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Can Affinity Publisher open InDesign files?


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I've got loads of old InDesign documents (Mac) that I made years ago, and want to know if Publisher can open these? Or if it can import them so I can continue and update them in Publisher. I was hoping this should work as Affinity Photo opens Photoshop documents. I couldn't find any information about it on the website. Thanks in advance for any help, Robert

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Thanks, and thanks for the answer MEB. Then I sadly have to wait for the upcoming version before I buy it. I have Affinity Photo since it came out and will soon buy Designer (that can open old FreeHand files - which was my favourite vector program).

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16 minutes ago, MEB said:

We hope to provide support for InDesign IDML files later in an upcoming version which should help if you still have access to InDesign.

Because I have only a few old InDesign files, I don't care about the import function. Just out of curiosity: Does Affinity need Adobe approval or even their cooperation for the function, or is the interface "public"?

Thanks to DeepL.

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13 minutes ago, Palatino said:

... Just out of curiosity: Does Affinity need Adobe approval or even their cooperation for the function, or is the interface "public"?

The interface is not public. But there are ways of "reading" files with programming tools which give some clues as to what is in them and how they are put together. That is a very big job, rather like decoding Egyptian Hieroglyphs without a Rosetta Stone.

Mac Pro (Late 2013) Mac OS 12.7.4 
Affinity Designer 2.4.0 | Affinity Photo 2.4.0 | Affinity Publisher 2.4.0 | Beta versions as they appear.

I have never mastered color management, period, so I cannot help with that.

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3 hours ago, RobGil said:

I've got loads of old InDesign documents (Mac) that I made years ago, and want to know if Publisher can open these? Or if it can import them so I can continue and update them in Publisher. I was hoping this should work as Affinity Photo opens Photoshop documents. I couldn't find any information about it on the website. Thanks in advance for any help, Robert

In the interim, if you still have an active version of InDesign, you could export your old files as PDFs.  You can then import the PDFs into Affinity Publisher, where you can definitely edit them.   It takes a bit of preliminary work to get rid of various and sundry quirks, but it is absolutely worth it in my opinion.  I have already reworked a few 300-500 page books in Publisher and love it.  Dratted if I was going to pay a monthly toll to access my own books!!   I hope you will give Publisher a try.  


24" iMAC Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD storage, Ventura 13.6.  Photo, Publisher, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.3.
MacBook Pro 13" 2020, Apple M1 chip, 16GB unified memory, 256GB  SSD storage
,  Ventura 13.6.   Publisher, Photo, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.1.1.  
 iPad Pro 12.9 2020 (4th Gen. IOS 16.6.1); Apple pencil.  
Wired and bluetooth mice and keyboards.9_9

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1 hour ago, jmwellborn said:

In the interim, if you still have an active version of InDesign, you could export your old files as PDFs.  You can then import the PDFs into Affinity Publisher, where you can definitely edit them.   It takes a bit of preliminary work to get rid of various and sundry quirks, but it is absolutely worth it in my opinion.  I have already reworked a few 300-500 page books in Publisher and love it.  Dratted if I was going to pay a monthly toll to access my own books!!   I hope you will give Publisher a try.

Thanks jmwellborn, I was just wondering if that (pdf's) was a way to work around it, I will definitely give it a try, will buy Publisher in a few months ahead. I have InDesign on an older iMac, but could never agree to Adobes newer subscription system.

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14 minutes ago, RobGil said:

Thanks jmwellborn, I was just wondering if that (pdf's) was a way to work around it, I will definitely give it a try, ...

There is a script for ID that can walk through a folder structure and convert ID files to IDML & PDF. It provides someone like yourself the best of all worlds in that you can initially use the PDFs and once Serif rolls in its IDML import, you can switch to it.

The script is by Peter Kahrel.

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

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5 hours ago, RobGil said:

Then I sadly have to wait for the upcoming version before I buy it.

You do not have to wait for the purchase - the update will be free of charge (according to MEB, I expect it will be implemented in version <2).

