Adobe InDesign
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File:InDesign CS3 screenshot.png Adobe InDesign CS3 running on Mac OS X | |
Developer(s) | Adobe Systems |
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Stable release | CS3 (5.0.1)
/ 2007-10-09 |
Operating system | Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows |
Type | Desktop publishing |
License | Proprietary |
Website | www.adobe.com/products/indesign |
Adobe InDesign is a desktop publishing (DTP) software application produced by Adobe Systems.
History
Launched as a direct competitor to QuarkXPress, InDesign initially had difficulty converting users. In 2002, it was the first desktop publishing software to release a Mac OS X-native version. Also, InDesign CS and InDesign CS2 were bundled with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat in the Creative Suite. InDesign can export documents in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), offering multilingual support that Quark users can get only by buying a much more expensive "Passport" version. InDesign was the first major DTP application to support Unicode for text processing, advanced typography of OpenType fonts, advanced transparency features, layout styles, optical margin alignment, and cross-platform scripting using JavaScript.
InDesign was positioned as a high-end alternative and successor to Adobe's own PageMaker. InDesign's primary adopters are designers of periodical publications, posters, and other print media; longer documents still are designed with FrameMaker (manuals and technical documents) or with QuarkXPress (books, catalogs). The combination of a relational database, InDesign and Adobe InCopy word processor, which uses the same formatting engine as InDesign, is the heart of dozens of publishing systems for newspapers, magazines, and other publishing environments.
New versions of the software introduced new file formats. To support the vast array of new features (particularly typographic features) introduced with InDesign CS, both the program and its document format were not retro-compatible. Fortunately, InDesign CS2 introduced the retro-compatible InDesign Interchange (.inx) format, an XML-based representation of the document. Versions of InDesign CS updated with the 3.01 April 2005 update (available free on Adobe's Web site) can read files saved from InDesign CS2 exported to this format. The InDesign Interchange format does not support versions earlier than InDesign CS.
Adobe developed InDesign CS3 (and Creative Suite 3) as a universal binary for native Intel and PowerPC Mac compatibility, shipping InDesign CS3 in April 2007. The CS2 Mac version has code tightly integrated with the PPC architecture, and not natively compatible with the Intel processors in Apple's new machines. Porting these products was therefore a huge endeavor. Adobe decided to devote all its resources to developing CS3, integrating Macromedia products acquired in 2005, rather than recompiling CS2 and simultaneously developing CS3. This upset Intel Mac early-adopters, Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen announcing that "Adobe will be first with a complete line of universal applications."[citation needed]
Server Version
In October 2005, Adobe released "InDesign CS2 Server", a modified version of InDesign (without user interface) for Windows and Macintosh server platforms. It does not provide any editing client; rather it is for use by developers in creating client-server solutions with the InDesign plug-in technology.[1] In March 2007 Adobe officially announced Adobe InDesign CS3 Server as part of the Adobe InDesign family.
Versions
- InDesign 1.0 shipped August 16 1999.
- InDesign 1.5 shipped April 2001.
- InDesign 2.0 shipped in January 2002 (just days before QuarkXPress 5).
- InDesign CS and InDesign CS PageMaker Edition (3.0) shipped in October 2003.
- InDesign CS2 (4.0) shipped in May 2005.
- InDesign Server released.
- InDesign CS3 (5.0) shipped April 2007 (including Universal binary versions to natively support Intel-based Macs, Regular expression, Table styles, new interface)
References
- ^ "Adobe InDesign Server CS2 Frequently Asked Questions" (PDF). Adobe.com. Retrieved 2007-04-29.