How to open / import IDML or INDD files

[MartinMHC]

I have Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer but I apparently need Affinity Publisher to open these file types. I have been given these file types and need to simply import them to convert them to .afdesign . How can I import these files without needing to pay for Publisher as I can't afford it (£50!!) purely for converting file formats.

Is there an Addon for Designer that can do this? Is there any other way that I can open these file types in Affinity Designer?

[Pšenda]

https://www.google.com/search?q=idml+to+pdf

[MartinMHC]

@Pšenda I understand IDML are multi layered documents and PDF are flat. Therefore if that's so, PDF is not an ideal solution.

[Pšenda]

4 hours ago, MartinMHC said:

PDF are flat

I recommend you try it, you might be surprised.

[walt.farrell]

@MartinMHC: You can get a 10-day free trial of Publisher from https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/ (scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Free Trial under the correct OS). That would let you import the IDML files you have now (not INDD), and you could save them as .afpub or .afdesign or .afphoto (and Designer/Photo can open any of those).

[MartinMHC]

20 hours ago, walt.farrell said:

@MartinMHC: You can get a 10-day free trial of Publisher from https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/publisher/ (scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Free Trial under the correct OS). That would let you import the IDML files you have now (not INDD), and you could save them as .afpub or .afdesign or .afphoto (and Designer/Photo can open any of those).

Well that did the trick, thank you, although it's only a short term solution (10 days!) . Of note; once the document is opened within Affinity Publisher, each page can be opened again and edited in Affinity Designer or Photo from the Publisher main menu, so it seems straightforward for other Affinity products to be able to import IDML documents. Hopefully this import ability can be added in an update. 

[Pšenda]

10 hours ago, MartinMHC said:

so it seems straightforward for other Affinity products to be able to import IDML documents. Hopefully this import ability can be added in an update. 

Yes, it would certainly be possible and perhaps even easy, but it would be a bit pointless - IDML files are outputs from InDesign, for which APublisher is adequate. Therefore, anyone who needs to process data from InDesign will of course buy APublisher.

So personally, I would not rely on the implementation of this format in all ASuite applications. And if it does, then definitely not in the free update of version 1.x, but in the expected paid upgrade to version 2.

[Old Bruce]

21 hours ago, MartinMHC said:

Of note; once the document is opened within Affinity Publisher, each page can be opened again and edited in Affinity Designer or Photo from the Publisher main menu, so it seems straightforward for other Affinity products to be able to import IDML documents. Hopefully this import ability can be added in an update. 

If you save the opened IDML file as a Publisher file then as a matter of course you can open that Publisher file in Photo or Designer.