Adobe Alternative?

[Fyshy]

PLEASE... someone tell me there is an alternative to indesign and acrobat! I have had it up to my wazoo with pitifully ridiculous Adobe tech support. We are a small digital shop and just want a simple page design and pdf software to drive our Versant 80 press. Adobe is fine when all is well... but the tech support is a joke.

 

[pippip]

Affinity offer cheap once off payments for alternatives to photoshop, illustrator and indesign. You'll see a few reviews on here

 

[truehue]

The Affinity software is also currently 50% off right now. We can't drop Adobe, but I did purchase a set of the Affinity software to let one of our designers test the waters. Good luck!

 

[AP90]

You can also get Quark Pro 2018 from the Mac App Store for $399. And I believe by it being on the App Store, you can use it on up to 6 different computers at once. Even though Quark doesn't like that. But Affinity does seem pretty nice. Messed around with some of the Beta versions.

As far as an alternative to Acrobat, I'm not sure if one exist that's as good as Acrobat.

 

[chriscozi]

Using Affinity Suite at home and work.
Not jumping ship from A&##$e yet but really like the integration in Affinity and it reads IDML files sweetly.
Only a few things left to get right - Acrobat files HAVE to have fonts loaded if you open them to edit and scripting isn't supported officially.
Affinity (Serif) has lots of how to videos online.

 

[DYP]

One thing I found quite interesting is that Affinity Publisher has the ability to export 16-bit PDF files. Something very useful for photographers and photo printing.

 

[Schnicklefritz]

Affinity applications are yours when you buy them. They're not cloud based. Gotta like that!

 

[Joe]

Using Affinity Suite at home and work.
Not jumping ship from A&##$e yet but really like the integration in Affinity and it reads IDML files sweetly.
Only a few things left to get right - Acrobat files HAVE to have fonts loaded if you open them to edit and scripting isn't supported officially.
Affinity (Serif) has lots of how to videos online.

You also have to have the fonts loaded just to place a PDF into Publisher. If there is an embedded font in the PDF that you don't have open locally it will reflow that text in the PDF. It does not recognize embedded fonts in a PDF in any way shape or form and until they fix that glaring problem their product is useless.

 

[agmfan3]

I have the Cloud, I hate Acrobat, tried the tech support, that was useless. All I wanted was for Acrobat to open a postscript file. Good thing I still have a Mac running CS6. But with the virus, it doesn't matter anymore, I'm not even sure if my employer will call any of us back. If not this old chick will get Affinity and do some stuff from home.

 

[Joe]

Well if you have the full blown Acrobat you have distiller. Run the postscript file through distiller to make a PDF.

 

[gregbatch]

I have Acrobat, but I use Qoppa PDF Studio quite a bit. The pro version also does imposition, which is what I really got it for because I don't have the funds for Quite right now. I like its editing capabilities better than Acrobat and it has some nice split/merge capabilities. $129 for pro. Win Mac Linux. Free trial.

 

[gordo]

The Affinity suite of apps would be my choice.

 

[Fyshy]

I honestly believe that if I started a software company tomorrow morning I would be better than adobe by lunchtime.

 

[Joe]

Well there is nothing wrong with the Adobe apps except for the ransom they want you to pay for the privilege of using them.

And if you can't place a PDF in your page layout application without having all of the fonts available and opened locally you automatically lose before you even start.

 

[Fyshy]

Well there is nothing wrong with the Adobe apps except for the ransom they want you to pay for the privilege of using them.

And if you can't place a PDF in your page layout application without having all of the fonts available and opened locally you automatically lose before you even start.

Yes... to be clear, I think the apps themselves are excellent. But when there is an issue... it is a ridiculous waste of time to seek help from customer service. Actually if they had even a "medium level" of customer service I would gladly pay the monthly fee.

 

[chriscozi]

I would be happier still if they INFORMED users which 'preferences' they automagically change in an 'automatic' upgrade. Even, heaven forbid, informing us BEFORE they did it. Or how's about giving us a window to SET THE NEW PREFERENCES OURSELVES???? Nah - we don't have the mental capacity to understand what they are doing, or they don't want us to know what they are doing. (See Hanlon's Razor, sigh)
- And this is just one example of how they care so little about their professional users.

 

[agmfan3]

Well if you have the full blown Acrobat you have distiller. Run the postscript file through distiller to make a PDF.

Still doesn't work, support can't figure it out. I just always drop the postscript file to my old Mac and use CS6. Might not have to ever do it again, not sure if the employer is gong to bring back any employees.

 

[truehue]

I have the Cloud, I hate Acrobat, tried the tech support, that was useless. All I wanted was for Acrobat to open a postscript file. Good thing I still have a Mac running CS6. But with the virus, it doesn't matter anymore, I'm not even sure if my employer will call any of us back. If not this old chick will get Affinity and do some stuff from home.

FYI, Affinity has a 90-day free trial right now, or you can purchase their software for half price. ($25 for each). However, the promotion ends June 20.

 

[kev_24]

Alternatves are QuarkXPress, Scribus,PageStream, Passepartout

 

[agmfan3]

FYI, Affinity has a 90-day free trial right now, or you can purchase their software for half price. ($25 for each). However, the promotion ends June 20.

I've been looking at Affinity, but I've been laid off since March and not sure if I still have a job. If I do I am going to look at switching the company to Affinity when the CC comes due again.