Alternatives to Adobe

After spending a good chunk of my career teaching folks how to use Adobe software, it might seem strange that I’m writing an article talking about how to not use it. But to be clear: I like Adobe’s software! I just don’t think it’s the right software for everyone. Working in InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop for more 25 years has been incredibly rewarding and fun, and I wouldn’t trade a day of it. Sure, I rail against the eternal bugs and half-baked features that never seem to make their way back into the engineers’ ovens. And the very idea of subscription software bothers me. But those problems aren’t exclusive to Adobe. Ultimately, I recognize the simple reason that Adobe has grown to dominate the graphic design software market: They make the best tools. No one else in the commercial or open-source realms offers programs as robust and polished as Adobe does. But one size does not fit all. Just because a program has the best features, doesn’t mean it’s the best program for you. Adobe knows this, and they’re not just okay with it… they’ve made strategic business decisions that limit who their products will appeal to. So, my job is to showcase your options, should you ever decide you’re tired of the same old ride and want to kick the tires on some other apps. In this article, I’ve laid out some viable alternatives to InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop—specifically three alternatives for each product. Because there are so many potential products to talk about, I’m limiting myself to apps that work on both macOS and Windows platforms. Of course, when I say “viable alternative,” I don’t mean “perfect substitute.” If you do make the switch, you will need to find workarounds for features that simply don’t exist in

these programs. On the other hand, as you’ll discover, some of the products below offer tantalizing features that go beyond what’s in the Adobe apps. What’s more, you may also enjoy the fact that most of these alternatives can be had for a lot less than you’re paying Adobe each month. They’re all available via a single purchase of a perpetual license or for free. Some are also available via subscription, if you’re still into that sort of thing.

Page Layout

The alternatives to InDesign include an old standby, a promising newcomer, and an intriguing open-source option. I may be an InDesign die-hard, but some of these products have me turning my head!

QuarkXPress

Quark.com Cost: $220 per year subscription; $699 one-time purchase with the option to add on Advantage Plan maintenance and support for an extra $299 per year Current Version: QuarkXPress 2022 Notable Features: Too many to list. QuarkXPress does almost everything InDesign does. Plus, it offers up-to-date Pantone color libraries, a free stock image palette hooked up to Pexels and Unsplash, and nondestructive image adjustments and filters (Figure 1). It can paste InDesign content as native objects, convert PDFs into editable files, and export documents as websites and apps with all kinds of interactive features.

This is a product that’s been up, down, and all around for 35 years. For me, using QuarkXPress is kind of like going to a high school reunion and meeting up with an old friend that you’d had a falling out with. Things didn’t end well back in the day, so you didn’t keep in touch. But that was a long time ago, and now they’re looking good and acting very friendly. Maybe a little too friendly (Figure 2). If you download the free trial version (very crippled; won’t let you save, print, or export a document), prepare to be hounded by Quark’s sales people. They’re laser-focused on finding leads and closing the deal. But if you’re seeking the most powerful page-layout alternative to InDesign, look no further: QuarkXPress is it. These folks aren’t messing around; when you first launch the program, you’ll be greeted with an offer to scan your hard drive for InDesign documents, convert them to QuarkXPress files, and overwrite your originals! Seriously, yikes. With just a few hours of poking around, experienced InDesign users can start producing professional-quality layouts with QuarkXPress. Sure, there are some things you’ll miss (kiss all your third-party scripts goodbye, and GREP support is primitive). But almost everything else you’d want is there; it’s just found in a different menu and called by another name: Workspaces are Palette Sets. Anchored Objects are Callouts. InCopy is Quark CopyDesk, Track Changes is Redline. Nested Styles are Conditional Styles, and so on. You might also enjoy things InDesign doesn’t offer, like multiple footnote/endnote styles in a document, much finer control of hanging punctuation, plus editable kerning pairs and tracking tables. QuarkXPress can also be used as part of the Quark Publishing Platform for automated production of such highly structured documents as manuals, financial reports, and the like.

