r/indesign May 08 '25

Adobe InDesign Team LIVE 24hr Q&A!

Upvotes

Welcome to the Adobe InDesign 24-hour Q&A! - NOW CLOSED

(Thank you to everyone who participated in this 24-hour Q&A. The sessions have concluded and are not actively monitored, but we will continue to be present in the subreddit if you want to ask questions and provide feedback.)

Members of the Adobe InDesign Team from around the world will join for 24 hours to chat with you about the latest product updates, product performance, general feedback and other topics on your mind. Please feel free to speak up, and know that we are here to help!

We recently announced some updates at Adobe MAX London (below) and would be excited to hear your thoughts on them.

  • Create and style math expressions Use the Math Expressions panel to create, edit, and style math expressions directly on the canvas.
  • Apply creative effects to the selected text or shape using text prompts Elevate your layouts with Generative Fill (beta) and turn SVGs, shapes, or text into images with custom textures and effects.
  • Convert PDFs to InDesign Documents (beta) Drag and drop a PDF document into InDesign for conversion and edit the layout and text while preserving design fidelity.
  • InDesign Beta - Edit stories faster with on-canvas text editing with InCopy on the web Work on assigned content directly on the canvas in your browser. Save time with in-context typing and quick formatting tools.

We greatly appreciate your input and look forward to having some great discussions.


r/indesign Jun 19 '23

/r/InDesign has Re-Opened on Monday, June 19th

Upvotes

Hello,

/r/indesign has re-opened on Monday June 19th with new rule changes. Reddit has made it clear that users, not volunteer moderators are the true owners of subreddits. So the community rules are changing to reflect that.

Going forward the only subreddit-specific rule is that any content you submit must not break any of the site-wide Reddit rules.

Please be aware that the site-wide Reddit rules will still be enforced by the moderators of this subreddit and Reddit. For more detail on them see Reddit's content policy here.

The short version is:

  • No harassment/bullying
  • Respect the privacy of others
  • No sexual content of minors
  • No impersonating in a misleading/deceptive manor
  • Label content correctly (is it NSFW or not?)
  • No illegal content
  • Do not break/interfere with the website

Reddit enforces these rules and we will be reporting users who break any of those rules to Reddit. We encourage every user to report any content that breaks site-wide rules to do so as well.

You will also be banned from the subreddit for breaking any of Reddit's site-wide rules.

If you have questions feel free to ask them in the comments and we will do our best to answer them.

For those not aware of the ongoing issues with the Reddit admins and would like to know what the hell is going on, please see the below links to get you up to speed.

If you would like to read articles on the subject, see below.

TL;DR: Reddit users and moderators are upset at the closing of third-party apps, API changes, and access to NSFW content for various reasons. Users and moderators protest by making the subreddits they are a part of/moderate private or restricted. /u/spez says that the protest has been ineffective, then days later says Reddit moderators are too powerful and will change the site's rules to weaken them. Now the admins are trying to subvert moderators to get subreddits back open.


r/indesign 5h ago

Help [Help] How to handle long URLs references in editorial design

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Upvotes

Hi, I design long publications and reports full of references and URLs. I keep running into this situation where a particular URL breaks all the subsequent text (making it disappear) when I copy over from word. Normally the long URLs cause this (see image attached).

Ive tried everything - no breaks, 'keep options', para styles, removing all formatting, and nothing seems to work consistently.

Does anyone have a fix to this?


r/indesign 22m ago

Help Question about Space After vs. hard returns with a baseline grid

Upvotes

I've been learning more about professional book typesetting and noticed that many experienced InDesign users use Space After in their Paragraph Styles to create separation between paragraphs, rather than inserting an extra hard return.

I understand the basic reason: an extra return creates an empty paragraph, whereas Space After keeps the spacing as part of the paragraph formatting. It also makes global changes and document cleanup much easier. Any other advantage apart from this?

But I'm wondering how this works when a baseline grid is being used.

If the body text is set to Align to Baseline Grid, doesn't the baseline grid ultimately determine the vertical position of the text? In that case, what is the practical benefit of using Space After? Does Space After still have an effect, or does the baseline grid effectively override it depending on the settings?

For example, if I have:

  • Body text: 10/14 pt
  • Baseline grid: 14 pt
  • Paragraph spacing: 7 pt
  • Body paragraphs aligned to the baseline grid

How would you approach this? Would you still specify Space After, or would you design the paragraph spacing entirely around the baseline grid?


r/indesign 1h ago

Multilanguage project: paragraph and character styles

Upvotes

I am working on a pharmaceutical package insert that includes nine languages: English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Polish, Turkish, and Greek.

