Graphic Designer off Creative Cloud on App to Preview, Export InDesign

Do you receive InDesign CC versions of files, but you don’t have a Creative Cloud subscription? This is the case for Glen Saville (@GSaville_Design), graphic designer at Glen Saville.Design, whose review of the IDMarkz application appears below, in both video and transcript.

Markzware develops software to preview InDesign, convert InDesign, export InDesign, and more. Markzware’s stand-alone macOS app to enable these abilities is IDMarkz, a central tool for previewing, file conversion, and exporting of Adobe InDesign files to many graphic design and image file formats.

The “Graphic Designer reviews IDMarkz for InDesign export and preview” video is on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE32xy0ZxOI
Here is the transcript:

DAVID: Glen, how are you? 

GLEN: Alright, David and everyone.

DAVID: It’s great to see you, again. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us. 

GLEN: No problem, for myself.

DAVID: Glen has a been a beta tester, while he’s been using many of our products over the years and he’s recently beta tested the new IDMarkz, which, by the time this views, it should be out. So, you can go check it out over on markzware.com. Before we jump into Glen’s experiences with the new product, maybe you can tell us a bit more about yourself, Glen?

GLEN: I’ve been a graphic designer, for over 30 years, worked at all different levels. Started out on the paste-up table. 

DAVID: Wow! 

GLEN: So, I’ve seen how the industry has completely changed. QuarkXPress and then I made the move to InDesign, when it came out as version 1. It wasn’t really usable, until version 1.5, so, that was when it really started coming into its own. It was actually at a speed, that you could use it.

DAVID: Right.

GLEN: Now, since then, I just carried on. I’ve recently had the sort of issues, where I’ve had to, sort of, cut back on finances. So, I’ve dropped Creative Cloud. So, IDMarkz was something I was very interested in, when I saw the beta testing email.

DAVID: Yeah, we’ll get into that, yeah. Well, Glen’s a book designer and, well, graphic designer in general, but also did a lot of books. I guess you also did the Jaws cover, back when. Am I correct?

GLEN: Yeah, I did the 30th year anniversary, when I worked at Paramount Miller. That was a lovely job to do. 

DAVID: Yeah, that was a great movie, you know?

GLEN: Yeah. 

DAVID: It scared the wits out of me, back then. I don’t know if I want to watch it, again, actually, anyway. 

GLEN: Yeah.

DAVID: Alright, Glen, great. So, for the people that don’t know, IDMarkz is a tool that helps you… Well, maybe let’s try this, Glen. Maybe you can give like the elevator pitch. What is IDMarkz from Markzware, the new product?

GLEN: Well, it’s a lifesaver, if you’ve worked on things in CC. I had someone call me about a possible job and they wanted an updated version of my CV. I tried to open up my CV in CS6 and got presented with it’s been newly designed, in a more recent version of InDesign. So, fired up IDMarkz and, within seconds, I was up and running. 

DAVID: Wow!

GLEN: So, it was actually a lifesaver. 

DAVID: Yeah. Yeah, and in a nutshell what it does, IDMarkz is a tool for Creative Cloud, as well as CS users, alike. It’s a tool that will allow you to, number one, preview InDesign files; number two, export InDesign files; and number three, even convert InDesign files to many other file formats, including Affinity Publisher, QuarkXPress, etc., which I’m sure Glen will touch on, in a moment.

GLEN: I think the best useful thing I can think for, is in marketing departments, where they may not have a license for InDesign.

DAVID: Right.

GLEN: It means if they’ve got it fast from the designer, they can have a quick preview, export a PNG, if they need to, for Amazon or whatever, and they’re up and running, very, very quickly. 

DAVID: Right. That’s a great point! Yes, you can, with one of the exporting features, you can export in many various formats, including PNGs or JPEGs or TIFFs or whatever. This could be a great thing for marketing, for social media use.

GLEN: Yeah, absolutely. 

DAVID: Interesting.

GLEN: Where I used to work, I could imagine the people working in the marketing department, making huge use of this program.

DAVID: Right. You could take a catalog from your company. You know it’s in InDesign, but you don’t have InDesign. You wish you did, but you don’t. Drop it on IDMarkz, and take whatever page, drop it on your desktop, and you get a PDF or a PNG, or whatever you want out of that page. Interesting. Good. A good idea. And what are some other first impressions of IDMarkz?

GLEN: Oh, just very, very positive, I mean… 

DAVID: How do you like that PDF Export functionality?

GLEN: It’s the speed of IDMarkz that is so impressive. I mean, as far as I’m concerned, for most designers who are not using Creative Cloud, or if they’re still on CC, this is no brainer. It is the kind of application that it’s going to make a week possible.

DAVID: Excellent! Well said, Glen, very well said. And have you tried any of the “Open In” functionality? Drop an InDesign file and open it in one of the other applications that’s possible, in IDMarkz?