Affinity Publisher

Affinity.serif.com Cost: $54.99 one-time purchase Current Version: 1.10.4 Notable Features: Edit photos and vector artwork in the context of the layout via StudioLink; convert PDF files to native objects; open InDesign’s IDML files; more advanced typographic controls than InDesign offers; flexible, modern color picker; advanced snapping options; layer masks; history; vector shapes; stock images from Pexels and Pixabay; data merge; package; preflight In the realm of design and publishing, the Affinity suite (Publisher, Designer, and Photo) is one of the most exciting things to come along in almost 20 years. Since the early days of InDesign, nothing else (with the exception of the Astute Graphics plug-ins for Illustrator) has impressed me like the offerings from Serif. The combination of power, polish, and price is almost unbelievable (Figure 3). For the cost of a single month of Creative Cloud, you can get in on the ground floor of an app that’s shaping into a serious rival to InDesign, even if it’s not quite there yet.

The full feature list of Publisher is impressive, but most exciting for me is the StudioLink feature, which integrates the three Affinity apps into one seamless experience. (Note: You must purchase and install all three Affinity apps to take full advantage of StudioLink.) For example, say you’re working on a page layout and notice that there’s a blemish on a placed photo that you want to remove. No need to switch apps—you just click the Photo Persona button at the top of the screen and the interface instantly switches to the Affinity Photo tools and menus (Figure 4). A couple of swipes with the Healing Brush tool removes the blemish, then click the button to return to the Publisher Persona and go about your day. You never switch back and forth between apps, there’s no opening, saving, and closing of files, no friction whatsoever. Just total efficiency to a degree that Adobe has never come close to achieving with Creative Suite and Creative Cloud. Publisher also takes some familiar InDesign features to the next level. For instance, take a look at all ways you can customize the snapping options (Figure 5). InDesign’s options are hopelessly primitive by comparison. These are the kind of refinements that make using a program a joy instead of a grind. Likewise, little thoughtful touches throughout the interface are a godsend. For example, it’s a little thing, but I love the ability to search the Preferences dialog box and have it highlight exactly where to find the thing I want (Figure 6). Yes, there are plenty of holes, too. Publisher lacks some key features for long documents (such as footnotes and endnotes), accessibility, and complex tables. And there is still no way to automate the program with scripting, which is a deal-breaker for many professionals. Some aspects of fundamental features like master page elements, layers, and color swatches work in strange and frustrating ways. I’ve seen reports of poor handling of effects in print output. GREP support is meager. And there’s no equivalent to InCopy, or even the Story Editor, to aid with editorial tasks. (Casting my vote for a “Word Persona” to be added to the program someday.) But Rome was not built in a day. I remember co-workers laughing at me in 2000 for wasting my time playing with Adobe’s terrible new page layout program that crashed all the time and wasn’t half as capable as QuarkXPress. Then came InDesign 2, and the rest was history. Publisher is still at version 1. If Serif continues to add great features on the foundation they’ve set—while Adobe continues to treat InDesign as a finished product—things will get very interesting indeed. For more on switching from InDesign to Publisher, check out Colleen Gratzer’s article in this issue.

Scribus

Scribus.net Cost: Free Current Version: 1.4.8 Notable Features: IDML/IDMS import; import PDF as editable text; symbols; story editor; footnotes and endnotes; text variables; cross-references; history; many features for professional print (preflight, collect for output, PDF-X export, CMYK and spot colors, color management, bleeds, printer’s marks), mesh gradients; PDF forms; crash recovery; Markdown import Having debuted in 2001, Scribus has been around almost as long as InDesign. Scribus is open-source software, meaning that the code is publicly available and developed by volunteers. On the upside, that means Scribus will always be free, and you could even download the code and modify it to add new features or fix bugs yourself, if you possess the necessary programming skills. The downside is, that no one is responsible for the state of Scribus. Folks contribute in their spare time. So, there’s no telling when a new version will come out. Naturally, support for open-source software is also a volunteer effort, and you may find yourself spending a lot of time trying to find fixes for specific problems. Fortunately, there is a very good online manual you can refer to when learning the program. Using Scribus is a fascinating mix of pleasant surprises and frustrations. When you start exploring, you’ll see so many familiar features you might feel like you’ve stumbled into an unfinished early version of InDesign (Figure 7). The interface is clumsy and ugly in some spots, but you get used to it. As you might expect from a program that’s been in development for over 20 years, Scribus offers a lot of features, and once you figure out how to use it, most of those features work well enough. Perhaps, not surprisingly, it seems to work best with other open-source file formats, like SVG files. Tip: To avoid frustration and get full functionality for importing images and printing, install Ghostscript before installing Scribus.