Affinity Store (MSI/EXE): Affinity Suite (ADe, APh, APu) 2.4.0.2301
Dell OptiPlex 7060, i5-8500 3.00 GHz, 16 GB, Intel UHD Graphics 630, Dell P2417H 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
Dell Latitude E5570, i5-6440HQ 2.60 GHz, 8 GB, Intel HD Graphics 530, 1920 x 1080, Windows 11 Pro, Version 23H2, Build 22631.3155.
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46 minutes ago, RobGil said:

Thanks jmwellborn, I was just wondering if that (pdf's) was a way to work around it, I will definitely give it a try, will buy Publisher in a few months ahead. I have InDesign on an older iMac, but could never agree to Adobes newer subscription system.

| also kept my older iMac with InDesign CS-6 on it, just in case I needed anything not yet PDF’d.   Recently I cranked it up and opened InDesign.  UGH!  I am reminded  now that actually I always hated it.  So clunky, compared with the satiny smooth Publisher, Photo, and Designer.  


24" iMAC Apple M1 chip, 8-core CPU, 8-core GPU, 16 GB unified memory, 1 TB SSD storage, Ventura 13.6.  Photo, Publisher, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.3.
MacBook Pro 13" 2020, Apple M1 chip, 16GB unified memory, 256GB  SSD storage
,  Ventura 13.6.   Publisher, Photo, Designer 1.10.5, and 2.1.1.  
 iPad Pro 12.9 2020 (4th Gen. IOS 16.6.1); Apple pencil.  
Wired and bluetooth mice and keyboards.9_9

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  • 2 months later...
4 minutes ago, Franklin said:

Same boat - have CS5 Indesign and would love to be able to export into Publisher, but not sure that converting to PDF files would give me the ability to manage newspaper pages for a local community newspaper, and replace/update information on the pages each week. 

The current APub beta has IDML support. It still needs work, but it will get better over the beta cycle and at each release. It will prove better than using pdfs at some point...and likely is fine now for certain IDML files.

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  • 4 months later...
16 hours ago, eallengd said:

Yes you can open inDesign in Affinity Publisher.  I've been doing it all morning. 

Congrats! But I assume you're opening pdf files made with InDesign, and not their native indd files?

If so, please tell how you do it, thanks! Robert

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4 hours ago, MEB said:

What it does support is IDML files (since v1.8). You can now export  your project from Indesign as IDML (Adobe InDesign Markup Language File) and open them in Affinity Publisher.

Great news! You said earlier it was coming in a future update, and now it's here, so big thanks MEB !

Stay safe! Robert

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Hi,

Very good progress with IDML!
Still, I hope that .indd file format will also be available at one point. At work we have thousands of indesign files and if Publisher cannot open them we will still be dependent on the adobe software to export to IDML when needed.

Can't wait to switch fully to affinity, so much better than the adobe stuff. 

 

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36 minutes ago, Bogdan said:

At work we have thousands of indesign files and if Publisher cannot open them we will still be dependent on the adobe software to export to IDML when needed.

It is unlikely that .indd files will ever be supported. If you want to make the switch, and are worried about the .indd files you have being needd someday, you should probably just convert all of them to IDML now. (Which, from what I've read, can be done with a script, so it's simple to do.)

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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2 minutes ago, Bogdan said:

Why do you think so? The photoshop format is readable in Affinity Photo...

The Photoshop is at least partly open (documented). The .indd format is proprietary, and undocumented.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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1 hour ago, Bogdan said:

Hi,

Very good progress with IDML!
Still, I hope that .indd file format will also be available at one point. At work we have thousands of indesign files and if Publisher cannot open them we will still be dependent on the adobe software to export to IDML when needed.

Can't wait to switch fully to affinity, so much better than the adobe stuff. 

 

https://markzware.com/products/idmarkz/

Is the only non-script means of .indd conversion without needing ID installed. Currently Mac only but a Windows version is being developed.

As far as I know, the only layout application available that can directly open .indd files without ID is Viva Designer version 10. VD has long had the ability to open/save .idml files (in most respects, the best conversion). The .indd format being opened is new to VD version 10 and isn't yet as robust/capable as its .idml capabilities but with 5 or so updates dealing with this capability since version 10 was released, it's gotten better.

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