4 ms·

I think customers are a bit to blame for such shady companies. So many good alternatives to Adobe ecosystem exists but customers are mostly unwilling to switch

I think customers are a bit to blame for such shady companies. So many good alternatives to Adobe ecosystem exists but customers are mostly unwilling to switch to them and as result Adobe doesn’t have to worry about keeping customers satisfied.

ljoshua 5y ago
Eh, this one's a little tough. Both my wife and I extensively use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign on a frequent basis, and we're not even designers, we just like to make stuff. I've tried alternatives like Gimp and Inkscape, but they really don't even come close. I've never found an alternative to InDesign at all. There are some applications (especially photo editing apps on Mac) that are nice, but still don't really give you everything the CS suite gives. Do I hate that I used to pay a (large) one time fee for a version and now I've given them thousands of dollars more than I'd have preferred? Yes. Do I think this 12-month contract dark pattern is scummy? Yes. But I also can't find suitable alternatives either, so in a sense they've earned their money in that regard.
- salamandersauce 5y ago
  Have you tried the Affinity suite? They even have an Indesign alternative (Publisher) and at reasonable prices. Sometimes they even go sale. Free updates too. Of course if you need EVERY feature of CS nothing else will do but there's some good stuff out there that's significantly more affordable.
  - CharlesW 5y ago
    > They even have an Indesign alternative (Publisher) and at reasonable prices. Scribus also looks like an interesting open-source solution. (Anybody here have an "InDesign vs. Scribus" perspective?)
- commoner 5y ago
  The most fully featured free and open source alternative to Adobe InDesign is Scribus. It's available for Linux, macOS, and Windows: - Website: https://www.scribus.net https://www.scribus.net - Download ("Development Candidates" recommended): https://www.scribus.net/downloads/unstable-branch/ https://www.scribus.net/downloads/unstable-branch/ - Flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.scribus.Scribus https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.scribus.Scribus - Source: https://www.scribus.net/websvn/listing.php?repname=Scribus https://www.scribus.net/websvn/listing.php?repname=Scribus

ljoshua 5y ago

Eh, this one's a little tough. Both my wife and I extensively use Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign on a frequent basis, and we're not even designers, we just like to make stuff. I've tried alternatives like Gimp and Inkscape, but they really don't even come close. I've never found an alternative to InDesign at all. There are some applications (especially photo editing apps on Mac) that are nice, but still don't really give you everything the CS suite gives. Do I hate that I used to pay a (large) one time fee for a version and now I've given them thousands of dollars more than I'd have preferred? Yes. Do I think this 12-month contract dark pattern is scummy? Yes. But I also can't find suitable alternatives either, so in a sense they've earned their money in that regard.

salamandersauce 5y ago
Have you tried the Affinity suite? They even have an Indesign alternative (Publisher) and at reasonable prices. Sometimes they even go sale. Free updates too. Of course if you need EVERY feature of CS nothing else will do but there's some good stuff out there that's significantly more affordable.
- CharlesW 5y ago
  > They even have an Indesign alternative (Publisher) and at reasonable prices. Scribus also looks like an interesting open-source solution. (Anybody here have an "InDesign vs. Scribus" perspective?)
commoner 5y ago
The most fully featured free and open source alternative to Adobe InDesign is Scribus. It's available for Linux, macOS, and Windows: - Website: https://www.scribus.net https://www.scribus.net - Download ("Development Candidates" recommended): https://www.scribus.net/downloads/unstable-branch/ https://www.scribus.net/downloads/unstable-branch/ - Flathub: https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.scribus.Scribus https://flathub.org/apps/details/net.scribus.Scribus - Source: https://www.scribus.net/websvn/listing.php?repname=Scribus https://www.scribus.net/websvn/listing.php?repname=Scribus