Adobe InDesign

4.8 (169)
Layout and page design software

Overall rating

4.8 /5
(169)
Value for Money
4.2/5
Features
4.8/5
Ease of Use
4.1/5
Customer Support
4.2/5

100%
recommended this app
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169 Reviews

Lucas
Overall rating
  • Industry: Higher Education
  • Company size: 11-50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

The market leader, with all the love and disgust that that position generates

Reviewed on 23/6/2022

We use InDesign as part of our publishing suite to create books and curricular components.

Pros

One of the most significant advantages of InDesign is its integration with the Creative Cloud suite. That relates to its biggest disadvantage: price (see below). But the ability to link to Illustrator or Photoshop files, and have those linked files update in InDesign when they're edited, is powerful.
Even though crashes are actually not uncommon, the attention to detail with which the program is crafted gives the sense that this is a high-quality, thoughtful, and competent program. I love the layers of automation and workflow efficiency baked in, even though I don't use nearly all of them.

Cons

Biggest drawback: subscription pricing. It's worth it for work, probably, though I keep wondering if Serif's products aren't a good alternative.
Also, Adobe interfaces can be clunky in general. I'm personally not a fan of the Touch interface that Adobe volunteers for my laptop.

Joshua
Overall rating
  • Industry: Printing
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

An Underrated Software That's the Real Money Maker

Reviewed on 6/4/2022

For me, Indesign is a life-changing software that has enabled me to reach not only my goals but my dreams of publishing a full-blown magazine. I have sent over 2 million files to print, every one of them created in Indesign. It's my bread and butter.

Pros

Photoshop gets all the attention but Indesign is the unsung hero of the print design world. It doesn't get the viral tutorials or talked about much but it's the real money maker in my opinion. I have mastered this software and with every job I get, it becomes the backbone. Assembling complex PDFs for online distribution or creating magazines or even large format print documents. I simply love Indesign. The recent round of updates is amazing and really improves the overall experience. I have always loved how it perfectly balances complexity and simplicity. It's my babe. All the other designers come to me for Indesign needs because they skipped over it. A shame, but I don't mind as it keeps the money coming in.

Cons

I can't find a complaint. The only issue was how small the interface was, has now been corrected in this last update.

Dunnecia
Overall rating
  • Industry: Graphic Design
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 6.0 /10

A Presenter's Choice

Reviewed on 24/9/2022

The program does work effectively and helps one present their designs is a suitable and structured manner to aid in looking professional.

Pros

The program makes developing, editing and presenting something a whole lot easier. It has all the features needed to accomplish whatever design project one may have in mind to a great extent.

Cons

Besides the price tag attached to using Adobe products and their learning curve, this program falls short when it comes to properly editing images and editing certain shapes. So it is a little restrictive given certain perimeters which forces you to use their other programs.

Jacob
Overall rating
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • Company size: 2-10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

What everyone uses for layout, for better or worse

Reviewed on 9/1/2023

Pros

When laying out text, images, preparing documents for printing, and making mass changes across a document, InDesign is fantastic and very intuitive and fluid. The fact that so many people within the design field use this software, makes sharing and inheriting files from other people relatively stress-free.

Cons

There are many quirks and functionality issues that come into play depending on your project. For example, we deal with importing tables into documents on a regular basis and InDesign is very particular about how those can be imported and implemented.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Higher Education
  • Company size: 5,001-10,000 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

InDesign is the Premiere Document Layout Tool

Reviewed on 12/11/2021

I have been using InDesign for over fifteen years and have used it to successfully design everything from reports and infographics to album and novel covers. After learning it once, it remains intuitive and powerful--it is the only document layout tool I've used where I am able to create whatever design I can imagine. It has earned me plaudits for good design and clarity of communication. Above all, it has enhanced the professionalism of the materials I produce, always making the information contained therein clearer.

