Adobe InDesign

4.8 (293)
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Layout and page design software

Overall rating

4.8 /5
(293)
Value for Money
4.2/5
Features
4.7/5
Ease of Use
4.1/5
Customer Support
4.2/5

99%
recommended this app
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293 Reviews

Adham
Adham
Overall rating
  • Industry: Broadcast Media
  • Company size: 10,000+ Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

From portfolios to 100 page catalogs, InDesign is capable of that

Reviewed on 07/01/2024

I've used Adobe In-design for the first time back in 2017, i created my first portfolio for my...

I've used Adobe In-design for the first time back in 2017, i created my first portfolio for my design business, and that's when all the doors opened, i've used InDesign since then for all of my top clients, from company profiles to product catalogs, i've done it all and it always had my back. i recommend it for everyone who wants to create anything for digital publishing and offline brochures, catalogs, product base, online and offline portfolios, and magazines

Pros

I usually use it for catalog design and portfolios and company profiles, it certainly have the best features, easy to use most of the time, exporting is pretty fast, the fact that you can add multiples layers of complex designs and even edit your previous PDF's.

Cons

Sometimes the app crashes out of the sudden, but that's about it, and i wish there was more templates to use.

Julie
Overall rating
  • Industry: Mechanical or Industrial Engineering
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Great Software, But Rather Complex

Reviewed on 12/01/2024

Like all Adobe programs, InDesign is incredibly powerful and robust...almost TOO powerful. It's got...

Like all Adobe programs, InDesign is incredibly powerful and robust...almost TOO powerful. It's got a lot of little intricacies you likely will never use or need...If you do, great--they're there! But if you don't, them it's just more buttons and tabs and windows and options for you to have to dig through in order to reach the features you DO use. Still a million times better than trying to layout a document in Microsoft Word though!!

Pros

It's very powerful and can do a ton of things. After using InDesign, and being able to customize so much of my graphic design and text, I now prefer to use this over most programs, including Microsoft Word. The guides are always helpful, ensuring that my elements are evenly spaces and aligned properly. I love being able to easily copy an entire page and all it's elements, and then rearrange things while still in the same document so I can see how a design progresses as I tinker with various elements of the layout and end up with several variations and options. The program is capable of so much, and I'm always continuing to learn more new and helpful tricks.

Cons

1. The cost. Thankfully this is paid for by my employer, because I wouldn't be able to afford to use it otherwise. It's also rather annoying that I don't have the option to just outright purchase a license to OWN. No, like most other software these days, you can only "lease" it, paying by the month. This program does not have enough major updates to truly need access to the latest version. I could work from an older version quite happily.

2. FONTS. I don't know what the deal is, but I always have issues with the fonts, and regardless of how many times I waste my time, reconnecting each font style when I open a document, I inevitably have to do it each and every time. It's time consuming and cumbersome, and considering the fonts are installed directly in my computer's font library, I don't see why it has such an issue. I could possibly understand if I were only using font's from Adobe's library on the cloud, however, this particular font is installed.

3. The fact that I cannot easily change the color of an icon with a cover overlay or something similar. It's a minor point, but as icons have become so popular lately, they are featured in almost all of my documents and layouts. The only way I've found to do it thus far is a messy workaround that involves using the Inner Glow feature, and changing about 6 different but specific settings in order to change the color of the icon. It's a bit of a hassle for a task that feels rather basic.

4. My user view/layout. You have the option to customize your own layout, which I have done...and yet the layout CONSTANTLY gets reset back to the default....and my custom one has disappeared, so I don't even have the option to select it any more! Given that experience, I haven't bothered to create a new custom view because it seems futile, since it'll continue to be reset with each update, AND I'm not confident that view won't mysteriously disappear like my previous one.

5. Not the most intuitive. Its complexity is both a blessing AND a curse, and if you use a lot of other Adobe products, it'll look familiar and you'll be able to identify a lot of the buttons and figure things out. However, new people will likely have a bit of a struggle learning their way around. Also, there's SO many features that a lot of them area tucked away, "hidden" in various drop downs, buttons, options, etc. It's hard to remember where things are if you don't use them very regularly. It's difficult to truly learn the whole program. I've been using it for 13+ years, and I still feel like I'm just mediocre with it.

