Complete feature list

• Explore new creative possibilities
• Be more productive
• Automate routine tasks

Printable overview (PDF, 149k)

Explore new creative possibilities

Discover a world of design possibilities and freely experiment with creative effects and finer transparency controls.

Creative effects and controls

Creative effects

Creative effects

Apply new visual effects, such as inner glow or bevel and emboss, using an interface that's consistent with Adobe® Photoshop® software to specify offset, angle, and other options. Apply effects independently to an object's stroke, fill, and content.

Finer transparency controls

Adjust transparency and blending modes globally on entire objects, or independently on strokes, fills, and content.

Gradient feathers

Create beautiful effects by applying masks that contain gradients so the objects fade into the background. Customize options such as gradient angles and fade rates, all within Adobe InDesign® CS3.

Sophisticated graphics and layout

Adobe Photoshop and Adobe PDF layer support

Control the visibility of layers in imported Photoshop and PDF files. Experiment with design options or use multiple variations of a file in your layout, all while linking to a single file.

Drawing tools

Use the convenient Pen, Pencil, Shape, Erase, Smooth, and Scissors tools to quickly create and edit simple graphics in your InDesign layouts.

Authoring of rich, interactive Adobe PDF files

Produce rich Adobe PDF documents by embedding SWF, FLV, movie, and sound files; interactive buttons to play movies or turn pages; hyperlinks; bookmarks; and more.

Multiple Undo/Redo

Experiment freely and retrace multiple steps using the Undo and Redo commands.

Simplified object transformations

Scale text and object frames with visual or numeric controls. Automatically repeat transformations, such as scale, skew, and rotate, to quickly edit multiple objects.

Pathfinder commands

Quickly turn simple shapes into complex forms or convert one shape to another, such as turning a rectangle into an ellipse.

Stroke style editor

Create and save striped, dotted, and dashed stroke styles and apply them to lines and paragraph rules, as well as to underlines and strikethroughs.

Professional typographical controls

Paragraph Composer

Automatically optimize line breaks across a paragraph using the Paragraph Composer.

OpenType font support

Unlock the full potential of OpenType® fonts with support for multilingual and alternate glyphs including old-style numbers, fractions, ligatures, and swashes.

Convenient Glyphs panel

Manage glyphs using the Glyphs panel to view recently used glyphs, filter and sort glyphs, and save glyph sets for sharing and reuse.

Optical kerning and margin alignment

Produce elegantly kerned type automatically. Use optical kerning for text that mixes typefaces and font sizes, and use optical margin alignment to hang punctuation, creating a visually pleasing edge for multiple lines of text.

Text on a path

Create graphical elements by aligning text to any path with full typographical control. Apply special effects to create eye-catching designs.

Color controls

CMYK, RGB, and LAB support

Create spot or process colors in CMYK, RGB, and LAB color modes. Add colors from more than 20 swatch libraries, including the latest PANTONE, Toyo, and TRUMATCH libraries.

Mixed ink support

Combine two or more spot or process inks to quickly define and generate a palette of colors that broadens your color choices for a design job without breaking your print budget.

Consistent color

Synchronize ICC-based color management settings across Adobe applications to achieve consistent color onscreen. Exchange swatches across the components of Adobe Creative Suite® 3 Design software.

Color Picker

Use the Color Picker, similar to the one in Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator® software, to visually select RGB, CMYK, or LAB colors.

Gradients

Create and apply gradients with one or more colors to the stroke and fill of graphics and text. The objects remain fully editable.

Be more productive

Achieve greater efficiency through productivity features that make it easier to lay out, export, and print your pages.

Productive layout features

Multi-file Place

Multi-file Place

Speed up document creation by importing multiple files at once from within InDesign or by dragging them in from the desktop or Adobe Bridge. Preview selected files as you place them in any order or location in your layout.

Visual Pages panel

See thumbnails of your pages in the Pages panel, making it easier to navigate and arrange pages in a document. Move pages more easily within and between documents.

Advanced Find/Change on text and objects

Apply changes to text and object attributes across one or more documents. Include master pages, footnotes, and locked or hidden layers in a search; save search settings for easy reuse; and perform grep pattern–based searches on strings of text.

Expanded Quick Apply

Gain instant access to often-used features while keeping your fingers on the keyboard. Simply type the first few letters of the name to quickly apply styles, menu commands, and scripts.

