

Ask HN: Viable InDesign Alternative? - WritelyDesigned

There&#x27;s been a decent amount of buzz around Mac apps like Sketch, Pixelmator, Affinity Photo, and others for replacing Adobe apps like Photoshop and Illustrator.<p>Some have gone so far as to ditch Adobe CC entirely and turn to these new-ish apps exclusively.<p>My question is: does anyone know of a viable InDesign alternative? I haven&#x27;t seen one to date and wanted to know if there&#x27;s one in existence or in the works.
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seekingcharlie
I haven't found anything that really beats InDesign itself for heavy print
work, but I have been using Sketch for web marketing material (brochures,
getting started guides etc) and it's worked so far.

I'm using the pixel dimensions of Letter paper, which is not really ideal, but
does work if you need to print. Also, when you export your Sketch artboards to
PDF, they're huge so I open the PDF's in Acrobat after to create compressed
versions.

My workflow is 95% Sketch at this stage. I still use PS for image-editing and
I keep Illustrator & InDesign installed, but honestly haven't opened them in
months, since transitioning to Sketch.

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hluska
Have you tried Scribus?? When I used to publish a magazine, we started with
InDesign and moved over to Scribus. It took awhile to get used to, but once we
got it set up, it was extremely powerful!

My email is in my profile - use it if you need help!

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WritelyDesigned
I have tried it in the past but wasn't too impressed at the time. I may have
to give it another go to see if they've upped their game. Thanks!

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therealmarv
Is not this solvable by using google? ;)

[http://alternativeto.net/software/adobe-
indesign/](http://alternativeto.net/software/adobe-indesign/)

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WritelyDesigned
Yea, been there, a couple of times, but I've yet to find anything "viable"
(nebulous term, I know).

Things in common between the three new-ish apps mentioned above is a sleek,
simplified UI, all with the essentials when it comes to features.

I've tried a number of the ones on the page you've referenced, but most are
too big a step back.

My hope is that there's a Sketch-esque InDesign type app out there that I've
missed among the latest and greatest. I'm coming to believe, however, that's
only wishful thinking. ;)

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therealmarv
Scribus is powerful enough. Even magazines are beeing made with it. It is for
sure lacking some features when compared Indesign but for every normal user
who is willing to learn how Scribus works it offers at least for me everything
I need from a DTP program.