Pros

InDesign is the most powerful and fully featured document layout tool available. It provides flexible, easy to use layering that enables advanced overlays and far more complicated designs than are possible with a more traditional layout tool. What's more, with a wide variety of font types and masking tools, the sky is the limit for making professional looking documents. It is flexible enough to lay out everything from infographics to multi-column reports to covers and posters. Plus, it brings the power of the Adobe Suite through integrations with Photoshop, Illustrator, and more.

Cons

There are few features I've encountered that are missing for InDesign. That said, the learning curve for can be steep for someone who has no experience with design products, particularly those of the Adobe Suite. That said, Adobe provides ample learning resources so that users can get up to speed fairly quickly. InDesign integrated seamlessly into our report production workflow, so I fully recommend it.

Jennifer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Events Services
  • Company size: 11-50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Design Solution

Reviewed on 27/1/2022

Adobe is hard to get support from, but you can always Google and get answers.

Pros

I love being able to integrate graphics and images easily into layouts with linked graphics/fonts easily packaged.

Cons

I have no complaints! I love InDesign!! I have used it as a designer for over 25 years and will until I no longer design. Best layout software ever!

Alternatives Considered

QuarkXPress and CorelDRAW

Reasons for Choosing Adobe InDesign

The printing industry made a shift and this is what was being used.

Switched From

QuarkXPress

Reasons for Switching to Adobe InDesign

Ease of use and industry standard.
Hayden
Overall rating
  • Industry: Media Production
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

It's a great editorial piece of software, but look into Affinity Publisher

Reviewed on 28/3/2022

When you need a publishing software, InDesign might be the number one choice for most professionals, and there is a good reason for it. It integrates very well with the Adobe design software suite and can make your life very easy depending on what you are working with.
I do however been using Affinity Publisher more and more and been trying to switch completely in the next few years, since I already own the software and love how powerful is.
Choose your poison, you can't go wrong with InDesign and if you subscribe to the whole suite thi is a no-brainer.

Pros

It's a very powerful and quite the industry standard software to use

Cons

It's quite expensive if you don't need to use other Adobe products.

Alternatives Considered

Affinity Publisher

Reasons for Choosing Adobe InDesign

It's the more relevant piece of software these days.

Switched From

QuarkXPress

Reasons for Switching to Adobe InDesign

I use both, depending on the project.
Kristin
Overall rating
  • Industry: Nonprofit Organisation Management
  • Company size: 51-200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Layout and Design in One

Reviewed on 26/4/2022

I love InDesign and will use it for almost all projects for print.

Pros

I love the layout functionality of the entire program. You can design a brochure, business card, postcard, booklet, white paper, etc. all in the same program.

Cons

You can import Word files easily BUT you have to do major clean-up on them after via fonts, colors, etc.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: 2-10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Great product IF you commit to Adobe

Reviewed on 17/3/2022

If you can afford the Adobe CC suite, InDesign is definitely a worthwhile investment of time to learn the software and functionality.

Pros

The functionality for creating small booklets and brochures is the best part about this software. There are plenty of design tutorials if you need a creative spark. Combined with the CC Suite, this functions very well.

Cons

You must buy into the Adobe world, mastering their language/terminology and shortcuts to function at the highest capacity. It also works best with the Creative Cloud suite and that can get costly.

Hylda
Overall rating
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Offers the Best Option for Professional Quality Printed Materials

Reviewed on 25/10/2022

Pros

I like the flexibility InDesign offers for creating marketing materials from standard to unique sizes.

Cons

There is a bit of a learning curve to overcome, so if you are brand new to graphic design, InDesign is not what I would deem very user-friendly.

Rodger
Overall rating
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 501-1,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Adobe InDesign review - No More Corel

Reviewed on 19/10/2021

Easy for others to use and make changes.

Pros

Ease of use and cross functionality between programs

Cons

Not their fault but there are so many options and variables...just takes awhile to learn

Alarna
Overall rating
  • Industry: Computer Software
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Great Software but not suitable for beginners

Reviewed on 20/7/2022

When I first started using this product I found it a bit difficult to navigate through but as time went on I got to love it. Overall I think Adobe InDesign is a very useful and well laid out program. There are so many features to use to make an excellent end product. However, I think Adobe should make available with purchasing the program a short course to teach new users how to properly navigate the interface.

