Indesign free download Archives

If you want to download InDesign CC to your PC or Mac, but aren't sure how, this post has all the answers. Whether you’re looking to download Adobe InDesign for free to test it out, or you want to sign up to a Creative Cloud subscription that includes InDesign, we’ll explain your options, and outline what you need to do to start creating professional page layouts.

Adobe’s advanced page layout software is the industry standard for publication design, and is used by both students and professionals to make posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers, presentations, books, ebooks and more. 

(Also see our guides to other Adobe software, such as how to download Photoshop or these brilliant Illustrator tutorials.)

Can I download InDesign for free?

The short answer is: yes, kind of. InDesign is a paid-for tool, but Adobe does let you download a free trial of InDesign for both Windows and Mac. Once you’ve done that, you’ll get seven days to use the full version of the page layout tool, which gives you access to all the latest features and updates. 

To take out a free trial, you’ll need an Adobe ID. If you don’t have one, don’t worry, it’s free and only takes a couple of minutes to create. Just go to the Adobe account page, and click Get an Adobe ID.

You’ll also have to give Adobe your credit card details. If you cancel your subscription before the end of the trial, you won’t be charged a penny. If you don’t, though, Adobe will then bill you for an ongoing subscription, so do keep your eye on the calendar, if you don't want to pay.

Taking out a free trial is the only way to download InDesign for free. Downloading a pirated version from the murkier parts of the internet is not only illegal, it’s also highly dangerous to the security of your devices and data. Along with the pirated software, you’re likely to unwittingly download viruses and malware, and your bank account might end up getting emptied as a result. So that is very much a false economy and we certainly don't recommend it.

How do I buy InDesign CC?

The only way to buy InDesign is as part of a Creative Cloud membership, for which you pay either monthly or annually. Your cheapest option is to subscribe to InDesign alone. Alternatively, you might prefer to take out the All Apps subscription, which is more expensive, but will give you access to all of the Adobe Creative Cloud apps, along with a range of other benefits. (If you’re not sure which CC apps would benefit you, then check out our article Adobe software list: Which apps do you need?). 

Tempted by the latter, but worried about the cost? Adobe often runs promotions that might change your mind. Plus, there are always discounts for students and teachers, as well as separate pricing for businesses, schools and universities. So it’s always worth having a look at our Adobe Creative Cloud discounts page see what discounts are on offer.

What’s the price of InDesign CC?

The cheapest way to buy InDesign CC is through the Single App InDesign plan, which usually costs £ / $ / AU$ per month on an annual plan, and will give you InDesign, plus GB of cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark. 

The other way to buy InDesign CC is through the Creative Cloud All Apps option, which gives you access to InDesign as well as Adobe’s entire collection of creative desktop and mobile apps. This doesn't cost much more than the single app option, so is probably worth it, as you'll no doubt need at least Photoshop too if you're working with images.

InDesign discounts for teachers and students

If you’re a student or teacher, you can buy InDesign as part of a discounted All Apps plan at a much lower rate. So at time of writing, you can get all the Creative Cloud apps, plus GB cloud storage, Adobe Portfolio, Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Spark for just $ / £ / AU$ per month for the first year, and $ / £ / AU$ thereafter. 

Note that at the moment, there are free licences on offer for students and teachers, find out more here.

How do I get started with InDesign?

Once you've downloaded InDesign, head over to our collection of the best InDesign tutorials to get started with the software, and improve your skills and understanding. We’ve gathered together a great range of InDesign lessons, all free to access, which will teach you new tricks and how to work smarter and more creatively, whether you're a beginner, intermediate-level or a professional user. 

InDesign CC: key info you need to know

Debuting in August , InDesign CC is now 21 years old and has become the industry standard for page layout software in the newspaper, magazine and book publishing sectors. It’s typically used by graphic designers, editorial designers, marketing professionals, art directors and production artists to create posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers, presentations, books, and more. It's primarily used for print, but it also has digital publishing capabilities. 

InDesign is often used in conjunction with the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite to create content suitable for tablet devices, and it supports export to EPUB and SWF formats for the creation of ebooks and other digital publications. It also supports XML, style sheets, and other coding markup, allowing for the export of tagged text content for use in other digital and online formats. 