Placed InDesign files

Reuse layouts by placing INDD files in another InDesign document. Links remain intact, and InDesign automatically notifies you of updates to the linked INDD file.

Faster frame fitting

Edit settings on a placeholder frame to automatically size incoming content to the frame. Double-click a frame handle at any time to instantly fit the frame to its content.

Versatile master pages

Set up multiple master pages, and base one master page on another to help keep designs consistent when updating documents. Easily distinguish master page objects from document page objects and override master page items on a document page.

Enhanced object alignment

Align or distribute objects relative to each other, or to a page, spread, or page margins, for instant, precise positioning.

Support for the latest Macintosh and Windows systems

Get the most out of InDesign on Intel® based Macintosh and Microsoft® Windows Vista™ systems. Work smoothly on legacy PowerPC® based Macintosh and Windows® XP systems as well.

Layers

Organize text and graphics on document-wide layers and then hide, lock, or reorder the layers to efficiently manage your page elements.

Custom page sizes

Specify page sizes from 1 pica square (1/6 inch, 0.421 centimeters) to 1,296 picas square (18 feet, 5.48 meters) for large-format output.

WYSIWYG font menus

See samples of font faces in any InDesign font menu, so you can always choose the exact font you need.

Smart text handling

Comprehensive font replacement

Change the fonts in style definitions when replacing missing or unused fonts to make sure all instances are updated.

Microsoft Word and RTF support

Automatically style Microsoft Word files on import by mapping Word styles to InDesign styles. Resolve style name conflicts at import, preserve local overrides while removing other formatting, and save Word import settings as presets for future use.

Drag-and-drop text

Drag and drop text within and between text frames, tables, views, InDesign documents, and even other applications, such as Microsoft Word. You can choose to strip formatting from text as you drop or paste it; the pasted text inherits the formatting applied to its new destination.

Enhanced text wrap

Easily flow text around objects using custom specifications, including a clipping path or an alpha channel. Wrap to specific sides of an object or around a master page object.

Story Editor

Edit and style text in the Story Editor, the integrated word processor that makes it easier to read text, manage text that spans multiple frames, and identify overset text.

Built-in support for multilingual text

Check spelling and correctly hyphenate documents in 28 languages and related dialects using the included Proximity® dictionaries.

Flexible dictionary management

Link to one or more user dictionaries at once on your hard drive or network. Import and export word lists for convenient dictionary updating.

Dynamic spell-check and automatic correction

Activate dynamic spell-checking to flag misspellings, and add new words to user dictionaries with one click. Opt to automatically correct commonly misspelled words as you type using your specified word list.

Full-featured tables

Full-featured tables

Advanced table options

Format tables with options such as color fills in alternating rows and automatic running headers and footers. Spread long tables across columns, frames, or pages, and use headers and footers to repeat information at the top or bottom of divided portions of the table.

Table and cell styles

Quickly and consistently format tables using table and cell styles. Even use regional cell styles to apply unique formatting to specific areas of a table, such as its header, footer, and body.

Styled table import

Import tab-delimited text files or styled Word and Excel tables.

Comprehensive styles

Rich paragraph and character styles

Define character and paragraph settings using a rich set of text-formatting attributes. Easily set up a default style, change the base style, clear overrides, and apply multiple styles to text.

Object styles

Apply and globally update object-level formatting efficiently using object styles. Save a wide range of graphic, text, and frame-level attributes as object styles to create more consistent designs and speed up production tasks.

Style group management

Keep related styles together and make them easier to find by organizing them into groups in the styles panels. Selectively load styles from other InDesign documents, and control how InDesign handles duplicate style names.

Nested styles

Perform complex text formatting efficiently with nested styles, which dynamically apply character formatting based on content. Formatting is automatically updated when the text is edited. Create loops within nested styles to apply repeated style sequences with one paragraph style.

Reliable prepress and printing

Professional printing interface

Reliably print files to Adobe PostScript® Level 2, PostScript 3™, and non PostScript language devices using a comprehensive set of printing options designed to meet the needs of print professionals worldwide.

Output previews

Prevent mistakes from occurring on press by checking plates, overprinting, and ink limits, and help ensure the best results when printing transparency effects using output preview panels. Use Overprint Preview mode to proof spot-color effects and overprint settings.

