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[IDML Implemented] How can I open Indesign (indd and idml) Files in Publisher?


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On 9/4/2018 at 6:18 PM, nwhit said:

Although we use Photo and Designer, we've never sent any of their PDF exports to a printing company, so not real interested in possibly blowing a print job for a client. On screen, the APub pdf looks fine, but you never know. May decide to wait until others have done it without issues.

 

I've used AD to produce full sized roll-ups and sent the output in PDF format to a printing company. They've always come back absolutely perfect.

Affinity Publisher, Designer and Photo V2, Mac and iPad.

macOS Ventura 13.5.2; Macbook Pro (16-inch, Mid 2021); Apple M1 Pro, 10 cores; Graphics 16 cores; 16GB RAM;

iPad Pro 11 inch first gen

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12 hours ago, tbaucells said:

I've used AD to produce full sized roll-ups and sent the output in PDF format to a printing company. They've always come back absolutely perfect.

Me too, I've designed flyers, postcards and full stationery sets without any issues from the printer. Nowadays I'm moving towards using AP for print work because it's faster and having the bleed visible is a plus for me.

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On 11/9/2018 at 3:15 PM, fde101 said:

Interesting that owning PagePlus which you can still buy for $20 can save you $450 on QuarkXPress...  :35_thinking:

Actually £20 or $25, but let’s not quibble!

On 11/9/2018 at 3:20 PM, MikeW said:

The pricing has been this way for around 2-3 years or so. Heck, via a German magazine, there was a free version (full version) that one could download the installer and get the serial number via Quark. I believe it was one version back and could be updated. Student version are ridiculously inexpensive. (There's a funny story about student pricing as well...)

I availed myself of the magazine offer. By paying 10 € for the magazine I was able to obtain a free copy of QXP 2015.

On 11/9/2018 at 3:33 PM, MikeW said:

Hmm. I thought the magazine offer was available for upgrades. Must have been wrong about that.

No, Mike, you weren’t wrong. It’s eligible for upgrades just like any other full version.

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4 (iPad 7th gen)

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23 minutes ago, 3Dshark said:

It's great that AD can open .ai files and APh .pdf

Neither AD nor APh can read the proprietary AI format. When an Affinity app ‘opens’ an AI file, it’s only reading the PDF stream (if present).

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4 (iPad 7th gen)

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9 minutes ago, αℓƒяє∂ said:

Neither AD nor APh can read the proprietary AI format. When an Affinity app ‘opens’ an AI file, it’s only reading the PDF stream (if present).

Thanks for clearing that up. I can see that all my .ai files have "Create PDF Compatible File" and indeed unchecking that means the file is un-openable.

I'd still like to be able to import .idml or .indd files!

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Just now, 3Dshark said:

Thanks for clearing that up.

You’re welcome. :)

Quote

I can see that all my .ai files have "Create PDF Compatible File" and indeed unchecking that means the file is un-openable.

I’ve never used Illy, but my understanding is that the ‘Create PDF Compatible File’ option is enabled by default.

Quote

I'd still like to be able to import .idml or .indd files!

You’re not alone! Although INDD import seems highly unlikely, it looks as though IDML import will be added eventually.

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4 (iPad 7th gen)

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+1 for .indd

But WOW this PDF-TRICK is A M A Z E B * L L Z ! 

Found a UX talente program I wanted to apply for and had a total blackout on what to design ... and now I got an awesome idea and just that I knew that "Oh, I have to go back to Adobe Indesign for updating my portfolio...crap". Tried the PDF import from my current portfolio and...voila!

I think it works 95% efficient and I'm so glad Affinity Publisher is out - Adobe stuff is a total PITA, I mean what's up with Indesign?!?!

Thanks guys I hype your products to everyone in my network and I'm so glad I found you. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 8/30/2018 at 3:34 PM, ostonica said:

AfPub, based on a very quick test, does a pretty good job of importing a PDF that I created of a book in InDesign. Needs a lot more testing, but that might be a short term option. 

HOWEVER, the next very important step for me is missing. 

I cannot export to a reflowable Epub 

Is that feature also planned. It is needed for every project I have. 

