5 Must-Haves to
Use Adobe InDesign File Content in
Affinity Publisher

Plenty of graphic designers are users of the feature-rich Adobe InDesign application, to create page layout documents. Now that it is possible to open InDesign files in Affinity Publisher, via IDMarkz by Markzware, these designers are considering switching to the Publisher app, which is independent of Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription costs and requirements.

Designers are weighing the price of Adobe’s recurring monthly CC charges, versus a single purchase of the Affinity Publisher app. There are a wide range of tools available, to ease InDesign document production.

Which of these design-supporting tools, apps, and other resources would actually help creative professionals to be successful? Following are some must-have tools for creatives, to enhance your work with Adobe InDesign content, if you are considering the switch to Affinity Publisher.

While this list is not intended to be all-inclusive, these must-haves may give you big advantages over your competition. You can jump straight to the details of each must-have’s section, by clicking these links:

Source of Inspiration

Fonts Resource

Stock Photo Site

Color Management Tool

IDMarkz

1. Source of Inspiration

Current technology and the internet make it easier to access supportive books, portfolio sites, galleries, and the like, which offer sources of inspiration. Check out these inspiring books, for example:

• Adobe InDesign Classroom in a Book (2020 release) by Tina DeJarld and Kelly Kordes Anton
  
• InDesign Type: Professional Typography with Adobe InDesign by Nigel French
  
• The Non-Designer’s Design Book by Robin Williams
  
• ePublishing with InDesign CS6: Design and produce digital publications for tablets, ereaders, smartphones, and more by Pariah S. Burke

Preview of a page layout design that could appear on a portfolio website

You can further gather ideas to feed your creativity and can share creative ideas, by visiting (and perhaps expanding your exposure on) these inspirational, top portfolio websites:

• Behance is Adobe’s social media network to showcase and discover creative work, for creatives of almost any type, to inspire, network, job hunt, get feedback on designs, and more. You do not have to be a Creative Cloud subscriber to use Behance.
  
• Wix is a web development platform (with millions of users in 190 countries) that enables a small business to create a stunning website, for free.
  
• Squarespace is a paid platform that provides creative tools (websites, online stores, domains, and more) that empowers millions of people, including local artists and entrepreneurs, with creative ideas to succeed, share stories, and create an impactful, stylish, and easy-to-manage online presence.
  
• Carbonmade is a paid platform that offers portfolio tools to help creatives to show off their work and customize layouts with editable colors, fonts, blocks, etc.

Note: If you know of any great websites that host online portfolios, Markzware invites you to comment on our social media web pages about your favorite design portfolio websites, especially if they are free to use!

2. Fonts Resource

• Google Fonts, originally called Google Web Fonts, was created in 2010 and offers an extensive, yet user-friendly collection of free licensed fonts and web font services. Google worked on improving the interface, to make it easier to preview and choose fonts for customizing layouts, and continues to add fonts.
  
• Font Squirrel offers a collection of free, manually-selected, high-quality typefaces licensed for commercial design use and also offers recommendations on other resources, to ease design processes for artists, web designers and developers. The fonts and web fonts are presented on a user-friendly website, which includes the unique @font-face font generator. Font Squirrel also offers a free Font Identifier, that matches fonts from Font Squirrel, Fontspring, MyFonts, and soon more!
  
• FontSpace is a free font website, where designers share fonts. Founded in 2006, the website offers fast previews and free, straight-forward downloads of 64,000+ fonts for personal or commercial use by professional graphic designers, crafters, hobbyists, teachers, and students. These fonts are added, organized, reviewed, checked for font quality issues, and legal-license-verified by live humans, to ensure legitimate, licensed fonts for all layout design work, including Pinterest, calligraphy, and styled-font projects.
  
• Fonts.com, an e-commerce site (founded 2001) from Monotype (founded 1884), offers 160,000+ searchable, browsable desktop fonts, web fonts, and typography tools, including a font-identification tool. Users have opportunities to preview, purchase and download your choice of 150,000+ desktop and web fonts for consumer electronics device manufacturers, independent software vendors, creative professionals and leading corporations. Fonts.com allows artists and designers to buy and sell fonts on fonts.com and via other channels. The Fonts.com Blog offers daily articles, by type experts and contributing creative professionals, about new typefaces, tips and techniques for typography in print, web, mobile and other workflows.

Source: http://www.kodak.com/US/images/en/corp/aboutKodak/onlineToday/Kodak_SocialMediaTips_Aug14.pdf

3. Stock Photo Site

Following are some of the top stock photo websites, that may help with your creative projects:

• Unsplash
• Pixabay
• Gratisography
• Pexels
• Pikwizard

4. Color Management Tool

For designers, it is essential for colors used in the design to exactly match the printed design. Too frequently, color tones look very different on your device’s screen, compared to the final printed product. Since colors manifest differently on off-screen print materials, this type of color management in the graphic design workflow could be a difficult task.

However, a Pantone Color System for graphics could simplify the job. This system is usually a swatch collection that provides color samples, which allow the designer to more accurately gauge color and better match the resulting, printed design.

A monitor calibrator could help with color management, as well. When properly attached to your Mac monitor, it can adjust device brightness. This improves color viewing, which can help to prevent major problems that could result from errors in color matching.

5. IDMarkz

IDMarkz is a stand-alone application by Markzware that can export and open InDesign (.indd) files in several file formats, as well as display InDesign file previews. Markzware develops software products that assist professional printers, publishers, and graphic artists, worldwide.

Video on How to Open InDesign File Content in Affinity Publisher:

How to Open Adobe InDesign Files in Affinity Publisher, via IDMarkz

1. Open an InDesign file, using the IDMarkz app by Markzware.
2. Click on the “Open in Publisher” toolbar icon in IDMarkz. Affinity Publisher will present its “PDF import options” dialog.
3. Click “Open” in Affinity Publisher’s dialog, to open the editable file in Publisher.

Open InDesign in Affinity Publisher with Markzware‘s IDMarkz application.

Features of IDMarkz

IDMarkz can display InDesign CC or CS file previews and export the files as GIF, IDML, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, or PDF with editable text. In addition, IDMarkz can open InDesign files in:

• Affinity Publisher
• earlier InDesign versions
• Acrobat (with ability to annotate PDFs)
• Illustrator
• IDML
• QuarkXPress

Graphic designers have often experienced undeniable pressure to create unique and pleasing designs for clients who have grown increasingly particular in their demands. IDMarkz could be the app that gives you the edge you need to stand out, amidst high competition.

Benefits of IDMarkz

• fast processing of InDesign files on macOS
• simple-to-use interface with versatile capabilities
• affordable, multi-purpose, InDesign-compatible software

How to Buy IDMarkz

You can buy the tool that can help you to open Adobe InDesign content in Affinity Publisher! Markzware’s low-cost IDMarkz Mac Subscription, available via the IDMarkz page, includes updates throughout your 12-month subscription term. More quality products for users of page layout applications are available, via the Products page on Markzware’s website.

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5 Must-Haves to Use Adobe InDesign File Content in Affinity Publisher