Adobe InDesign 1.0
Adobe InDesign, the latest entrant in the publishing software arena, has an impeccable pedigree. Like all high-pedigree entities, it makes huge demands on your resources. To be productively useful on the Windows platform, you need at least a Pentium II 300 MHz with 64 MB RAM, Windows 98 or NT Workstation with Service Pack 4 or later, a high-resolution video card and a PostScript level 2 printer.
InDesign is targeted at professional publishers who prefer QuarkXPress despite its high cost and need for Xtensions of higher cost. The philosophy is: what QuarkXPress can do, InDesign can do better. Except opening a QuarkXPress file (which it can, but not just as well).
If you are used to Adobe Photoshop (who isn't?) and/or Illustrator, the InDesign interface, toolbox and numerous palettes need no introduction. Unlike QuarkXPress and PageMaker, it is blessed with a seemingly infinite number of Undo levels, a dire requirement for any creative work. InDesign not only lets you use all of QuarkXPress' keyboard shortcuts, but goes for the jugular vein by offering the application to Quark users at the upgrade price: a third of the list price!
InDesign treats text with finesse. You can import a number of text formats, including Word 97, WordPerfect 8, Microsoft Excel and the usual text format without much loss of formatting. Tables in Word, however, lose their outlines and the cells become Tab stops. As in PageMaker, you don't really need a frame, and any object you draw, including a Bezier shape with the Pen tool, can be used as a frame. Page navigation is similar to QuarkXPress.
The text palette, which comprises the Character, Paragraph and Transform palettes, provides excellent control over all text characteristics, including a couple of unique alignment attributes. You can apply text wrap to text frame as well as graphic frames; so creating pull quotes and other typographic tricks is a breeze. A font not available appears in pink. In an emergency, you can introduce a new font into InDesign's own font folder and use it immediately without restarting the system.
Copyediting functions are limited to a spellcheck. Though the package claims the availability of 21 dictionaries in several European languages, the English spell checker is no better than PageMaker's. InDesign's Drop Cap feature is a special fare. You are not restricted to just the first character, but can enjoy the freedom of choosing a few more characters or a whole word for dropping, and determining the drop depth in terms of lines. Convert a drop cap to raised cap by shifting the baseline, all on the paragraph and character palettes.
A document can be all of 10,000 pages; yet InDesign surprisingly has no book feature. No indexing, no table of contents, no chapter compiling. A document can be divided into several sections, and treated as different units for numbering and other purposes. You can have several master pages and assign different masters for different sections. Considering that InDesign comes from the same family as PageMaker and FrameMaker, one expects that Adobe will make amends with a plug-in or an altogether new version.
Integration with other Adobe products
The blood relationship with the most popular image-editing program, Photoshop, and with Illustrator, shows up when you lay out pages with images brought in from these applications. InDesign refused to recognise CorelDRAW images, but imported them readily when the same were converted to .AI format from within DRAW. The application excels in colour management and achieves consistent colour output on PostScript Level 2 and Level 3 devices employing ICC-based colour management controls. RGB to CMYK conversion is claimed to be precise, though this was difficult to verify. As for sending the output to a service bureau, the Preflight command under File Menu is more than an answer to Quark's Collect for Output, though Ventura scores in terms of practical aspects.
Direct export to PDF of a whole file is possible, subject to certain conditions, and a page can be exported as EPS. HTML export is really very good, just as if you had created the whole thing in an HTML editor. Perhaps there is Java at work.
InDesign is undoubtedly state-of-the-art, if you forget certain shortcomings. Perhaps this has something to do with Adobe wanting to toast QuarkXPress without charring FrameMaker in the process. You might offset the price disadvantage if you were to purchase the entire Adobe Publishing Collection, which includes the latest versions of Illustrator, Photoshop and Acrobat as well.