Friday, November 1, 2024

Transfer InDesign files to Affinity Designer (via IDMarkz tools)

 As mentioned earlier, I am finally ditching Adobe software for buy-once software (no more subs for me, please). This is a very difficult decision, but I honestly cannot continue to use their products because of the expense and their very dodgy invasions of privacy (not gonna get into it here, but do a google or YouTube search and see what I mean).

Now, most image editing programs can open Photoshop files. So, switching software is not a problem.

The biggest problem I face is that I have a LOT of InDesign documents that I need to be able to access in other software.

Now, Viva Designer 11 does an amazing job of opening InDesign documents (at least the ones I've tested so far). The problem is, I would need the Commercial Edition of their software and that runs $400. That's a bit pricey, but I'd spend the money if it did the job.


Looking at MarkzWare Tools

Another option is a dedicated conversion software created by MarkzWare. They make a lot of conversion tools, but there are some issues:

  • The standalone software only runs on Apple computers. I don't own a Mac.
  • They have a no-installation web app, but it is subscription based and very limiting:
    • $39/mo for 10 docs or 100 pages
    • $79/mo for 50 docs or 500 pages
    • $119/mo for 100 docs or 1,000 pages
    • $250/mo for 250 docs or $2,500 pages
  • Although they have yearly plans, those are even pricier.
Based on my needs, I would probably need the 1,000 page plan, and then I would need to dedicate enough of my time to get the most out of it so I would be finished in one month.

But, if that's the case, why not just resubscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud for $23/mo for InDesign only and do my conversions over a month or two?

I also have no way to test this cloud-based service will actually get the job done.

This bears further analysis, but I'm leaning against this option.

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