WordPress to InDesign workflow – What’s Needed
- WordPress website or blog
- Printable PDF Newspaper WordPress plugin (free)
- The exported PDF file, of course
- PDF2DTP (PDF to InDesign ~ 199)
- Adobe InDesign CS6 or higher
A German version of this article can be read on Publishingblog.ch.
The tweet that started it all…
This is what I love about Twitter. It gives me serendipitous-type moments, like this. Our friend, Haeme Ulrich said,
“Yesss @ChrisHardie brought an update for the free WordPress Plugin with which you can export PDFs in a newspaper layout out of WordPress. It enables now CSS- and filter-based customization of the PDF.”
Well, I just learned about this. Sounds awesome, though! So, I asked if I could get a PDF created with this plugin from Haeme, whom we follow on Twitter, to check out how it came across in InDesign. And, sure enough, he sent in a PDF that he created of his WordPress site.
This PDF he created with the “Printable PDF Newspaper” free plugin for WordPress. This is a free plugin from Mr. Chris Hardie. The PDF, as you see in the video demonstration below, has a layout of a newspaper format. That is pretty cool and useful! You also get QR codes per “post,” so you can print this out and bring it to a trade show, and people can read the full article, by scanning that, and end up going right to your website or blog. It’s something I always thought was under-used in printing and publishing. I love it! Now for the even cooler part!
Video – WordPress to InDesign, via PDF…
PDF to InDesign
I then ran this WordPress PDF through our PDF2DTP. That’s a popular Markzware’s plugin to convert multi-page PDFs to InDesign layouts, with live text, fonts, images, etc.
I converted that PDF, with a click in InDesign, with PDF2DTP. I didn’t change any of the advanced preferences, just tried it out, raw out of the software, so to speak, and we got what you see in the video. Fonts are missing, sure, but we can replace those and look at that! Amazing, for I have always wanted a WordPress to InDesign option. You too? Let us know in the comments, if you use WordPress!
We get the entire PDF, now, as an InDesign document. So, what kind of interests me about this is that, in a roundabout way, it is a way to go from a WordPress blog, via that WordPress plugin, right into InDesign with PDF2DTP. So, it’s like WordPress to InDesign! Pretty cool, huh?
By the way, this month, in May 2020, get 20% off not only PDF to InDesign but any Markzware product! Use the coupon code, Home20 and save! Plus, you can enter, for a chance to win PDF2DTP and other Markzware products. Three lucky winners! Go to the webpage you see here.
Anyway, that’s my little serendipitous tip of the day from Markzware. — Follow Chris Hardie – Haeme Ulrich & Markzware on Twitter — This little WordPress to InDesign workflow also highlights the power of Twitter, as not only a marketing and education tool, but as a legitimate news source, also for graphic design, publishing and print!