As part of your CC subscription plan, you’ll receive all InDesign updates free. The latest version is Adobe InDesign Recent additions include support for importing SVG files, a new reverse spellcheck feature, the ability to search for similar images, new self-serve resources available within InDesign to help you get started, support for column rules in a multi-column text frame, support for variable fonts, and support for five new South-East Asian scripts. You can read more about the new features in this Adobe blog post.

Adobe InDesign: Android and iOS apps

InDesign is currently only available for Mac and PC desktop computers. However, you can use the free app Adobe Comp to create layouts on your iPad, your iPhone or your Android device, and send those files to InDesign to work on further. Terry White walks you through this process in the video below. 

InDesign alternatives

In our view, the best InDesign alternative is Affinity Publisher, which was launched last year by Serif, the makers of Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer. Affinity Publisher is available for a low-cost, one-off fee and requires no subscription. 

Another good paid-for option is Quark Xpress, which predates InDesign and still offers a decent alternative for those who prefer a one-off payment to a subscription (albeit a much more expensive one than Affinity Publisher). Our favourite free alternative is the open source tool Scribus, which does a pretty good job at page layout for creatives on a budget. You can see a full list of InDesign alternatives here.

Read more:

3D Widgets in CircularFLO

Posted . Filed under: Circular Software, CircularFLO, News, Reviews.

Our friends over at BookWidgets have recently added a 3D widget which allows you to spin and explore complex 3D shapes. They say &#;There are tons of free (or inexpensive) models available online, or make your own with simple tools like SketchUp. Also for science subjects there are free models available on the Protein Data […]

News from EPUBZone &#; The Community and News Site for all things EPUB

Posted . Filed under: CircularFLO, News, Press Releases, Reviews.

Release of CircularFLO 7 includes New Features for Fixed Layout EPUB News from EPUBZone &#; The Community and News Site for all things EPUB CircularFLO, the ebook generation software from Circular Software Limited has recently been updated to version 7 and includes some exciting new features. In particular, the ability to automatically convert books into fixed […]

Direct ebook sales to the iPad have just got easier.

Posted . Filed under: News, Reviews.

Adobe have just announced and released Adobe Digital Editions 4 (ADE) for the iPad. This is a small but significant landmark for publishers wishing to bypass retailers and to sell their own ebooks directly to readers on the iPad. I have been a prerelease tester for both ADE desktop and the new ADE iOS app on the iPad and […]

CircularFLO featured in MacUser magazine

Posted . Filed under: Circular Software, CircularFLO, News, Reviews.

The February edition of the MacUser magazine in the UK features CircularFLO as part of their lead article on Fixed Layout EPUB which they dub &#;the digital publishing format of &#; A full page review compares CircularFLO favourably against other fixed layout tools such as Adobe InDesign, Apple iBooks Author and Kindle Kids&#; Book Creator and mentions &#;The […]

CircularFLO on adityagaur.com

Posted . Filed under: CircularFLO, Reviews, Training.

We are always happy when people pass on the news about CircularFLO so thanks to Nat, Tracy and the team at Webucator for making this video and adding CircularFLO to their InDesign courses.     Thanks to Webucator for creating this video, which is also included in their Using Adobe Add-ons course in their InDesign classes.

Fill InDesign&#;s Fixed-Layout EPUB Gaps with CircularFLO

Posted . Filed under: Circular Software, CircularFLO, Features, News, Reviews.

  Following the recent release of CircularFLO v5 we asked an expert on epub­lish­ing, Pariah Burke, to write a white paper comparing the latest InDesign version with what is possible using CircularFLO v5. We were delighted to read his honest account which included the Top 10 Things CircularFLO Can Do That InDesign Alone Can’t Fixed Layout from InDesign CS6 and CC […]

ECI general downloads

Altona Test Suite

Altona Test Suite - Technical Page 2

Altona Test Suite

Digital photography

ECI target

ECI bvdm Gray Control Strip

ECI bvdm Gray Control Strip (older versions)

ICC profiles from ECI

Offset printing

Gravure printing - PSR_V2 profiles

Working color space eciRGB

Exchange color space eciCMYK

ECI profiles (current versions)

ICC profiles from ECI (old versions)

ICC Profiles from WAN-IFRA

Monitor

PDF/X

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Presentations – Launch Event "PSR v2" - Cologne - June 25,

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