Question

What is the best open source alternative to indesign

Asked by: freymish

I need a reliable open source alternative to indesign.
It will need to be able to import, export and edit indesign files
Needs to run on Vista!!!

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Asked On
2008-11-06 at 11:28:06ID23882926
Tags

Adobe

,

Indesign

,

CS3

,

Open source

Topics

Adobe InDesign Publishing Software

,

Open Source Programming

,

Microsoft Applications

Participating Experts
3
Points
125
Comments
6

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Answers

 

by: patrick_defibaugh_chavezPosted on 2008-11-06 at 11:51:12ID: 22898791

The best thing I can find is Scribus:
http://www.scribus.net/

It looks good but I think you may need more than what it can offer.  Here are some so-so reviews:
http://www.osalt.com/scribus/comments

 

by: freymishPosted on 2008-11-06 at 11:54:27ID: 22898819

I saw that but to my knowledge it can't import export and edit indesign files can it?

 

by: patrick_defibaugh_chavezPosted on 2008-11-06 at 12:01:35ID: 22898890

Nope, I don't think it can.  Even OpenOffice.org, which has an import filter for just about everything, can't read InDesign.

 

by: thinkwelldesignsPosted on 2008-11-06 at 12:37:28ID: 22899260

Scribus is my recommendation as well. Far more powerful publishing tool than anything in Openoffice. Probably somewhat more powerful than Microsoft Publisher, but not in league with Indesign yet.

I don't know of any DTP application other than Indesign that will allow you much flexibility with Indesign files.

 

by: aleghartPosted on 2008-11-06 at 13:46:40ID: 22899947

There is no open source alternative to Adobe InDesign that can use the native InDesign file format.  Same goes for Quark Xpress, Aldus (now Adobe) PageMaker, Ventura Publisher, Multi-Ad Creator, et al.

Perhaps you can attack it from another angle:  What are your needs for design software?

 

by: freymishPosted on 2008-12-02 at 17:35:02ID: 23082492

I needed to edit a template created in Indesign seeing as there was nothing that really worked I ended up downloading a trail of Indesign and exporting the template.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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