Should you use Adobe InDesign in 2025?

I've been juggling InDesign at Easy Web for years, and believe me, it has seen hundreds of brochures, eBooks, and reports. It's the go-to tool when it comes to structuring long content. What I love most is its impeccable handling of text and complex layouts.

For any publishing project, from magazines to interactive PDFs and white papers, InDesign excels. Its strength lies in its ability to manipulate typography, paragraph styles, and objects with surgical precision, ensuring flawless graphic consistency across multiple pages.

However, it has a steep learning curve for beginners, and for simple graphic design or photo editing tasks, it is far too cumbersome. It is really designed for editing rather than pure visual creation or UI/UX design.

At first glance, InDesign can be intimidating. You might think it's only for publishing gurus, right? But trust me, it's surprisingly beginner-friendly. Its interface, while rich, is logical. The predefined templates are a gold mine for getting started: a brochure, a resume, or even a simple report are great starting points for getting started without feeling overwhelmed.

The major advantage for beginners is its seamless integration with the Adobe ecosystem. Have you ever used Photoshop or Illustrator? You'll quickly find your bearings. And the amount of online resources—tutorials, communities—is enormous. You learn at your own pace and build your skills on real projects, which is a great springboard to desktop publishing (DTP).

Let's talk money, because that's often the crux of the matter. For InDesign, Adobe offers its standard individual subscription, which I often recommend to freelancers or small businesses. It costs around $28 per month with an annual commitment, or $42 per month without a commitment. This package includes full access to InDesign, of course, but also 100 GB of cloud storage, Adobe Fonts for unlimited typography, and all software updates. This is the ideal option if your core business revolves mainly around layout. For a freelance designer or small agency managing magazines, white papers, or brochures, this is the most logical and cost-effective investment, offering a complete suite for your specific needs without breaking the bank.

If InDesign reigns supreme, it is clearly because of its unmatched ability to tame text. I remember very well our first digital magazines at Easy Web; no other tool offered us such precision in terms of justification, hyphenation, or basic grids. No more compromises on readability or aesthetics—we can truly sculpt content with the finesse of a craftsman. It is this typographical mastery that makes all the difference for a professional finish.

What makes it truly indispensable, especially on large projects, is its management of templates and masters. Think of the annual reports or multi-page brochures we produce for our clients: creating dynamic master pages has been a game changer. You maintain impeccable visual consistency effortlessly and save a ton of time on modifications. Trust me, it saves a lot of headaches.

To work effectively on complex projects, managing styles in InDesign has become non-negotiable. I remember when we first started out, we struggled to maintain consistency across every page. Today, with paragraph styles, character styles, and especially object styles, we can automate a large part of the layout process. This saves an incredible amount of time and ensures perfect consistency, regardless of the size of the document.

And never underestimate InDesign's capabilities for digital media. We no longer just do print! Direct publishing to EPUB, interactive PDFs with multimedia elements, or the Folio format for rich experiences... it opens up enormous possibilities. For us, it has become essential to deliver content that works on all screens, far beyond simple static files.