GLEN: Well, I’ve not got an up-to-date version of QuarkXPress, but I am, I’m very interested in the other possibilities that it can offer. It’s, I mean, it’s a really thoughtful idea to put the Affinity Publisher, in there, because I think that program is going to go places. It’s very, very usable.

DAVID: Yes. 

GLEN: It’s got some really interesting features and, like all other Affinity software, it’s actually very, very good.

DAVID: Yeah, affordable and intuitive and, yeah.

GLEN: Yeah. Just a really solid piece of software. And, I think, for a lot of people out there that like to produce design work that haven’t got a big budget, that software is going to fly off the shelves.

DAVID: Right. Right.

GLEN: I… yeah.

DAVID: You’re using a  Mac, obviously. Yeah, you’re like a full Mac user?

GLEN: Yeah, I’ve got a mid-2015 Mac Book Pro. 

DAVID: Oh, cool.

GLEN: And it literally flies on that, so I can imagine, on the brand-new, 16-inch MacBook Pro, it is going to run like greased lightning.

DAVID: Oh, yeah. Yeah, that’s a good point. It’s very easy to use IDMarkz, isn’t it? You just drag and drop a file.

GLEN: Absolutely! I mean, it’s just it’s an exercise in making great software.

DAVID: Wow! The engineers will be happy to hear that one. Thank you, Glen! And it’s very true, actually, yeah. Well said, once again. Well, how about for existing, before we close off here, how about for existing Creative Cloud users, how would you see IDMarkz potentially being usable?

GLEN: For Creative Cloud users, I’d say it’s still essential, because of the speed.

DAVID: Right. 

GLEN: It creates a PDF. It creates an IDML, much, much, quicker. Yeah, I know, in InDesign CC, you’ve got the ability to package a document and create the IDML, at the same time. But you don’t always remember to tick that and having an application that can very, very quickly create the IDML, much quicker than InDesign does.

DAVID: Yeah. 

GLEN: For me, it’s just… it’s a no-brainer. I mean, it’s something that I think everyone should get.

DAVID: Awesome! 

GLEN: Any creative professional should get this.

DAVID: Well said. Thank you, Glen. For existing Creative Cloud users, the little file info window, or mini pre-flight, is very handy to see, before you open the file, what you’re dealing with.

GLEN: See what fonts you’ve got, whether any of the images are missing. It’s brilliant!

DAVID: Well, great. I think, on that, we’ll leave it at that. I think you’ve covered all the bases. You’re obviously a fan of the new IDMarkz.

GLEN: Yep, definitely. 

DAVID: And, once again, the root, yeah? 

GLEN: The moment I opened it up and it saved the day, with that CV, I thought, “This is groundbreaking!” It’s one of those programs that’s going to change people’s lives. 

DAVID: Yeah, yeah, indeed. Yeah.

GLEN: Yeah, you guys have literally thought of everything.

DAVID: Excellent! Very good! Glen, thank you so much for your time.

GLEN: That’s okay. Now, problem solved. 

DAVID: So, you have a great day!

GLEN: And you!
[End of Transcript]

IDMarkz is like an “InDesign file hub” that provides several ways to help the user to make the most of the document. This macOS application previews Adobe InDesign files (including CC 2020) and opens them in earlier InDesign versions, as well as in QuarkXPress, Affinity Publisher, Acrobat PDF, Illustrator, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and GIF.

BENEFITS OF IDMarkz include:
• process InDesign files very quickly
• save money on an extremely versatile InDesign file app
• have easy-to-use macOS software without CC subscriptions

You do not need to load Adobe InDesign on the user’s computer, for IDMarkz to open, preview and export files. IDMarkz can open InDesign files in QuarkXPress, Affinity Publisher, Acrobat, and earlier versions of InDesign, plus allow users to preview InDesign files.

FEATURES OF IDMarkz by Markzware
• Preview
• IDML Export
• PDF Export
• Scrolling Thumbnail View
• Display Document Version
• QuickLook Plug-In
• Contextual Menu for Thumbnails
• Contextual Window for Preview
• Drag & Drop Export
• Open InDesign in IDML

IDMarkz gives people the ability to open their InDesign files in other applications, most notably QuarkXPress, Affinity Publisher, and older versions of InDesign itself (plus Acrobat, Illustrator, and many other options). If the user doesn’t have access to InDesign, IDMarkz can help convert the INDD file to a PDF or IDML (to IDML results in a better conversion) and open that in Affinity Publisher, with a click.

You can purchase the IDMarkz Mac subscription, which includes IDMarkz updates throughout your 12-month subscription, via the IDMarkz page. See more solutions from Markzware for users of desktop publishing files, by visiting the Products page on the markzware.com website.

Markzware invites you to subscribe to our Mailing List and to share your thoughts about Markzware products on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and on websites which publish content for DTP document users. We look forward to your posts!

Graphic Designer off Creative Cloud on App to Preview, Export InDesign