Currently, I am using two separate sets of paragraph styles: one for the first eight languages ​​(set to "no language" in the paragraph style panel) and another for Greek, given its different alphabet.

Is this the right approach?

I ask because, upon completion, I find myself having to manually assign the language for each item, which causes an override (the original folder used for the 8 languages has set to "no language" in the paragraph style panel).

I feel that creating a style set for every single language would be counterproductive, especially since fitting everything onto an A3 sheet requires making minor adjustments throughout the process, I would have to edit all the "Heading" styles (for example) one by one.

Could the "Based On" feature in the paragraph style settings help here?

Does anyone have experience with this type of project?

Also, based on your experience, what is the minimum text size suitable for a job like this?


r/indesign 1d ago

Is Indesign still the gold standard?

Upvotes

Just out of interest. I've worked my way past Quark in Pagemaker and then Indesign and this morning aborted a detour in Affinity. So just out of interest, despite the subscription issues and the ai, and the persistent bugs, do serious users still see Indesign as the gold standard or is there some other option out there in parallel universe?


r/indesign 1h ago

ik zoek een indesign versie voor mac

Upvotes

Hi,

Waarschijnlijk anno 2026 niet perse okay meer om te vragen, maar ik doe het toch..
Ik ben op zoek naar een gekraakte versie van InDesign voor Mac (MacBook Pro M1)

Mocht iemand linkjes hebben, daar ben ik enorm mee geholpen. Thanks alvast!


r/indesign 1d ago

Help Question about endpaper consistency.

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I have two books here. In Book 1, the same endpaper is used at both the front and back, whereas in Book 2, the front and back endpapers are different.

I usually use different endpapers at the front and back, like Book 2. But I’ve noticed that many professionally published books keep the same endpaper at both ends, even when the design is quite creative.

Is there a particular bookbinding or design principle behind keeping them consistent? Or is it perfectly fine to use different endpapers at the front and back?

Curious to know what others follow and why.


r/indesign 2d ago

Help What is the most efficient way to do this and make it a "template"?

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I'm working on a project right now, and it has a lot of tables and content that is formatted in the way pictured above: a rectangle with the "title" of the box in the middle of the line that forms the outline of the box.

I would like to know if there's a way to make this other than manually drawing the box, using the scissors to cut a hole in the outline, and placing the text there. This method is a little slow and imprecise.


r/indesign 2d ago

Necesito ayuda con un archivo de cad para pasar a illustrator

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r/indesign 4d ago

table tabbed text plugin

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i am working on uxp plugin to make table and tabbed text form excel csv and tsv....thats the colour profile in panel . hex panel with cmyk approx. makes pretty close approximations. will this work or should i go for complete cmyk..any suggestion on what the pluggin should include?


r/indesign 4d ago

Help New user diving in head first

Upvotes

Hi guys! This may be silly but I thought this would probably be the best place to consult about my situation. I was hired a couple months ago for a small contract role with a company. Since then, I have been hired on full time and have taken on the bulk of marketing efforts. I know some of you are probably thinking I should run lol, but it has honestly been really fun: I essentially have full creative freedom. The family that owns the company and everyone who works here are so nice, so having a little extra on my plate really doesn't bother me.

That said, I have somehow gotten myself involved in the catalog redesign. This is a 300-400 page catalog with very technical details (think individual automotive parts). The woman they've used in the past did it in InDesign, so I have an InDesign file that I can use as a template. They really aren't wanting anything too crazy to change; we're just updating fonts/styles to match our new brand guide, maybe update some photos, change prices here and there, and add or take off products.

Anyways, my biggest question is what would be the smartest thing to reallyyy learn how to do?

For reference, I did use it for very elementary tasks in college, so I know things about the parent pages, images have to be linked to an actual file, etc but beyond that I'm kind of in the dark

Timeline for this is kind of unestablished? Boss wants it to be ready by January, but it's not a hard deadline. I expressed my anxiety about not having any type of plan in place so they said if I came up with checkpoints, we could sit down and establish a tentative schedule together. The problem is I've never done this before, so I don't really know what the timeline should look like. Boss needs to finish marking up what changes they want on last year's catalog and compare/ deliberate with the other owner, so I have a bit of time before this will get into full swing. Anyways, if any of you have any helpful advice, checkpoints you'd recommend, or useful resources, that would be great! Thanks in advance :)


r/indesign 4d ago

Exporting PDFs results in overly-compressed screenshot images

Upvotes

Lately, when I export an Interactive PDF with software screenshots on its pages, even though I choose high quality, the screenshots look heavily compressed and noticeably crunchy and artifacted, as if the internal jpg compression was set to lowest quality. When I made the screenshot pngs, they are crisp. When I work on them in InDesign 21.5.1 they look great. When I export to Interactive PDF at 200ppi and high quality, they end up looking crushed. Anyone else seeing this?


r/indesign 5d ago

Help Book designers, A few questions about chapter openings, pagination, and signatures

Upvotes

Hi everyone, I’ve been thinking about a few things related to pagination and print production. I understand the basic principles, but I’m confused about where some of these traditional conventions are actually necessary and where they are simply conventions.

