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Adobe InDesign is powerful and rewards practice... You get what you pay for.
January 21, 2020

Adobe InDesign is powerful and rewards practice... You get what you pay for.

Anthony Burke | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe InDesign

I use Adobe InDesign to create communications materials on a regular basis. I am a single-person department and the only person regularly using Adobe InDesign in our organization. Adobe InDesign gives me the ability to create custom materials for any situation and to fit the needs of our many different program areas. Adobe InDesign seems like a more flexible program that others and gives you the ability to create something just the way you envision it.
  • I think you can shape text more efficiently with Adobe InDesign, just by drawing text boxes.
  • It's easy to fit diverse elements together in the same document.
  • It's not as robust with image editing as PhotoShop or Illustrator, so that you might need multiple programs together.
  • The many many options make ID not always beginner-friendly - practice and tutorials help!
  • We have improved internal communication, and many of our materials are created in Adobe InDesign.
  • We have been able to create documents with relatively quick turn-around time, which has "saved the day" in a few situations.
  • Microsoft Word is probably the most popular word processor, and I've been using that since I was a little kid, but InDesign gives you all the word processing tricks and then some with the ability to arrange every small part of your layout.
  • Microsoft Publisher is another product I've heard of but haven't used. If you have access to the Microsoft Suite, you may want to give this one a try.
  • Canva is a neat web-based design tool. It's not quite as powerful as InDesign, but it's pretty beginner friendly and gives you a lot of flexibility with all kinds of designs.
I like Adobe InDesign a lot. I've been using it since college, and am very grateful that my organization has provided me with it (and other Adobe products). If you're going to use it a lot, then you will have the practice needed to build up your skills. It's a great tool. You can find similar functionality elsewhere, and InDesign isn't cheap, but I really like it and feel like I can create just about anything my organization would need. For best results, you'll want the full suite so you can combine the layout capabilities of InDesign with the graphic creation of Illustrator and image manipulation of PhotoShop. Even if you had to chose 1 Adobe product, InDesign gets the job done in a wide variety of situations.

Do you think Adobe InDesign delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Adobe InDesign's feature set?

Yes

Did Adobe InDesign live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Adobe InDesign go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Adobe InDesign again?

Yes

I love the program. Regularly, I am creating newsletters, brochures, and other communication materials with Adobe InDesign. It works great for all of these purposes. Generally, if a project is text-heavy, or if you are considering using Microsoft Word for it (both frequently happen for me), then Adobe InDesign works excellent in those situations. If you need a high degree of control over photos, other images, or you're looking to create graphics, then you would likely need to ID in conjunction with another program. I recommend it all the time, though with the caveat that it's not cheap. I am fortunate enough that my organization pays for the full Adobe Suite, which is primarily used only by me.