NORMAN
Overall rating
  • Industry: Graphic Design
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 1.0 /10

You cannot upload anything

Reviewed on 27/07/2024

Terrible. It doesn't work. Again, no matter what file I try to upload to InDesign, it will take it.

Terrible. It doesn't work. Again, no matter what file I try to upload to InDesign, it will take it.

Pros

Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing

Cons

I have been trying to upload a pdf book to InDesign for weeks, unsuccessfully.

Renea
Overall rating
  • Industry: Graphic Design
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Industry Standard for Professional Publishing, but Costly for Small Businesses

Reviewed on 31/10/2024

Despite the cost, InDesign remains my top choice for high-quality, professional publishing. For...

Despite the cost, InDesign remains my top choice for high-quality, professional publishing. For those who need top-tier tools and work on larger projects regularly, it’s worth the investment.

Pros

Adobe InDesign is my go-to for complex and detailed design projects in my genealogy and family history business. It’s an incredibly powerful tool with virtually unlimited options for layout, typography, and customization, making it ideal for crafting professional, detailed templates that I sell to clients. The learning curve can be steep, but once you get the hang of it, the flexibility and precision are unmatched.

InDesign shines with its extensive export options and seamless integration with other Adobe products like Photoshop and Illustrator, which are essential when working on intricate projects across multiple platforms. That said, Adobe’s monthly subscription can get pricey, especially for small business owners who don’t need the full suite every month.

Cons

Expensive monthly subscription and a steeper learning curve for beginners.

Sean
Overall rating
  • Industry: Oil & Energy
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Short Learning curve - A must have for text-based content creation.

Reviewed on 03/11/2023

Coming from using photoshop for creating designs for flyers and brochures - company profiles ect......

Coming from using photoshop for creating designs for flyers and brochures - company profiles ect... and this has been an absolute eye-opener. Now I feel like i know what the pros do. I can edit elaborate,(and readable, text-heavy + image-rich content with huge page-counts without creating monstrously big file-size. - nothing can convert into pdf as efficiently as Adobe InDesign. I have found myself almost fully ditching Photoshop, Microsoft Word and others for weeks at a time because editing here feels effortless for me (someone that loves beautifully designed and thought out documents) . The only big gripe for me is that InDesign isn't very well adopted by my collogues... so when they need to edit a file that i made - they cant easily open it like they would an MS Word document.

Pros

IT just works! - it looks like a photoshop-ey interface, but the user experience is more fitting to Designers/Nothing else seems to convert my elaborate book designs filled with HD images into PDFs with the level of optimization like InDesign does.It feels like a proper design tool but with a built-in word processor. A perfect middleground between Design and Word functionality.Its an Adobe product so it gets updated often! and now with those nifty Ai tools that automagically makes your work alot easier!

Cons

Its an Adobe product so its probably on the expensive end for a non-pro user.Coming from Photoshop - I had to rethink the way i designed and that was a small but noticeable learning curve.Lacks some of the granular functionality of Microsoft Word to be considered a possible competitor for word processing.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Illustrator

Reasons for Choosing Adobe InDesign

Needed more efficient way to make small file size PDFs with very high quality.

Switched From

Adobe Photoshop

Reasons for Switching to Adobe InDesign

Made for documents and long format text files, books and magazines. Just what i needed
Neil
Overall rating
  • Industry: Architecture & Planning
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

InDesign is Essential to our Business

Reviewed on 19/01/2024

Overall an incredible piece of software, the industry standard for creative layout design

Overall an incredible piece of software, the industry standard for creative layout design

Pros

InDesign is an essential tool that we use every day to get our work done! Simply the best

Cons

It does have a steep learning curve if you are new to it

Rissa
Overall rating
  • Industry: Nonprofit Organization Management
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Indesign is the best for publishing

Reviewed on 20/11/2023

I like using the full adobe suite of products together. It makes it so I can create and publish...

I like using the full adobe suite of products together. It makes it so I can create and publish assets extremely quickly without extensive training.