1. Chapter openings

I’ve always understood that, traditionally, a new chapter should start on the right-hand page (recto). But how strict is this rule in actual book production today?

What do you do when you have a limited page count and forcing every chapter to start on a recto results in several unnecessary blank pages?

Would you still keep every chapter on a recto, or would you allow a chapter to start on the left-hand page (verso)?

And from a reader's perspective, would a chapter starting on the left actually bother you? Would you consider it bad enough that you would not want to buy/read the book, or is this something that mostly matters to designers and publishers?

2. How should a book end?

Is there a preferred convention for where the final content should fall?

For example, if the final content ends on a recto and the following verso is blank, is that considered a normal and desirable way to finish a book?

Or is the blank page simply a consequence of the binding/signature structure?

3. Why 16-page signatures?

I understand that signatures are based on how large sheets are folded and gathered, but why is 16 pages such a common signature size?

Is there a specific production advantage to 16 over 8, 24, or 32 pages?


r/indesign 5d ago

Help excluded (not synced) when packaging

Upvotes

When I package an indesign file with embedded pdf-files to iCloud, iCloud refuses to sync them and gives me the message excluded (not synced). why? if i copy them from another folder into indesign, iCloud immediately syncs them. what is going on?


r/indesign 6d ago

Help Share for Review is trash. Other options?

Upvotes

The in-app "Share for Review" is so bad, it's barely usable for me anymore. I'm frustrated with it, my client is frustrated with it. It feels like an alpha version extension instead of a full release. While in InDesign, I'll have pins and corrections on completely different pages. I usually have to navigate to the online version to see exactly what/where the change is. And at times it's just so broken that I have to send my client a PDF where they add comments or changes.

My clients and I don't like the PDF route because it's too hard to track and verify changes. Is anyone using a different method? Maybe a plugin that works well?


r/indesign 6d ago

Separate section numbers and overall page numbers on same parent page?

Upvotes

I understand section markers and prefixes. I'd like to have a section prefix and number, along with a section title. For example "1.3 VALUES" where the first 1 is the chapter essentially, and the .3 is the section page, and "VALUES" is the section marker. THEN I'd like to have the overall page number of the actual document as well. Below is a page as an example. I'd like to have all this auto populate by using parent pages but I don't see a way it's possible.


r/indesign 6d ago

Meguna help

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looking for 10 shadows meshes and particle preset/ids


r/indesign 6d ago

Help Indesign plante import image

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Bonjour,

Depuis ce matin indesign arrête pas de figer dès que je veux importer une image. J'ai fait un assemblage ailleurs sur ma machine (sur le bureau), mis l'image dans le dossier pour tester si ça pouvait être un soucis avec dropbox mais idem. Peut importe ce que je fais à chaque fois ça plante et je ne peux pas avancer sur mon travail...

Hier soir j'ai du faire la maj windows 2026-08 Mise à jour de la préversion (KB5120998). Est ce que le soucis peut venir de la ?

Merci d'avance.

Hugo


r/indesign 7d ago

Final text checks

Upvotes

I use ID once a year (for a couple of months) on a project updating five different books. As I finish up each chapter I try and remember to do a search for double spaces, spaces before and after a paragraph, and spaces before and after a tab.

I was just going through this process on a chapter and found that I must not have done it last year as there were some errant leftover double spaces that weren't part of this years edits.

Is there a best practices process for these types of checks?

What similar things do you all look for?


r/indesign 7d ago

Hyphenantion

Upvotes

Is there a way to permanantly turn off hyphenation? I never hyphenate and it's a pain to always have to select it whenever I want to turn it off.

Thanks to all who responded. Got it set.


r/indesign 7d ago

Help Endnote issue: content Moves

Upvotes

I've run into this before. Doing a book with chapter endnotes, so working within an .indb. That's fine.

I have to go in and place the endnotes myself. (Don't ask – the MS is a mess.)

This is what happens. Supposing I've created endnote 1. I place the number for endnote 2, but returning to the endnote location, it has placed a 2 but moved the content of endnote 1 to 2.

Every time.

What am I doing wrong?


r/indesign 8d ago

InDesign 2026 sometimes leaves a background thread stuck at 100% CPU — I made a fix

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Upvotes

I've been running into a notorious problem with Adobe InDesign on Windows (specifically CC 2020 through 2026+).