Pros

There are many tools available to create amazing products. I personally love how each tool has a keyboard shortcut that comes in very handy once you are familiar to the interface. InDesign provides loads of different fonts and is great for integrating graphics and images into all the projects that you are working on, example brochures, business cards, magazines etc. One of the cool features that I love about InDesign is the bleed feature, which ensures that your business cards or brochures do not end up with a white strip along the edge of your print work.

Cons

It is expensive when you do not use other adobe products and requires a monthly subscription. The program has many advanced features that require a lot of patience to learn your way around making it not user friendly for beginners. It also uses quite a bit of RAM to run this program and can take some time to load.

Alternatives Considered

Scribus

Reasons for Switching to Adobe InDesign

Because of its many features
Sarah
Overall rating
  • Industry: Architecture & Planning
  • Company size: 501-1,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Solid Publishing Design Tool

Reviewed on 9/8/2022

Initially is a little daunting for new users to get up to speed, but once you do this program is a powerful tool for both print and digital publishing layouts. Would recommend for sure!

Pros

InDesign seamlessly meshes with other Adobe products which is great. Love being able to use the libraries feature and have all our brand content at my fingertips.

Cons

Love that there is a collaborative editing/share for review feature, but also wish that multiple users could work in the same document in real-time. Would love if a spelling and grammar checker were automatically included too. Would be helpful for longer, text heavy documents.

Scott
Overall rating
  • Industry: Printing
  • Company size: 11-50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Adobe Indesign

Reviewed on 15/10/2021

Overall I have always loved Indesign ever since it switched from Pagemaker to Indesign. It was one of the easiest transitions ever.

Pros

Indesign is probably the best layout software for a graphic designer to this date. It has great functionality for all designers in the graphic layout world.

Cons

I think the one thing that I have always thought they should integrate into InDesign is when it comes to facing pages. In the printing world when doing a Perfect bound or spiral bound book you need to have bleed on all 4 sides of the page so that you do not have to under trim a book. Truly every designer wants to layout a book in facing pages when they design. The problem with this when doing a spiral or perfect bound book is you do not get the correct bleed on the gutter. You end up with bleed from the next page which isn't what you want in this type of book. They need to make it so you select Perfect bound or spiral on facing pages and it allows you to select the amount of bleed you want in between and then an option to hide that bleed so you can visually see it like normal.

duncan
Overall rating
  • Industry: Publishing
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Best layout software

Reviewed on 23/4/2022

since first using indesign i have found it the best and being from adobe the tools and shortcuts are all familiar

Pros

ease of use and fully functional does everything i need

Cons

would like to see the ability to add a + sign to features like leading on the fonts

Michelle
Overall rating
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Adobe InDesign - the gold standard for publishing

Reviewed on 7/6/2022

Fabulous

Pros

It is sophisticated but still user friendly. Not too complex; easy to use!

Cons

Would be awesome to have a chat feature somewhere for support

Aria
Overall rating
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • Company size: 11-50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Modern Day "Old Timer" Layout Designing Software

Reviewed on 4/2/2022

I'm using this software for years, and so far I can say there's no other software can comparatively match this one in this functionality, ease of use, and design-bank capabilities.

Pros

Adobe InDesign is not something new in layout designing, and recent updates are very valuable for everyone in this area. In short, I personally can say this is an "old-timer" software with modern day interface that can be easily operated, even for a beginner.

Cons

Online integration sometimes being a handicap for people that are living in areas with poor internet coverage.

James
Overall rating
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 201-500 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Great Layout

Reviewed on 7/10/2021

We use InDesign for almost all of our layout in the company and we love it.

Pros

I have been using InDesign for years and while it has updated frequently, it is easy for me to use as an experienced user. TONS of features that make laying out your design exactly what you want it to be.