I’ve spent enough time with Scribus to feel like I could successfully make a print brochure or even a relatively simple book with it (Figure 8). I probably wouldn’t attempt a complex long document, even though the program does offer lots of long document features. Scribus also supports JavaScript and comes with a bunch of built-in scripts, including a version of CalendarWizard.

Vector Graphics

For most users, Adobe Illustrator has been the industry’s gold standard since 1988. Can anything else take its place? Illustrator’s rivals stack up much like InDesign’s: a polished veteran, a powerful newcomer, and a solid open-source option.

CorelDRAW

CorelDraw.com Cost: $499 one-time purchase; $249 per year subscription (includes Corel PHOTO-PAINT) Current Version: CorelDRAW 2021 Notable Features: Full array of tools for working with paths and pixels; multi-page documents; Live Sketch, symmetry drawing; perspective drawing; auto-backup; PowerTRACE; review, feedback, and collaboration tools; good support for text and tables; modern Pantone libraries This venerable vector editor—which has been around almost as long as Illustrator—has long been known for being Windows-only. Fortunately, it’s now cross-platform when you get the Suite, which includes CorelDRAW (yes, Corel likes to shout the last part of everything), Corel PHOTO-PAINT, the mobile version of CorelDRAW, Corel Font Manager, and AfterShot3 HDR (their version of Adobe Camera Raw). The standalone CorelDRAW desktop app is still Windows-only. The user interface is elegant and tastefully understated, almost minimalist. Even if you open a ton of panels (called inspectors on macOS and dockers on Windows), all but one automatically collapse to small, docked icons on the side of the screen to leave your view uncluttered (Figure 9). Many buttons and icons auto-hide and appear only when you move your pointer over them—which can be a blessing in the long run but a curse when you’re just learning where everything is. You can also customize toolbars, shortcuts, and the appearance of just about every aspect of the UI, should you desire to.

Tip: To select one of the nested tools on the toolbar, you have to click exactly on the teeny tiny triangle in the corner of the tool icon (Figure 10). Naturally, there are some quirks if you’re coming from an Adobe perspective: Let me save you some Googling and tip you off that a Fountain Fill is what Corel calls a gradient. But overall, the suite of tools is very impressive and diverse. I’m not sure you’ll find another app on the planet that combines so many features for working with text, vectors, and raster graphics—and handles them all so ably (Figure 11). Another thing I appreciate about Corel is the quality of the resources they offer to help you learn the software—something you’ll use a lot when trying to decide if a program is right for you. They’ve got you covered with in-app tutorials, free webinars, videos, Quick Reference cards, and an old-school, 21-page PDF Quick Start Guide that makes me nostalgic for the days long ago when Adobe offered such goodies (Figure 12).

Affinity Designer

Affinity.serif.com Cost: $54.99 one-time purchase Current Version: 1.10.4 Notable Features: Full array of tools for working with paths and pixels; fast and responsive, even with complex art; unmatched precision (1,000,000% zoom); save history (undo next month what you did today); autosave; customizable toolbars; Vector, Pixel, and Export Personas; Appearance panel; multiple artboards; symbols; graphic styles; advanced layers and masking; professional typographic features; modern Pantone libraries Like Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer comes off like a younger, peppier version of its Adobe forerunner, while offering a mountain of tools and features for drawing, editing, and selecting vector objects (Figure 13). In fact, I feel a little bad putting it in the “vector tools” section of this article because it can also do a ton with text (Figure 14) and pixels (although it lacks an image tracing feature).

If you were thinking about dipping your toe in the water with Affinity, Designer is a good place to start. It was the first Affinity app, so it’s had several years to mature and smooth out the rough edges. It gives you a bit of everything Affinity has to offer. If you’re into the draw-in-a-coffeeshop lifestyle, there’s also an iPad version of Designer, which will set you back an additional $21.99.