As I tested it, import from a pdf file causes every line of text to be in a separate text block (text frame in Affinity language), which is far from being practical if you have to modify this text ;)

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On 8/30/2018 at 5:38 PM, pet_r said:

I think you need particularly the import from InDesign CS6 format. Many users do survive with this last perpetual version hoping and praying to be able to finally switch

I never upgraded to ID CS6 because I'm glad CS5 works on my OSX HighSierra and wouldn't take any risk with it. But if I upgrade to Mojave, I won't be able to use CS5 and need to import ID CS5 files into Publisher, too 

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On 8/30/2018 at 2:39 PM, Chris_K said:

@Gabe Logan

Welcome to the Serif Affinity forums

It's not possible yet, plans to be able to in the future

indd import would be AMAZING. I have all my (self published) books in indd, I'm still on InDesign CS3, I really love the simplicity and beauty of the old Adobe suite (and the one time purchase). I downloaded QuarkXpress 2018 Trial last week, seemed overly complicated and I couldn't import indd. But I also purchased Affinity Designer last week. So super happy with Affinity, that I will give Quark a miss for now and wait for Affinity Publisher.

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5 minutes ago, appuser99 said:

indd import would be AMAZING. I have all my (self published) books in indd, I'm still on InDesign CS3, I really love the simplicity and beauty of the old Adobe suite (and the one time purchase). I downloaded QuarkXpress 2018 Trial last week, seemed overly complicated and I couldn't import indd. But I also purchased Affinity Designer last week. So super happy with Affinity, that I will give Quark a miss for now and wait for Affinity Publisher.

Q can, like APub at some  point in time, open IDML from InDesign. But I seriously doubt that APub will ever open .indd files directly.

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2 minutes ago, MikeW said:

Q can, like APub at some  point in time, open IDML from InDesign. But I seriously doubt that APub will ever open .indd files directly.

I don't think I can create IDML in InDesign CS3, QuarkXpress however does only import IDML, not INDD, so I'm kind of stuck there with INDD. My only other option is INX, which I don't even know what that is. Or I go by pdf and have to basically redo all pages and image placements.

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21 minutes ago, appuser99 said:

I don't think I can create IDML in InDesign CS3, QuarkXpress however does only import IDML, not INDD, so I'm kind of stuck there with INDD. My only other option is INX, which I don't even know what that is. Or I go by pdf and have to basically redo all pages and image placements.

Kinda stuck, aren't you?

It may be that your only option for CS3 would be to run a batch script to output PDFs if you have a lot to convert. Q can make those PDFs into editable Q files just as APub can.

Another option may be if the script at Peter Kahrel's web site works in CS3. It can convert the indd or inx to idml (and pdfs) to any of the others, so inx to idml or even the older indd format to idml, etc.

http://www.kahrel.plus.com/indesign/batch_convert.html

If that script works in such an older version, it would be good to do for both future-proofing and/or eventual conversion to another application.

Or, like I do, which is to (usually) leave past work in its original format and just create new work int he new application.

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3 hours ago, MikeW said:

Kinda stuck, aren't you?

It may be that your only option for CS3 would be to run a batch script to output PDFs if you have a lot to convert. Q can make those PDFs into editable Q files just as APub can.

Another option may be if the script at Peter Kahrel's web site works in CS3. It can convert the indd or inx to idml (and pdfs) to any of the others, so inx to idml or even the older indd format to idml, etc.

http://www.kahrel.plus.com/indesign/batch_convert.html

If that script works in such an older version, it would be good to do for both future-proofing and/or eventual conversion to another application.

Or, like I do, which is to (usually) leave past work in its original format and just create new work int he new application.

Thanks for the link and the information. I don't know if I'll have occasion to use the script, but I downloaded it and saved the web pages full of instructions. Peter Kahrel went to a lot of trouble to develop this script. I guess that is his cup of tea (and he is British after all). I don't move in those circles but this script seems pretty remarkable to me.

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15 hours ago, marcfrancois said:

if I upgrade to Mojave, I won't be able to use CS5 and need to import ID CS5 files into Publisher, too 

CS5 works in Mojave just as well as in High Sierra (or Sierra, from where I upgraded direct).

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22 hours ago, appuser99 said:

My only other option is INX, which I don't even know what that is.

INX was originally supposed to allow transfer of files between versions of InDesign but was not meant for use by outside software, so it was part way to what IDML has become, but only part way.

The only version of InDesign that supports both INX and IDML is CS4, so you can use INX to transfer files among CS2, CS3, and CS4, and use IDML for CS4 and newer.

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That must be because Affinity is British.  I've been there and the people were far more polite than even Canadians. Last time I was in the U.S. in Oregon and Washington State the people were so amazingly polite and friendly.  I hate to give credit to Trump but the American's I suggested this to agreed they were trying not to be like him. So Trump is making America polite again. I hope I didn't break any posting rules here. I apologize if i did. haha 

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5 hours ago, fde101 said:

INX was originally supposed to allow transfer of files between versions of InDesign but was not meant for use by outside software, so it was part way to what IDML has become, but only part way.

