Adobe InDesign

4.8 (308)
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Layout and page design software

Overall rating

4.8 /5
(308)
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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308 Reviews

Tiara
Tiara
Overall rating
  • Industry: Media Production
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

The Holy Grail of publishing

Reviewed on 2023/11/19

Pros

Indesign is a part of Adobe Suite so it can integrate with other Adobe programs. I mostly use it in conjunction with Photoshop and Lightroom. Indesign also feature many customizable layouts to create beautifully curated print designs.

Cons

Large files can become an issue if you don't have a computer with sufficient storage space. Also, because of the large files, exporting can be very time consuming. External storage may be necessary.

Janice
Overall rating
  • Industry: Retail
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

I use InDesign on a daily basis

Reviewed on 2024/05/09

I use InDesign almost every single day of the week. Have been very happy with all of it and...

I use InDesign almost every single day of the week. Have been very happy with all of it and InDesign help is very good at helping me to solve and learn new avenues of creating.

Pros

I love Adobe InDesign and honestly don't know where I would be without it. I love being able to seamlessly import and export with other Adobe products and also being able to create just what I need

Cons

Nothing to report on this. Love InDesign.

John
Overall rating
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • 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 10.0 /10

One of a kind tool

Reviewed on 2025/02/05

Since college, I've trusted InDesign for its design power despite its complexity

Since college, I've trusted InDesign for its design power despite its complexity

Pros

Adobe InDesign offers precise typography, versatile tools, and pro-level layouts.

Cons

Steep learning curve and requires a subscription for full access.

Emilio
Overall rating
  • Industry: Defense & Space
  • Company size: 10,000+ Employees
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Value for Money
  • Ease of Use
  • Customer Support
  • Likelihood to recommend 5.0 /10

The standard for layout designing and publishing

Reviewed on 2023/05/30

I love InDesign, I've been using it almost all my life. But it as time goes by it is becoming more...

I love InDesign, I've been using it almost all my life. But it as time goes by it is becoming more and more outdated. Although there are new softwares more capable in many areas I'm not switching because InDesign it's the standard

Pros

It is the most complete software for publishing and layout designing. Once you are used to it, it is capable almost of everything. There are many feature to automate repetitive task which are super convenient.

Cons

It is becoming outdated. I find annoying the fact that you cannot open a document generated with a newer version of InDesign. Launching it is super slow even though it is not a demanding resources program. There are not many tools for digital publish layouts, and the ones that it has are outdated.

Alternatives Considered

Affinity Publisher

Reasons for Switching to Adobe InDesign

Because it is still the standard for publishing.
Cyril
Overall rating
  • Industry: Consumer Goods
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Adobe Indesign a very good software

Reviewed on 2024/12/15

My overall experience is very good and unmached till today.

My overall experience is very good and unmached till today.

Pros

A very nice software that make desing easer and really time efficient. The software is updated very often and offer cool features, and AI intergated.

Cons

Can't think of something. Very good software.

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 2024/01/12

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.

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 2023/11/03

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
Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Graphic Design
  • 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

My indispensable layout king

Reviewed on 2023/09/06

the overall experience is better, Indesign is a software that has been able to adapt to my desires,...

the overall experience is better, Indesign is a software that has been able to adapt to my desires, today I can create an ebook layout in a few clicks, so if I can't let my imagination grow, that's the limit of indesign.

Pros

Synchronized assembly of content: Shapes, images, text

Cons

What I like most about indesing is the higher price list.

Alternatives Considered

Affinity Publisher

Reasons for Switching to Adobe InDesign

I chose indesign because it saves me a lot of time.
Kelly
Overall rating
  • Industry: Arts & Crafts
  • 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

Excellent user friendly design software

Reviewed on 2025/02/17

I use the Adobe software together and InDesign is the perfect software to begin designing my...

I use the Adobe software together and InDesign is the perfect software to begin designing my projects.

Pros

I really enjoy all the products by Adobe for graphic arts and design. InDesign is the beginning software when I am creating flyers, pamphlets for companies. User friendly and allows you to create the design you imagine.

Cons

Honestly, I haven't found anything that stands out in this software.

Sanaa
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 7.0 /10

Professional Layout Design with Precision

Reviewed on 2025/02/07

A top choice for designers working on publications, offering powerful tools for layout and print,...

A top choice for designers working on publications, offering powerful tools for layout and print, but requires time to master.

Pros

Excellent for creating print and digital layouts with precise typography control and seamless integration with other Adobe tools.

Cons

Has a steep learning curve, and the subscription cost can be high for casual users.

Savannah
Overall rating
  • Industry: Nonprofit Organization Management
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

  • Ease of Use
  • Likelihood to recommend 9.0 /10

Best tool for print design, but needs better UI

Reviewed on 2024/06/24

Pros

I work in InDesign daily creating pieces to be sent to print. It is a massively powerful tool, I feel like I learn new features and shortcuts every day. It is almost more powerful than the average user can appreciate or utilize.

Cons

This program is not intuitive. And InDesign files cannot be edited by anyone who does not have their own subscription and a full working knowledge of the platform. I believe many users will shift to Canva for the UI and collaboration benefits alone. InDesign, however, still remains the absolute best tool for sending long-form print products to production. Canva cannot produce full books.

Mohammed
Overall rating
  • Industry: Civil Engineering
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Great job for ideas

Reviewed on 2024/06/27

It was an enjoyable and easy experience in completing daily work tasks, as my work depends most of...

It was an enjoyable and easy experience in completing daily work tasks, as my work depends most of the time on making presentations, submitting proposals, and presenting them clearly and well.

Pros

The thing I liked most about the program is a program dedicated to advertising, brochure, and presentation works that provides high quality and accuracy in graphics and innovative and modern presentation methods that keep pace with global progress at all levels of the world.

Cons

It requires high-powered computers to run the program, and it also needs some money to buy the software for the program, but it is probably the best.

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 2023/10/10

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

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 2023/12/17

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.

Verified Reviewer
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 7.0 /10

InDesign Review

Reviewed on 2023/11/09

Pros

What I like most about using Adobe InDesign is its precise control over typography and layout, allowing for intricate, professional-grade designs. Its seamless integration with other Adobe applications ensures smooth collaboration and a comprehensive creative ecosystem.

Cons

What I like least about Adobe InDesign is its resource-intensive nature, leading to occasional slowdowns, especially when handling large files. Additionally, the software's complexity can be overwhelming for novices, often necessitating extensive training to harness its full potential.

Stéphanie
Overall rating
  • Industry: Arts & Crafts
  • 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

Indesign review

Reviewed on 2024/05/06

Pros

All the necessary tools to edit and create documents are available in this software.

Cons

I'am totally satisfied of Adobe Indesign

Verified Reviewer
Overall rating
  • Industry: Architecture & Planning
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Best graphic design for poster

Reviewed on 2024/01/12

My experience with InDesign help me to do my job in construction and design so poster for our work...

My experience with InDesign help me to do my job in construction and design so poster for our work and i see it is easy to used it for big and small poster graphics

Pros

InDesign have good features for textures and write text.

Cons

The drag the photo in inside the programs

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 2023/11/23

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 2023/10/26

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.

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 2023/06/19

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.

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 2023/06/29

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.

Yusril
Overall rating
  • Industry: E-Learning
  • Company size: 1,001–5,000 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source

Overall rating

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

Best Layouter

Reviewed on 2023/11/24

Pros

easy tool for layouts, many tools for easy create a digital book

Cons

many purchases for subscribe this software

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 2023/06/20

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: 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 2023/11/06

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: 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 2023/11/19

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