Inkscape

Inkscape.org Cost: Free Current Version: 1.1.2 Notable Features: Import artwork from a vast array of file formats (including Illustrator); many familiar tools for creating, organizing, formatting, and transforming vector artwork; diagramming tools; live path effects; filters; extensions; clones (like Illustrator’s symbols) Along with GIMP and Scribus, Inkscape is a fixture in the open-source graphics community, having been on the scene since 2003. The most fundamental difference between Inkscape and other vector graphics apps is the file format. Inkscape files are native SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) files. SVG is an XML-based file format maintained by the W3C, the group responsible for web standards like HTML and CSS. It’s designed to be human-readable and easy to edit. In fact, in addition to its set of tools and commands, Inkscape allows you to directly edit the XML code to create and modify artwork (Figure 15). Naturally, Inkscape files are well suited for web use. They’re small in file size and supported by all modern web browsers. So, it’s not surprising that most Inkscape users create web graphics with the program. However, Inkscape is much more than a web graphics editor. You can save Inkscape artwork in many other file formats for print and digital projects, including PDF, PNG, and EPS, as well as formats for specific industries like AutoCAD. And it can do a lot more than just simple vector editing: You can embed and modify raster graphics in Inkscape files and apply nondestructive filters or path effects to stylize your artwork (Figure 16).

For the most part, the user interface is easy to get the hang of, if a little clunky. Just steel yourself before you open the Filter Editor for the first time (it ain’t pretty). On the other hand, the Statusbar at the bottom of the window is your friendly in-app tutor when you’re learning Inkscape (Figure 17). A big snag for some users will be Inkscape’s lack of support for CMYK. It’s just not in the SVG specification. The most common workaround is to place your Inkscape artwork in Scribus and output a CMYK PDF from there. Or, you can place an RGB PDF into a program with good color management support (such as InDesign), and it can convert to CMYK for you.

Photo Manipulation

Due to its enormous popularity, Photoshop’s imitators are legion. Now there are even web apps that emulate Photoshop. But when it comes to full-fledged desktop apps to consider, these three are capable companions for most of your pixel-slinging adventures.

Affinity Photo

Affinity.serif.com

Cost: $54.99 one-time purchase Current Version: 1.10.4 Notable Features: Comprehensive suite of tools for image processing, compositing, and retouching; PSD support; raw support; 16-bit filters; HDR editing; auto-save; nondestructive adjustments, filters, and layer resizing; layer groups; content-aware tools; live perspective editing; robust brush and vector tools; macros Affinity Photo is what you’d get if you ran Photoshop through its own neural filter to de-age it. It’s smooth, responsive, and fast. The interface is fresh and colorful without being childish or distracting. It’s mobile (the iPad version is a separate purchase, $21.99). And it’s packed with power, offering a modern take on the most essential tools and features from 30+ years of Photoshop’s development, organized into five Personas (workspaces on steroids) that you can switch between with a click. Don’t let the low price fool you. This is no toy (Figure 18). The full feature set is vast and contains virtually everything most users would need on a daily basis.

Most of the time you’ll work in the main Photo Persona, but you can easily hop over to the Liquid Persona for applying warps, the Develop Persona for processing images with Camera Raw-like settings (Figure 19), the Tone Mapping Persona for working with HDR images, and the Export Persona for slicing images and exporting the slices (manually or dynamically). So, what would you lose if you traded Photoshop for Affinity Photo? All of Adobe’s latest bells and whistles like Sky Replacement and neural filters, plus collaboration and cloud-related features, and the Timeline panel. Also, while Affinity Photo can open PSD files, it doesn’t preserve all their features. So, if you open a complex image with a bunch of Smart Objects and layer styles, those things are going to get rasterized into regular pixel layers. That could be a deal-breaker—so can the fact that you’d also lose Photoshop’s partners, Lightroom and Bridge, and all their capabilities. So, if managing and processing a large volume of images is your game, you’ll want to stick with Adobe over Affinity.

GIMP

GIMP.org Cost: Free Current Version: 2.10.30 Notable Features: Import/export PSD files; lots of familiar painting, selection, and transform tools; filters; paths; layers; channels; masks; history GIMP’s community-driven, open-source roots reach back to the mid-1990s when Photoshop was still distributed on floppies and layers were the mind-blowing new feature. Trust me, I was there, and I still have the disks. GIMP’s early history is remarkably well-documented, and you can read all about it here. Wondering about that name? It’s an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program (GNU being a recursive acronym for “GNU’s Not Unix”). Developers have a weird sense of humor. Anyway, since the GIMP moniker has been in use for so long it’s clearly here to stay. Speaking of names, most of the terminology used by GIMP is exactly the same as what you’re used to in Photoshop. One notable and slightly confusing exception is that what Photoshop calls panels GIMP calls dialogs. But you can still open them all from the Window(s) menu, so it’s not too confusing (Figure 20). Basic image processing jobs like compositing, sizing, cropping, sharpening, retouching, and color correcting are all possible in GIMP (Figure 21). There are some features for working with text and vectors, but keep your expectations low in these departments, especially when it comes to text.

