As an avid reader, there are few things worse than picking up a book that you’re excited to read and finding that the interior formatting is done so poorly that it actually inhibits your ability to enjoy the book. While the choices you make as a designer make a huge impact on how a book is perceived by readers, you need the right tools to make your design ideas come to life.
Adobe InDesign is considered the industry standard for book formatting and layout. And for good reason: it gets great reviews and has robust layout features. But there are downsides—namely the subscription price tag and steep learning curve. The good news is that there are InDesign alternatives out there that can allow you to create an amazing book layout faster and easier.
Here’s what you need to know about InDesign alternatives:
What’s the deal with Adobe InDesign?
Adobe InDesign is the standard software used in the industry for book interior layouts. While years ago there was more competition in the space (does anyone else remember Quark XPress? ), Adobe has gained dominance and become the industry leader. And there are good reasons.
InDesign offers a toolset that makes it easier for designers to create interior layouts. These tools include:
- Time-saving layout and typesetting features.
- Review tools that make getting feedback easier.
- The ability to move files between different Adobe software (like taking an image directly from Photoshop to InDesign).
- AI tools for improving your workflow and generating content.
- Accessibility options for digital files like PDFs.
- Tools for stylizing type in ways that most consumer-grade software can’t manage.
While these features make a lot of sense for established book designers, they can be overwhelming for new designers or self-published authors (especially if you’ve never used any Adobe design products before). In fact, all of those options and tools can just bog down your workflow when all you need to do is create a simple page layout.
InDesign is only available through a monthly subscription that starts at $23/month for InDesign alone or $60/month for the entire Adobe Creative Suite, which includes tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat Pro. For professional designers, this kind of expense is pretty reasonable, but for the average self-publisher or designer just starting out, it’s a steep price.
Alternatives to InDesign
While InDesign is the industry standard, there are several InDesign alternatives out there for formatting print and ebooks.
InDesign Alternative #1: Vellum Software
Vellum (MacOS only) offers tools for creating both print and ebooks effortlessly. When creating ebooks, Vellum offers a number of useful features: ePub file validation, image optimization and compression, accessible output, and the ability to create ARCs for beta readers or early reviewers in both ePub and Mobi file formats.
When creating print versions of your book, Vellum offers 14 built-in trim sizes for paperback and hardcover editions, supports full-bleed pages and backgrounds, and exports to professional-grade PDF formats you can send to your printer of choice. Other Vellum features include support for drop caps, embedded fonts, and support for stylistic flourishes.
If you want the ebook-only edition of Vellum, the cost is $199.99. The print edition is $249.99.
InDesign Alternative #2: Affinity Publisher
Affinity Publisher is for creating digital and print layouts for everything from books to flyers. It’s a full-fledged competitor to InDesign, with many of the same features. Affinity Publisher has powerful page layout, typography, and design tools (check out their full feature list for all the details—there are way too many to list here).
While Affinity Publisher has a robust toolset for creating print books, they don’t natively support creating ePub or other common ebook formats (other than interactive PDFs). You’ll have to convert any files you create into ebook format using another program.
Affinity Publisher charges a one-time fee of $69.99 for both MacOS and Windows versions. There’s also an iPad version available for $18.49 (with more limited features).
InDesign Alternative #3: Atticus Software
Atticus is writing and formatting software in one. You can start with Atticus’s writing tools, including ways to keep your manuscript organized, track your goals and progress, and basic formatting. When you’re done writing and editing, switch over to formatting to get your book ready for ebook and print versions.
Atticus’s formatting options include 17 built-in trim sizes, over 1500 fonts, multiple importing and exporting options, full bleed images, a custom chapter theme builder, and multiple levels of subheadings, among other features. You don’t have to write your book in Atticus to take advantage of its formatting tools, either.
Atticus charges a one-time fee of $147 and works on MacOS, Linux, and Windows.
InDesign Alternative #4: Scrivener Software
Scrivener got its start as writing software but has since branched out to include formatting options for print and ebooks. On the formatting side, Scrivener is pretty straightforward in what they offer. You can choose the style for your text and then export as a PDF for printing or in ePub or Kindle file formats. You can also export in standard manuscript format to send to editors or early beta readers.
Scrivener is available for MacOS or Windows for a one-time fee of $59.99. There’s also an iOS version for $23.99.
InDesign Alternative #5: MacOS Pages
If you have a Mac, you likely already have Pages installed on your computer. While Pages is often thought of as a word processor, it also has powerful formatting features for both print and ePub books. When designing a print book in pages, you’ll want to make sure that you’re viewing the document as facing pages rather than as a single running document. You can set up styles for various parts of your book (including chapter headings, subheadings, page numbers, and body text), as well as import images or other media.
The biggest advantage of Pages is that it’s free if you’re a Mac user. While it can take a little more effort to set up the styles and other features exactly the way you want them, it’s an excellent option to consider. Another advantage to Pages is that there are hundreds of free and premium templates available online, making it easier for a novice to find a design style that suits their book.
InDesign Alternative #6: Kindle Create
Many authors think of Amazon’s free Kindle Create program as only an option for formatting ebooks. However, Kindle Create also allows you to create print versions of your books suitable for printing with Amazon KDP.
The biggest advantage is that your print book is formatted automatically from your ebook files, meaning you only have to spend time formatting one version. The downside, however, is that Kindle Create is only really suitable for relatively simple, text-heavy print books. Perfect for novels, but not great for things like children’s books or nonfiction that includes a lot of diagrams or other media.
InDesign Alternative #7: QuarkXPress
I mentioned QuarkXPress earlier in this article, as it was once a major competitor to InDesign. While it seems to have lost its “major competitor” status, it’s still a solid professional choice for both print and digital book layouts. Features include all the basics: automated page numbering, master pages, proofing and correction tools, precise typography tools, illustration tools, and interactive elements.
QuarkXPress lets you export documents for both print and digital formats, including PDF and HTML (which can easily be converted into virtually any ebook format). The downside to QuarkXPress is definitely its cost. A perpetual license costs $699, although they also offer a subscription model for $259/year.
How to Select the Best InDesign Alternative for Your Book
When figuring out which software to use for formatting your book, it’s important to consider its formatting requirements. Is it a simple novel that’s entirely text with no images or other design flourishes? Or is it highly detailed with a lot of image requirements? Books that are heavy on text and light on images can often be formatted professionally with much simpler software.
Another consideration is your budget. While there are affordable (and even free) formatting programs out there, if you’re going to spend a few hundred dollars you might be better off hiring a professional book formatter. That said, if you’re going to be formatting multiple books (either as a self-published author who’s publishing numerous books or as a designer working with several authors), then spending some money on professional software is likely worth it, whether that’s InDesign or an InDesign alternative.
One last thing to think about is your turnaround time. Do you have time to learn an entirely new software program? Especially one that includes robust, professional features? Or do you need your book ready to publish ASAP? If it’s the latter, you’ll likely want to stick with a simpler tool or one that does most of the work for you (or hire a pro).
Final Thoughts
While Adobe InDesign is an excellent tool for professional designers, there are some amazing InDesign alternatives on the market. Depending on your needs as a book designer (or self-published author), some of these alternatives may be a much better fit.
Remember that readers won’t know what software you used. They’ll only know whether your book is easy to read and looks like other professionally designed books on the market.
