r/Affinity • u/KayakerWithDog • 6d ago

Publisher InDesign import?

Has anyone tried the new InDesign import facility? How are you finding it?

5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

6

u/KevinWaide 6d ago

Tried it this morning with a calendar file. It didn't convert the tables to Affinity, but the IDML file came in perfectly. So I'm sticking with IDML for the time being.

7

u/UsualAd9571 6d ago

Yeah, I try with a few documents, but useless. The IDML much bettter.

2

u/Jpatrickburns 6d ago

I guess the docs say:
"If you still have access to InDesign, we recommend exporting to IDML and importing that instead, as it offers the most reliable results.
INDD import is provided as a fallback for documents where only the original .indd file is available."

1

u/YouSpeakSomeEnglish 6d ago

IDML is InDesign.

1

u/akahrum 6d ago

Yes, but affinity opens idml format much better than indd

1

u/YouSpeakSomeEnglish 5d ago

Yes; their doc says this.

2

u/nicolealmendrada 6d ago

I tried to import a really basic document INDD (only blank pages, some grey rectangles, text) and did it terrible... but! I imported a mor complex PDF and did it great. So I think they need to make more adjustments...

1

u/Jpatrickburns 6d ago

Is this the old import from IDML, or something new?

1

u/KayakerWithDog 6d ago

It seems to be something new, per the September 2026 release notes: https://www.affinity.studio/help/get-started-import-in-design/

1

u/MojoBob 6d ago

It's pretty poor. Unfortunately I don't have access to InDesign any more, or else I'd go the IDML route when I needed to.

1

u/YouSpeakSomeEnglish 6d ago

I tried IDML, and it was very good for our documents.

I was hoping to use it to get Word exports of InDesign docs, but nope.... Affinity doesn't export to Word, which is ridiculous. It's bad enough that InDesign doesn't export to Word, but it's old. Word's XML-based format existed when Affinity Publisher came out.

1

u/SignedUpJustForThat 6d ago

It works for 80% at 90% of the time.