There are two main stumbling blocks that Photoshop users come across when they try out GIMP. The first is the lack of nondestructive editing tools. So, no Smart Objects (and their accompanying Smart Filters), no adjustment layers, and no Adobe Camera Raw. However, you can convert raw files to something GIMP can open, with the help of the open-source RawTherapee. The second thing that trips people up is the lack of CMYK support. Yup, when it comes to color modes, GIMP understands RGB and grayscale, and that’s it. There are some plug-ins you can seek out and install that will add rudimentary CMYK support to GIMP, but most are ancient (read: abandoned), and they probably aren’t worth the effort. Instead, what most users do is employ a separate open-source app like Krita to do the conversion from RGB to CMYK. Krita is a powerful paint program that will happily open and convert files from any image editing app, using the color profiles of your choice (Figure 22). Of course, if you’re dropping your images into a page-layout app (e.g., InDesign, QuarkXPress, etc.), then RGB images are usually fine. Of course, you can forget about fancy stuff like Sky Replacement, Select and Mask, neural filters, Content-Aware Fill, and the like. But if you can get by with something that approximates the old Photoshop CS, you’ll do just fine with GIMP.

Corel PHOTO-PAINT

CorelDraw.com Cost: $499 one-time purchase; $249 per year subscription (includes CorelDRAW) Current Version: Corel PHOTO-PAINT 2021 Notable Features: Actions; nondestructive effects and adjustments; photo stitch; animations; image sprayer; batch image processing; history; auto-save and backup Notes: In terms of features and functionality, Corel PHOTO-PAINT falls somewhere between Affinity Photo and GIMP. It’s basically a counterpart/add-on to CorelDRAW, with a different set of tools for editing raster images, and it’s available only as part of the Corel Graphics Suite. You can accomplish most common photo manipulation tasks with it, from editing and compositing, to retouching and applying special effects (Figure 23). It also has some basic features for working with video and animated GIFs. Like CorelDRAW, the interface of PHOTO-PAINT is clean and simple. It offers a very pleasant environment in which to work, like a tidy desk. In fact, I think I like its interface best out of all the photo manipulation programs I’ve tried. Compared to PHOTO-PAINT, Photoshop and Affinity Photo are a tad overwhelming, while GIMP has that slightly off-brand “open-source” vibe. Confusingly, Corel also offers a Windows-only photo processing program called PaintShop Pro, which includes many more features for editing photos than you’ll find in PHOTO-PAINT, including raw support. However, PaintShop Pro is positioned as more of a prosumer product. It limits you to working in RGB (you can export to CMYK, but not work in it). PHOTO-PAINT, on the other hand, supports RGB, CMYK, LAB, duotone, multichannel, and grayscale images. For a relatively simple program, Corel PHOTO-PAINT can take a while to get used to. Almost everything in the user interface goes by a different name than it does in Photoshop. Fortunately, Corel offers a Photoshop-to-PHOTO-PAINT translation guide to demystify the terminology and tools. Also, like CorelDRAW, PHOTO-PAINT welcomes you with a bunch of learning resources, including step-by-step tutorials baked into the program (Figure 24).

Choice Words

I hope you found this article useful, whether it inspires you to try some of the alternatives or to merely feel more secure in the knowledge that Adobe, for all its faults, is still the best choice for you. Most of all, I want everyone working in design and publishing to be aware of their options—and you do have lots of options nowadays. I didn’t even get to any of the online-only tools that have sprung up in recent years, like Canva. (Don’t worry, we’ll cover that in an upcoming issue.) Ultimately, the reason I wanted to share all this information with you is that I’m a big believer in the value of competition. Competition spurs innovation by forcing companies to bring their A-game every day, listen to their customers, and devote the resources it takes to constantly improve their products. Then we all win. Vive la différence! Here’s to choice!