Sometimes InDesign is completely idle — no active export, no rendering, no document modifications — but one CPU core remains pinned at 100% (showing as 15% to 25% total CPU in Task Manager depending on core count). Laptop fans spin constantly, battery life drains, and InDesign starts feeling sluggish.

Looking at individual threads of the InDesign.exe process, the runaway CPU usage is almost always caused by a background worker thread (often tied to font caching, Torq typography engine, or CEP/UXP panel communication) stuck in an infinite polling loop.

I created an open-source Windows utility to resolve this: ID_Thread_Fix.


How it works (v1.2 update):

  1. Attaches to InDesign (or acts as a drop-in launcher for InDesign and opened .indd documents).
  2. Waits for InDesign's main window to appear, plus an extra 25-second grace period so font engines, Torq typography, and CEP extensions can complete their initial startup burst undisturbed.
  3. Samples individual thread CPU usage over 2.0 seconds.
  4. Deliberately protects InDesign's main UI thread and primary process thread — they are never touched.
  5. Identifies background threads stuck at excessive CPU load (60%+ of a core during idle).
  6. Safely freezes runaway threads using the Win32 SuspendThread API (instead of terminating them).

Why SuspendThread is critical:

Earlier attempts at terminating threads via TerminateThread could cause intermittent crashes (Access Violation 0xc0000005 in ntdll.dll) because forcefully terminating a thread abruptly abandons internal critical sections and heap locks.

In contrast, suspending the thread simply halts its execution cycles: * CPU consumption instantly drops from 20%+ to ~0% idle and fans go silent immediately. * Internal memory structures, handles, and locks remain completely intact and stable — zero crash risk.


Before / After:

In testing on idle InDesign instances: * Before: 18% - 25% CPU (one full core pegged, fans spinning). * After: ~0.3% CPU (fans quiet, InDesign completely responsive).


Where to get it:

The utility is completely free and open source: * GitHub: GitHub — ID_Thread_Fix * Direct Download & Info: ph-cu-s.com/tools/id-thread-fix

It is a tiny standalone portable executable (328 KB) with zero dependencies. No installer or runtime setup needed. You can use it as a desktop shortcut replacement or run it with --fix-only to instantly tame an already-running, lagging InDesign instance.

Important note: This is a community workaround, not an official Adobe patch. Always save your work before testing new tools.


Feedback:

If you have been experiencing this runaway idle thread issue in InDesign, I would love to hear your feedback: * InDesign version * Windows version * CPU model * Whether the fix resolved the CPU load for you

Hopefully this saves your CPU temps and laptop battery until Adobe properly addresses the underlying background loop!


r/indesign 7d ago

Line break forces Full justification

Upvotes

Hi everyone, first time using Reddit. Does anyone know how to modify this behavior ? I'm trying to use the Line Break as a way to go down a line and skip the spacing post paragraph (which I obviously want to keep in general). When its on a big paragraph, the full justification isn't bad, but using it on single short sentence makes word spacing awful. I already tried changing the min, optimal and max word spacing but it didn't do a thing. Basically I want to make an exception on Line Break character regarding justification.

What I want (but here I changed the spacing between the lines) :

What I have
What I want (but here I changed the spacing between the lines)

Many thanks in advance.


r/indesign 7d ago

Help InDesign Links Keep Breaking When Shared Between Team Members Using iCloud Drive

Upvotes

Hey everyone, I'm running into a frustrating issue with InDesign where linked images keep breaking whenever my teammate and I open the same file. Looking for advice on the best workflow fix.

The Setup

We're working on a project and sharing InDesign files through iCloud Drive. The file structure looks like this:

JOHN WILLIAM WATERHOUSE/

├── john william waterhouse.indd

├── john william waterhouse 2.indd

└── Links/

└── a mermaid-300dpi.jpg

The Problem

When I (Anders) open the file, the linked images are pointing to:

/Users/anders/Desktop/ICLOUD 2/iCloudDrive/POSTERSHOPEN/PICK-A-POSTER/KATEGORIER/KONSTNÄRER/JOHN WILLIAM WATERHOUSE/Links/a mermaid-300dpi.jpg

When my teammate Anna opens the same file, InDesign automatically re-links to her path:

/Users/anna/Library/Mobile Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/POSTERSHOPEN/PICK-A-POSTER/KATEGORIER/KONSTNÄRER/JOHN WILLIAM WATERHOUSE/Links/a mermaid-300dpi.jpg

So every time I open it after her (or vice versa), the links break and I have to relink all the images. Why does this happen, and can it be solved somehow? I should mention that I use a PC and my colleague is on a Mac. Does that have anything to do with it? But even if it does, maybe there's still a fix?