The only version of InDesign that supports both INX and IDML is CS4, so you can use INX to transfer files among CS2, CS3, and CS4, and use IDML for CS4 and newer.

Yay for CS4. I wish they'd just update it for newer OS's and I would stick with it.  Thanks to Affinity, we may be saved from dasterdly subscriptions just in time. 

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24 minutes ago, BLKay said:

Yay for CS4. I wish they'd just update it for newer OS's and I would stick with it. 

It's like 8 or 9 versions behind. It would take an entire rewrite. In part, it was the non-upgraders that Adobe first tried subscriptions in parallel with CS6.

While Affinity applications are less expensive, the same non-upgrading mentally would drive Serif into the ground. And it would do so far faster than Adobe.

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59 minutes ago, BLKay said:

Yay for CS4. I wish they'd just update it for newer OS's and I would stick with it.  Thanks to Affinity, we may be saved from dasterdly subscriptions just in time. 

Honestly, no company could stay in business if they didn't upgrade their products from time to time. If you like CS4 then you'll have to stay with an OS that supports it. Many people do. I have a friend who really likes Photoshop CS4, for instance.

As for InDesign, the upgrades offer new features that many people need, like the ability to handle e-publishing. But compatibility issues will bite us all in the butt eventually. That's why I'm interested in Affinity Publisher. It's already a 64 bit app. So is InDesign CS, but it's $140 a year. So I'll stick with InDesign CS6 as long as I can.

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16 minutes ago, MikeW said:

It's like 8 or 9 versions behind. It would take an entire rewrite. In part, it was the non-upgraders that Adobe first tried subscriptions in parallel with CS6.

While Affinity applications are less expensive, the same non-upgrading mentally would drive Serif into the ground. And it would do so far faster than Adobe.

So true. Even so CS4 still works okay with El Capitan and may so up to Sierra. So perhaps not an entire rewrite. Thinking:  If i divide my 9 or 10 years with CS4 by the 120 months it works out to $12.50 per month. I guess I saved about 65% off of the full subscription model. Soon it will be Dropbox that kills my use of CS4. How so? Dropbox keeps dropping older OS support as time goes on. I understand this completely. I'm not at all saying it's a planned conspiracy to get us to buy more. I know it takes money to keep a company going, improving and upgrading. I know computers move forward (and backwards at times) in features and speed and utilities.  In my work I truly could go back and get my work done, doing it the very old way in OS9 and Ready,Set,Go but that would be HELL. A hell I have forgotten. Slow... crashes... bad bad OS9.  So truly a monthly fee is not such a bad thing if it was a bit more affordable. In my case lets say.... $12.50 per month for Affinity Publisher, Designer, Photo and perhaps some kind of PDF editor.  On the other hand at $69 a crack though, this price works out at about an 18 month upgrade at full price if they just stuck to upgrades. $12.00 month.  And I'm sure in reality now with purchase and not subscription,  Affinity will probably charge less for upgrades and even charge for upgrades less often than that.  So I'm looking forward to what happens here.

I hope Affinity go even further with some features than does Adobe.  Creative features like warping text and way better font menus.  Of which these things used to be way way better in OS9.  (Now utilities and Typetwister, Typestyler) Illustrator text warping is horrible. Unusable for me.  (Unless it's fixed in CC)  Art Text is what I use now but I don't use it much. Design has become much cleaner these days without funky curved text.  But do check out Art Text and the new Typestyler if you're into making one of kind funky posters.  They are truly amazing.

As for the font menu...  this will have to be done somehow inside the software itself - if possible - because of Apples new security system. Now Utilities let you place the fonts in the font menu in what ever order you liked.  A colour coded list !!  wow!!  Of course the first to have WYSIWYG font menus. I think you could also have the system fonts not show at all in the menu.  As I say above, it is now up to the software itself, as Now Utilities was system wide and as I said above Apple has killed it. A newer software was MyFonts I think, that worked with OSX. It didn't have the colours.  It truly was very quick to find the font you wanted because they were always on the same place in the font menu when you pulled your mouse down the screen and helped you remember fonts much better than they way it is now. I know the new CC and CS6 have a favourites font menu that stays at the top. Not bad but not the best. 

Also note I have not been testing Affinity Publisher in the last while. I just looked and the favourites (heart) button in the font menu is great. What i'm still looking for is a way to gather the serif, san-serif, script, headline, design, hand, styles of fonts into categories we can customize.  Colour coding is just a bit of a helper I'd like but not the end of the world. If there is a way or ever will be a way to group the font menu into user categories let me know.  Would love this feature and in this day and age why the heck can't we go back 25 years and have what we had. 

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