Pros

I like the ease of use with InDesign. I have used a both of different publication editors and InDesign is by far the most comprehensive and user friendly.

Cons

With the online adobe suite sign in, sometimes you get kicked off and then don't have access to your brand standards and it can be hard to get back in.

Alternatives Considered

Canva

Reasons for Switching to Adobe InDesign

InDesign is just a more complete product when used with the full suite.
Lewis
Overall rating
  • Industry: Design
  • 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

A must for any design professional

Reviewed on 24/01/2024

Pros

Adobe InDesign is the number one desktop publishing application and seemlessly intergrates with all the other Adobe applications

Cons

There are occasionally some very minor display bugs.

Isabelle
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 9.0 /10

A complete software for day-to day work

Reviewed on 24/11/2023

Pros

It connects with the Adobe Suite. Very complete software to create ads and flyers.

Cons

Top menu keeps changing for unkown reason

Allison
Overall rating
  • Industry: Graphic Design
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Experienced designer's go to for print design.

Reviewed on 29/10/2024

I've been working with Adobe InDesign since it came out and have always been impressed. I've used...

I've been working with Adobe InDesign since it came out and have always been impressed. I've used it for years creating for both print and digital for everything form 300 page books to business cards and flyers.

Pros

InDesign is the ultimate tool for laying out designs that are a combination of images and copy and is particularly great for text-heavy designs. There's a little bit of a learning curve because some of the features are more advanced, but this is what makes InDesign great - you have more design flexibility, more tools for consistency, and better layout tools.

Cons

I really like everything about InDesign.

Christopher
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
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

The pinnacle of publishing and layout work!

Reviewed on 17/12/2023

Overall we like the software very much. It has helped us present our designs to customers and...

Overall we like the software very much. It has helped us present our designs to customers and municipality. It works the way it should, without breaking the workflow.

Pros

It is easy to get into. And complex enough to do great stuff when you are more comfortable with the software. It is reliable and solid. We have had little issues with it.

Cons

It is pricey. There are competitors that do what InDesign does, so the price has to be justified.

Ntuthuko
Overall rating
  • Industry: Design
  • 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

My everyday tool

Reviewed on 10/10/2023

As a daily user of InDesign, I'm a very and can recommend it anyone, as a Designer it makes my life...

As a daily user of InDesign, I'm a very and can recommend it anyone, as a Designer it makes my life very easy

Pros

it's very user centered and easy to use.

Cons

It has less options to manipulate images

Emma
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 7.0 /10

Great product

Reviewed on 08/06/2024

Pros

Exemplary product for creating publications! The ability to fine tune all typography settings is wonderful.

Cons

The CC subscription price is higher than I can justify for personal work. Otherwise I would own it on all of my computers.

Kim
Overall rating
  • Industry: Nonprofit Organization Management
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

InDesign has become the workhorse of typesetting software

Reviewed on 19/06/2023

Used InDesign for many years, both before and after the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription platform....

Used InDesign for many years, both before and after the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription platform. An excellent program, always improving.

Pros

Ease of use with printing companies when creating printed materials...consistency of design between the online view and the final printed piece. An industry standard.

Cons

The learning curve is steep, mainly because it is such a complete program that there is a lot to learn. Some formatting issues when placing text created with Microsoft Word.

Dorothy
Overall rating
  • Industry: Arts & Crafts
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

As of yet still irreplaceable

Reviewed on 23/11/2023

Pros

Makes designing multi-page documents so much more manageable and the process much cleaner, especially when it comes to managing many high-resolution images and text formatting.

Cons

Spellcheck is not that intuitive (compared to word processing apps). Doesn’t help with grammar errors.

Vihar
Overall rating
  • Industry: Media Production
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Somewhat difficult but Best result

Reviewed on 26/10/2023

Overall experience is good. First it is difficult to operate. But after that you can easy handle...

Overall experience is good. First it is difficult to operate. But after that you can easy handle and have a fun to operate.

Pros

Adobe InDesign is the best software for page setting in media office. I used it from last few years. Result is nice. Overall

Cons

Somewhat heavy and difficult to use for new users.

