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Import InDesign files


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I can confirm Affinity Publisher does NOT import InDesign files now.  It would be quite amazing and a big juicy worm in that sea of Adobe-worshipping fish if Publisher could accomplish that feat!  The only thing I see that Publisher can do though is import PDFs (single or multi-page).

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Affinity Photo can open Photoshop PSD files, but Affinity Designer cannot open Illustrator AI files that do not have PDF content.  So I wonder if they really could open raw InDesign formats.  Where there's a will there's always a way.  But is there a will?  We shall see!

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For long time InDesign (and Quark) user this program is dead in the water if it cannot open InDesign files. Its a shame as I am making the switch from Adobe to Affinity in the Photo and Designer programs and this would have completed my switchover. Graphic designers will have many long and complex InDesign files that have to be periodically updated, it is folly to think we will abandon these complex files and start from scratch with Affinity Publisher. Affinity needs to think again.

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2 hours ago, Freddie360 said:

For long time InDesign (and Quark) user this program is dead in the water if it cannot open InDesign files. Its a shame as I am making the switch from Adobe to Affinity in the Photo and Designer programs and this would have completed my switchover. Graphic designers will have many long and complex InDesign files that have to be periodically updated, it is folly to think we will abandon these complex files and start from scratch with Affinity Publisher. Affinity needs to think again.

2

I've spoken with development and they said we will be able to open InDesign files but I just can't say when exactly. Obviously sooner than later would be better. If I get any more information I'll update this thread.

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1 minute ago, Chris B said:

I've spoken with development and they said we will be able to open InDesign files but I just can't say when exactly. Obviously sooner than later would be better. If I get any more information I'll update this thread.

Is this likely to apply to IDML rather than INDD files, at least in the first instance?

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  • 5 months later...

I have been opening Indesign files using Publisher beta with mixed results. If the file is a simple flyer/catalog and typesetting is basic a little tinkering is often all that's needed, especially if you have the fonts installed that the file uses. However, I just imported a a 200 page book I did for Random House that required much more complex typesetting, columns of justified text with no hyphens allowed. The import did quite well but text was not threaded so each column was it's own block... edit something in a column by adding/dropping text and it can't reformat columns after it. Hyphens were added because the original text had many Tracking tweaks to make it fit without hyphens. So the whole book would have to be reset. Import also does not includes bleeds, column settings etc. So, pretty limited but perhaps for no better than nothing.

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5 hours ago, fde101 said:

99% chance that will be never.

Actually, when you work the numbers, it only comes out to be a 64.875% chance that it will be never. ;-)

At the end of the day, one thing holds true...

WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S ALWAYS A WAY!

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9 minutes ago, JDW said:

Actually, when you work the numbers, it only comes out to be a 64.875% chance that it will be never. ;-)

This is an Adobe proprietary format we’re talking about (and a moving target at that) so the chance is much closer to 94.875% than 64.875%.

Quote

At the end of the day, one thing holds true...

WHERE THERE'S A WILL, THERE'S ALWAYS A WAY!

I’m not too sure about that. But I do know that where there’s a will, there’s always at least one beneficiary!! :P

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Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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2 hours ago, JDW said:

Or Affinity Publisher could just import IDML files, which is how Adobe handles InDesign files across older versions.  Maybe that would lower than impossibility chance to only 55.125%.

It is a documented format, unlike INDD, and the Affinity team has already indicated they intend to support it at some point.

INDD is not only a moving target, but one for which no externally accessible documentation is available, so they would have semi-educated guesses to work with at best if they were trying to figure out how to make that work.

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Can this be true, we will not be able to import InDesign INDD files into the new Affinity Publisher. I currently use Affinity Photo and Designer succesfully and was looking forward to ditching greedy Adobe after 25 years of using their creative suite products. I have so many InDesign files that have to be serviced that this will block my my transfer from Adobe to Affinity, such a shame that Affinity is going to fall at the last fence.

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2 hours ago, Freddie360 said:

Can this be true, we will not be able to import InDesign INDD files into the new Affinity Publisher.

You need to keep in mind that .indd is a proprietary file format. Nobody else knows how to import that except Adobe. Like nobody else knows how to import Publisher files except Affinity.

That said, Adobe publishes IDML (inDesign Markup Language) file format and that what Affinity will use to import inDesign files to Publisher.

So, rest assured that Affinity will import inDesign files but inDesign files will need to be saved out as IDML files first.

They are already working on this but nobody really knows when this facility will be added to Publisher. I suppose when it's ready to be shipped.

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Seneca, are you saying if I go back into an existing InDesign indd file and re-save as a idml file the content would be identical to the indd file. If so, I assume the idml file opened in Affinity Publisher would be more or less editable, just like the Adobe Illustrator vector files I have opened in Affinity Designer.

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5 minutes ago, Freddie360 said:

Seneca, are you saying if I go back into an existing InDesign indd file and re-save as a idml file the content would be identical to the indd file. If so, I assume the idml file opened in Affinity Publisher would be more or less editable, just like the Adobe Illustrator vector files I have opened in Affinity Designer.

That is our hope. The remaining questions are related to the "more or less" part of your statement, and to the timing of the capability to import IDML. We don't know when it will come, nor how successfully the data will import.

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9 minutes ago, Freddie360 said:

... if I go back into an existing InDesign indd file and re-save as a idml file the content would be identical to the indd file. If so, I assume the idml file opened in Affinity Publisher would be more or less editable, just like the Adobe Illustrator vector files I have opened in Affinity Designer.

There are scripts that can batch open & save as an IDML or package and also save an IDML in the process. They can save a lot of the grunt work.

As regards AI files, do note you are only opening the PDF portion of an AI file. By default, AI saves a PDF inside the AI file. But if you turn that off, AD cannot open an AI file.

As regards IDML, how faithfully an IDML will be opened will be an on-going effort by Serif. Both applications I use that can open an IDML have updates to the routines that do this in order to fine-tune how faithfully it works.

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i know it's not something really fast, but i am trying to copy and paste from indesign to publisher with good results.

Some things need to be "cleaned" as, for examples, text field with special features like automatic page numbers and so on, but i have been surprised how good a paste action can keep almost any InDesign settings.

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On 8/31/2018 at 3:25 PM, Freddie360 said:

That is good to know, not sure what the IDML file is as all  my files are INDD, I will buy the program when the INDD function is available.

Well as you said, you dont know the idml format ?   This a is format that Indesign can export also to alow transfer of documents in differing indesign programms..   I used this some time to get documents from a more advanced indesign version to an older one, and it worked nearly perfect.

 

So to say..   IDML would be enough as an import format.   BUT !!!!

We also need the possibility to export Publisher Formats to IDML..  this is very much needed, because very often we have to cooperate with the outer world..  and the outer World is dominated by evil  ;-)   

So please also make export of idml possible..

I Think most of us wouldnt have considered to look at Affinity photo too, if it hadnt been able to import and also export psd files.. 

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2 hours ago, Tom Schülke said:

we have to cooperate with the outer world..  and the outer World is dominated by evil  ;-)   

 So please also make export of idml possible..

 

I propose that the menu option be called "Perform Evil Export..."

That way all of the problems that come up in the exported file should be excused since the export was evil to begin with and thus cannot be trusted.

:35_thinking:

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