Preflight and packaging

Avoid delays and costly production errors by preflighting documents to check for problems. Then package them for print or web handoff or export them as Adobe PDF files.

JDF integration between InDesign and Adobe Acrobat

Pass JDF job information to Adobe Acrobat® software with Adobe PDF files that you export from InDesign. Print service providers can then streamline prepress and print processes using JDF automation.

Custom print presets

Define and share custom print presets among service providers and customers for a fast, reliable way to print jobs that require consistent settings for many print options.

Adobe PDF file export

Use built-in Adobe PDF export presets — or create custom presets — to consistently and reliably create Adobe PDF files for electronic review or final output. Create ISO-standard PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-3 files for high-resolution CMYK printing, as well as PDF/X-4 (draft) files.

Print Booklet

Use the Print Booklet command to automatically impose pages prior to printing.

Intuitive and customizable workspace

Enhanced Control panel

See more options in the context-sensitive Control panel, including transparency, text wrap, and rotation. Customize the panel to show the options you use most frequently.

Customizable menus

Colorize menu commands that you use frequently and hide commands that you rarely use to minimize clutter and work more quickly. Save custom menus as part of a custom workspace.

Customizable workspaces

Arrange and save a variety of keyboard shortcuts, menu commands, and panel layouts to your liking so you can quickly access the best setup for your projects or tasks.

Mouse scroll wheel support

Quickly navigate through panel contextual menus and execute menu commands using the mouse scroll wheel.

Intuitive tool behavior

Change tools quickly and intuitively. Double-click to switch between the Selection and Direct Selection tools; double-click to select an object within a group; and select text without converting empty frames.

Self-adjusting panels

Free up your workspace with self-adjusting panels that dock conveniently out of your way as icons when not in use and pop out when you need them.

Powerful viewing options

See how changes in one part of a document affect another by setting up multiple views; instantly switch from a 5% view to a 4,000% view using a variety of zoom controls.

Dynamic text and graphics preview

View text size, wrap, and line ending changes interactively with dynamic text preview. Modify crops using a ghosted preview of the entire image as you adjust what's visible in a frame.

High-resolution graphics preview

Display graphics in high resolution for precision work or to preview the graphics within your layout. Easily switch back to lower resolution view for faster onscreen display.

Multiple preview modes

Instantly hide all nonprinting items and show a trimmed version of a page as it will print. Also preview bleeds and slugs, and continue editing in any of the preview modes.

Customizable keyboard shortcuts

Customize keyboard shortcuts to suit your style, or select the predefined sets of QuarkXPress and Adobe PageMaker® keyboard shortcuts included with InDesign.

Extensive integration

Native Photoshop, Illustrator, and Adobe PDF format support

Speed up design by placing native PSD, AI, and even multipage Adobe PDF files in your layouts. Preserve Photoshop layers, and copy Illustrator artwork into InDesign as editable objects.

XHTML export

XHTML export

Enable multiformat publishing, including print-to-web workflows, by exporting InDesign content as XHTML. Edit the exported content in Adobe Dreamweaver® CS3 software (available separately) and automatically format it using cascading style sheets.

XHTML export for Adobe Digital Editions

Export InDesign content as XHTML for use with Adobe Digital Editions, a rich Internet application, to manage and view exported content in eBooks and digital magazines.

Backward compatibility

Open QuarkXPress 3.3–4.1x files, PageMaker 6.0–7.x files, and files created in earlier versions of InDesign in InDesign Interchange (INX) format in InDesign CS3 to keep working with legacy files.

Multiple export formats

Deliver rich content using support for multiple export formats, including Adobe PDF, XML, XHTML, EPS, JPEG, RTF, Text Only, Tagged Text, SVG, PostScript, and INX format.

Multiple import formats

Import content from a wide variety of sources through support for numerous text and graphics formats, including PSD, AI, Adobe PDF, XML, BMP, DCS, EPS, GIF, JPEG, TIFF, RTF, TXT, and Word and Excel files.

Shared Adobe technologies

Rely on consistent color management settings, font handling, onscreen graphics display, and Adobe PDF support across Adobe applications.

Adobe-standard user interface

Get up to speed quickly with familiar commands, tools, panels, and keyboard shortcuts.