Rafael
Rafael
Overall rating
  • Industry: Photography
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

The best of the best

Reviewed on 29/06/2023

Pros

Adobe InDesign excels in professional layout and design, with robust typography and text control. It offers seamless integration with other Adobe Creative Cloud apps and provides efficient page management. Its versatility caters to both print and digital publishing, allowing for customization and automation. InDesign is a powerful tool, enabling the creation of visually appealing and well-structured designs.

Cons

n my experience, I found that Adobe InDesign has a steep learning curve, requiring time and effort to master. It can be resource-intensive, particularly when working with large documents. The subscription-based model might not be suitable for users on a tight budget. I also noticed that InDesign's vector editing capabilities are somewhat limited compared to dedicated software like Adobe Illustrator. Collaborating on projects can be challenging, and I encountered occasional software instability. However, despite these challenges, I acknowledge that InDesign remains a valuable design tool for many users.

Matt
Overall rating
  • Industry: Higher Education
  • Company size: 501–1,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

InDesign is the best

Reviewed on 20/06/2023

Pros

It's by far the best desktop publisher out there

Cons

Literally nothing! I live in InDesign all day-every day at work, and I love it

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

Overall rating

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

InDesign is a Staple

Reviewed on 08/05/2023

Very pleased with my overall experience with Adobe InDesign, I have made lots of projects including...

Very pleased with my overall experience with Adobe InDesign, I have made lots of projects including multiple books on it, and will continue to do so.

Pros

Once you learn the basics, it's super simple to use and integrate with the other Adobe applications. A staple that I have yet to find a program that comes close to its capabilities.

Cons

I suppose the least thing I like about it is that if your device isn't up to par with the graphics card and processing speed, it can take a while to load.

Karen
Overall rating
  • Industry: Research
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Great for layuts

Reviewed on 03/11/2023

Pros

I like that it makes it easy to make eye catching publications, with many tools and features

Cons

It can be a bit difficult to learn how to use it at first

Anthony
Anthony
Overall rating
  • Industry: Computer Hardware
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

Page Layout at it's best

Reviewed on 13/06/2023

Pros

Adobe InDesign is pretty much the industry standard for page layout so it contains all the features that you need to design and layout artwork for commercial use. It has a fairly easy learning curve with basic features accessible to most people even without training, however to get the most from the software you will need some training to get the workflow and more advanced features working for you. I like the high quality results that are achievable when designing company marketing materials, from exhibition stand graphics to posters and everything in between.

Cons

It can be expensive due to the subscription model, especially if you don't use it very often.

Layla
Overall rating
  • Industry: Entertainment
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Monthly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 8.0 /10

Perfect for Graphic Design

Reviewed on 23/11/2023

Pros

Adobe InDesign is a great tool for designing catchy graphic designs and larger-scale creative projects, such as posters or journal templates, and it's a great tool for creating professional layouts. Very easy to use once you've learned how to use the tools.

Cons

Adobe InDesign is a little expensive, especially compared to free design tools like Canva that offer many of the same features as InDesign.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Financial Services
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for Free Trial
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Easy to create digital graphic design

Reviewed on 06/11/2023

Indesign is a good fit for beginners getting familiar with design tools.

Indesign is a good fit for beginners getting familiar with design tools.

Pros

This is a basic tool to learn how to design visual communication products as flyers, and posters in a convenient way.

Cons

It's quite expensive to subscribe the monthly pack compared with other tools.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

The premier design tools for print media

Reviewed on 27/05/2023

Overall InDesign has been a crucial tool for delivering print media for our clients.

Overall InDesign has been a crucial tool for delivering print media for our clients.

Pros

The feature to properly layout page designs for print media, have multi page designs in the same file and easy integration of other adobe tools like illustrator.

Cons

The user interface is a bit complicated for beginners.

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Hospital & Health Care
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 5.0 /10

Takes a while to learn but can do some cool things

Reviewed on 19/11/2023

Pros

In design makes it easy to format and modify the appearance of a page or document. You can make the page interactive and easy to view for the end user

Cons

Navigating in design takes a while to get the hang of. There are also different ways to access the same feature through the menu or side bars. YouTube and Reddit were helpful for learning ways to do things like make a fill able form on a website