Cons

This can be a hard software product to learn but I've learned from making many mistakes. It takes time, but it is worth it.

hodaya
Overall rating
  • Industry: Design
  • Company size: 11-50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

adobe indesign is the best thing ever happened to graphic designers!

Reviewed on 9/1/2023

indesign is the best software to edit text properly for every design, i do books, posters, banners, posts, branding and basically everything. once you start using indesign you don't want anything ales.

Pros

i love the way i can edit text and books with a lot of details and different styles, i love how its so easy to use and how the software is not to heavy on my computer

Cons

thing to improve: more support for gradients from illustrator, easier pattern option, support different image files (like photos from whatsapp)

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Architecture & Planning
  • Company size: 11-50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 6.0 /10

InDesign Review

Reviewed on 7/1/2022

Overall pleased with this but cost and low levels of support hamper the overall experience.

Pros

InDesign has been around for many years and hardly changed - this is due to it being so well put together and the functionality working so well. It is easy to use, learn and there are plenty of functions that can do whatever is required of it.

Cons

Software is expensive as it is a subscription based model. Also we have issues with users who are on different versions - this usually corrupts the file. In addition to this users do find they get locked out of the file and this means work has been lost. Support for this is limited from Adobe. The console to assign users also periodically goes wrong and requires a call to the helpdesk to resolve, this is not usually very quick.

Lydia
Overall rating
  • Industry: Environmental Services
  • Company size: 201-500 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Good Graphic Design program Used by most professional artists.

Reviewed on 23/8/2022

I use InDesign every day for most of my work. I love it. It does take some actual schooling to really use this app properly but that also means it has A LOT of features and tools that can make beautiful, unique work that other applications can't do.

Pros

The expansive tools and features in the program for designing high quality documents that look professional.

Cons

The collaborating feature with fellow artists and the linking of images.

Jerico
Overall rating
  • Industry: Printing
  • Company size: 11-50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Design application for professionals

Reviewed on 25/8/2022

Pros

I've been using InDesign for about 22 years and its been great on layouts on prints and even web.

Cons

Bugs can be introduced on every updates, like what I have right now are palettes gone upon opening the app. This may be resolved with reinstallation but bothersome.

Caleb
Overall rating
  • Industry: Education Management
  • Company size: 1,001-5,000 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

Industry standard for a reason.

Reviewed on 22/5/2022

Pros

Publishing an A4 infographic? A 87 page Annual Report? Anything in between (and beyond)? InDesign has got your back. It's a professional tool not designed to be 'easy' to understand or use, but spending the time to learn it will make you a better designer and open up a range of opportunities you just won't have otherwise.

Cons

The learning curve is steep, and ultimately InDesign often relies on you also having both working knowledge of and access to Adobe's other design programs (namely Illustrator and Photoshop) which makes the cost involved balloon quite quickly.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Architecture & Planning
  • Company size: 2-10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Simple to learn

Reviewed on 5/9/2022

I use InDesign to make presentations regarding Architecture Projects. It gives me freedom and a lot of solutions to make annotating and designing easy.

Pros

This program is a good solution for those who want to do projects regarding layout designs. It is good because you can learn to use it very quickly, so you can make designs in an accurate, standardized and professional way. The integration between Adobe features is one of the best tools of this application.

Cons

Issues with resizing images and its container. Sometimes it is difficult makes the process slower.

Rabecca
Overall rating
  • Industry: Computer Software
  • Company size: 5,001-10,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Great tool for UX/UI Designer

Reviewed on 6/1/2023

Pros

-very easy to use, create templates and create design systems for an app along with other Adobe apps. -Easy user interface, anyone can learn and pick up on it easily - Robust and has all the features necessary for professional user interface designing for apps and websites-Integration with other Adobe software makes it easy to utilize it to full capacity and creativity

Cons

- cost-wise it can be pricey for individuals but it's good for teams and companies.