Adobe InCopy CS3 LiveEdit workflow

Set up parallel workflows between designers and editors with Adobe InCopy® CS3 software, the professional writing and editing program that integrates with InDesign CS3. Simplify workflows using e-mail-based assignments for external contributors.

Adobe InDesign CS3 Server support

Process documents faster by moving time-consuming work off the desktop. Streamline workflows and automate processes using InDesign Server as a back-end component of a partner publishing system.

Easier asset management

Integration with Adobe Bridge CS3

Browse, organize, label, and preview graphics and InDesign documents, templates, and snippets in Adobe Bridge. Drag and drop assets from Bridge into layouts easily and efficiently. Search for files using metadata, such as keywords, fonts, and colors.

XMP metadata support

Easily embed XMP metadata, such as copyright, author, description, and keywords, in files. InDesign automatically embeds metadata about the fonts and swatches used in files. View, edit, and search on metadata using Adobe Bridge.

Enhanced Links panel

Manage linked files efficiently by seeing all linked files and sorting them in various ways, including by file type. View status icons and update or replace linked files, including relinking multiple instances of the same file at once. Edit import options as you relink.

Info panel

View valuable text and image data in the Info panel, including word and line counts, the original and current resolution of resized images, and the metadata embedded in placed elements, such as Photoshop files.

InDesign snippets

Easily export InDesign objects as snippets to share with others or reuse in other documents. When you place or drag a snippet into a layout, InDesign re-creates the original objects, their formatting, and their relative positioning on the page.

Library panel

Drag and drop frequently used InDesign objects into a library for convenient retrieval. Add all items on a page as separate library objects in one step, update an edited library object directly, and maintain XML structure in library objects.

Automate routine tasks

Save time and money by automating workflows using robust long-document features and flexible XML support and by attaching scripts to menu commands.

Robust long-document support

Advanced bullets and numbering

Make quick work of lists by using styles to apply bullets or sequence numbers to text. Import bullets or numbering from Word documents, and create figure or hierarchical numbering.

Text variables

Create text that links to a text variable; when you modify the variable, all instances of the text are updated throughout the document. Use text variables to create running headers and footers that are based on page content and are updated dynamically as text reflows.

Synchronized master pages

Maintain consistent page designs and styles across multiple documents or a book file by synchronizing shared master pages.

Footnote support

Use dynamic footnotes with your preferred numbering and layout options. Footnotes travel appropriately across columns and pages as text flow changes. Import footnotes from Word and RTF text files.

Multilingual book file publishing

Prepare long documents for multilingual publishing, including generating tables of contents and indexes in multiple languages.

Anchored objects

Easily anchor callouts, pull-quotes, margin notes, and graphics to text. Precisely control the positioning of anchored objects, apply text wrap settings, and more.

Data Merge

Create personalized publications from database information merged into your InDesign layouts.

Flexible XML workflows

Rule-based layouts from XML

Use scripts that apply rules to automatically build page layouts and format text and graphics from XML content.

XSLT support

Apply XSLT style sheets when importing or exporting XML content to help ensure that the content matches the structure of an InDesign page template, a database, or a website.

XML import

Automatically flow imported XML into tagged templates, or specify options to control the results. Create links on import to easily update the XML content when the source content is updated. Help ensure accuracy by validating XML content against a specified DTD.

XML tagging and editing

Edit XML content in InDesign using the Structure view and Tags panel. Easily apply XML tags to InDesign tables, and then import XML content into the tables or export it from them.

XML mapping

Automatically format XML by mapping XML tags to text styles in your document, or more easily create structured content by mapping styles to XML tags and then exporting the XML content.

CALS table import

Import CALS tables and convert them to InDesign tables, preserving structured data from XML workflows.

Scripting and extensibility

Automation through scripting

Automate tasks by writing scripts in JavaScript, AppleScript, and VBScript. Attach a JavaScript to a menu command so it runs automatically when the command is chosen, and protect scripts for commercial use through enhanced JavaScript.

Improved JavaScript support

Protect your investment in script development with support for running compiled JavaScripts.

ExtendScript utility

Use the ExtendScript toolkit to create, edit, and debug JavaScripts in InDesign.

Highly extensible editorial platform

Use the software development kit (SDK) to customize InDesign to your workgroup's needs.

Next steps

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