu stehen hat. (Darüber kann man streiten, aber nehmen wir’s gerade mal als gegeben an.)

Die meisten typografischen Empfehlungen besagen, dass das Leerzeichen idealerweise ein schmales, geschütztes Leerzeichen sein sollte (zum Beispiel ein Achtelgeviert in InDesign).

Und jetzt kommt meine persönliche Meinung:

Wann immer es keine Möglichkeit gibt, ein schmales, geschütztes Leerzeichen zu verwenden, sollte man besser kein Leerzeichen verwenden statt eines vollbreiten. Die vollbreiten Leerzeichen reißen so ein Loch in den Satz und verschleiern, dass die Zahl und das Prozentzeichen enger zueinander gehören als andere durch Leerzeichen getrennte Elemente im Satz:

🤔 Über 24 % der Teilnehmenden …
🙂 Über 24% der Teilnehmenden …

Wenn das vollbreite Leerzeichen nicht mal ein geschütztes sein kann, dann sollte man wirklich gar keines verwenden, auch wenn man’s sonst mit Leerzeichen schöner, richtiger oder was auch immer findet:

😱 Dabei waren über 24
% der Teilnehmenden …

Agree? Disagree?

#Typographie #Typografie #Leerzeichen #InDesign

Ich musste dem https://InDesign-Status.de leider ein Update hinzufügen. Es hat sich nichts an der grundsätzlichen Einschätzung zu v21.4.1 verändert, aber bei einer neuen Funktion hat Adobe wirklich Mumpitz angestellt.

#Adobe #InDesign

Today’s testing environment.
#adobe #indesign #cs3 #windowsxp