Adobe InDesign surely is one of the finest application of its kinds. But it comes with a heavy requirements of computer configuration and subscription rates, particularly for the beginners and learners. Its cloud based subscription system is pretty expensive and not what can every beginner designer can afford. While Adobe InDesign provides the best of publication features here are some other applications to consider when it comes to light weight and cost effectiveness.
1. Affinity Publisher
This desktop publishing software offers excellent page layout features for both printed and online media. It's worth noting that you can also now import InDesign files, as well as raster and vector files, which is a new feature. It also now offers full preflight checking that'll alert you to any possible errors in your documents.
- Price model: One-off fee
- System: Windows, Mac
- Pros: Feature-rich, cheap, interoperable with other Affinity apps
- Cons: Not available for Linux
- Recommended for: professional designers
2. Xara Page & Layout Designer
- Price model: One-off fee
- System: Windows
- Pros: Affordable and easy to use
- Cons: Short on pro features
- Recommended for: Beginners
3. QuarkXPress
There’s a lot of impressive functionality in Quark XPress, for both print and digital design, and so it seems a little unfair that’s it's been so eclipsed by InDesign. That said, the brutal truth is that the main reasons to buy Quark nowadays are if you’ve used it before and prefer it to InDesign, or that you’re applying for a job or project that requires it. And we suspect that the makers of the software know that themselves, as the cost of a new licence, starting at £835, seems more aimed at the corporate market than individual designers.
- Price model: One-off fee
- System: Windows, Mac
- Pros: Feature-rich, can import InDesign files
- Cons: Expensive
- Recommended for: Veteran users
4. LucidPress
Lucidpress is an intuitive, web-based, drag and drop tool that allows you to create content for print and digital, including flyers, brochures, business cards, invitations, leaflets, newsletters, magazines, photobooks and more. Largely targeted at people with minimal DTP skills or experience, it comes with both free and paid-for templates to make this super-easy.
The software is also integrated with Google Docs, YouTube, Dropbox, Flickr, Facebook, Unsplash and other tools to allow you to import existing content. Once you’ve completed your designs you can publish them online, embed them in emails or webpages, push to social media, download them as print-ready files, or order directly from the Lucidpress print shop.
- Price model: Freemium
- System: Web browser
- Pros: Nothing to download, easy to use with pre-made templates
- Cons: Much less powerful than other tools, free version is limited
- Recommended for: Time-poor DTP beginners (and non-Mac users)
5. Scribus
If you’re looking for a free and open source alternative to InDesign, then we recommend checking out Scribus. This excellent tool has an interface that’s very similar to InDesign and is surprisingly feature-packed for a zero-cost tool.
First launched in 2001, Scribus has an enthusiastic developer community around it that keeps it constantly updated with new features and ensures its stability. Available for Mac, Windows and Linux, it supports most of the desktop publishing features you’d find in paid software, including support for OpenType, CMYK colours, spot colours, ICC colour management and versatile PDF creation, as well as some unexpected touches, such as vector drawing tools, emulation of colour blindness and the rendering of markup languages like LaTeX or Lilypond. The biggest negative is that you can’t open files from other desktop publishing software, such as InDesign or Quark, within Scribus.
- Price model: Free
- System: Windows, Mac, Linux
- Pros: Free, includes free templates, available for Linux
- Cons: Can’t import files from InDesign or QuarkXPress
- Recommended for: indie publishers on a budget
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