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Publisher & InDesign


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I know InDesign compatibility has been brought up here several times before. I absolutely love Publisher and it has quickly become my main software for print/layout after using Designer & Photo for the past 4 years. But yesterday my stomach dropped as I got the dreaded email after completing two 80 page books:

"Can you send the InDesign files ASAP?"

As much as I love how quick & intuitive Publisher is compared to AD, I run the risk of getting asked for InDesign files anytime I try to use it in a professional environment. Sometimes I get away with it, and others (like yesterday) I have to spend 6+ hours scrambling to copy, paste & reformat every. single. photo, graphic & text frame back into InDesign.

My dream scenario is that everyone would ditch Adobe altogether and move to Affinity products. But obviously that's not going to be a reality anytime soon. And as much as I only want to use Affinity (and I understand it's a brand new software) there has to be a better way of achieving some semblance of cross-compatibility. 

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You could consider pointing out (assuming this is true) that InDesign files were not given as a requirement when the work was negotiated and that you are using more modern software whose authors did not choose to include support for that particular format?

When people ask me for Word files from something I create on my Mac (without Word, and which they are not going to try to edit) I always tell them I can try exporting to a Word file but that I make no guarantees that the Word files will be correct, and that they should check the included PDFs to see if the Word documents translated across correctly...

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As with AI files, INDD files uses a propriety and undocumented (at least not publicly) format which would require a huge effort to reverse engineer by trial and error (thrust me, I've been trying) so I would not expect support for either format in the near future. I'd go with @fde101 for now.

architect student (5/10) · designer · developer · geek
Affinity Publisher 2.1.1 / Affinity Designer 2.1.1 / Affinity Photo 2.1.1
Windows 11 Pro #22H2 / Dell G15 AMD Ryzen 5 32GB RAM

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12 minutes ago, Lmpessoa said:

INDD files 

Yes, Serif has said in other threads on this subject that they do not expect INDD files will ever be supported, but they hope to support at least importing IDML files at some point in the future.  It is unclear if they intend to support exporting them or not.

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Why not suggest your client purchases a copy of Publisher? At fifty quid a throw, it's hardly going to break the bank. Or offer to purchase a copy for them (add £50.00 on to your next job ;) ).

You could also ask if a press-compatible PDF would be acceptable. Often, all a customer wants to do is copy a bit of text (it's amazing how many people don't know you can do this from a native PDF) or get their hands on a particular picture.

AFAIK, Publisher has never been sold as an InDesign converter, so I see no reason why Affinity should incorporate this feature with any urgency. Personally, I would prefer it of they spent their time sorting out things like the rather confusing layers system, being able to import with bleed, etc, thus making Pub a better stand-alone tool for page layouts in its own right.

 

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17 hours ago, fde101 said:

It is unclear if they intend to support exporting them or not.

Exporting IDML files is as important for Affinity Publisher as importing it, I would have thought.

2017 27” iMac 4.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 • Radeon Pr 580 8GB • 64GB • Ventura 13.6.4.

iPad Pro (10.5-inch) • 256GB • Version 16.4

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2 hours ago, Joachim_L said:

Markzware (Mac only) has a tool for converting PDF to Indesign.

It works from inside InDesign so it does not need to know the format of INDD files but relies on being able to programatically create InDesign documents from within. If the specs for AFPUB files were public, one could create a plugin to convert these to/from INDD just the same way and I think that could work for some.

Just to note, Affinity Publisher does not need a plugin for opening PDF files for editing. ;)

architect student (5/10) · designer · developer · geek
Affinity Publisher 2.1.1 / Affinity Designer 2.1.1 / Affinity Photo 2.1.1
Windows 11 Pro #22H2 / Dell G15 AMD Ryzen 5 32GB RAM

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