Why is InDesign better than MS Publisher

[Emma_1889]

The company that I work for is looking into updating there catalog and the software they use to make it. At the moment it is publisher. They are leaning more for InDesign because I know how to use that program. But for the proposal to buy the software I need more evidence that it is a better program than publisher besides my opinion on it.

Thanks,

Emma

[Stix_Hart]

Wow!  You're going to get a few responses!  Publisher is not even in the same league as Indesign.  Indesign is the industry standard page layout program, it's functionality and ease of use alone would pay for itself after about 2 days of use compared to Publisher.  The support available is vast (just look at this forum) and there is a huge range of specialist plugins available to extend it.

Ask your employer what else they're going to want to do in the future with their catalogue?  Whatever it is, online publishing or especially printing, Indesign will produce a far better job, and offers the best future proofing.  The content you create with it can be used on multiple platforms, unlike Publisher.

[Mr. Met]

Why is a Honda better than a Yugo?

[Stix_Hart]

Ha ha! Why is the Boeing Dreamliner better than the Wright Brother's flyer?

[Mr. Met]

You got it!

Publisher's not bad for what it is. I would rather get a Publisher file than any other file type from non-designers. Far better than Word & Powerpoint and while most people can't figure out spot colors or anything really complex, quite a few of my customers are fairly savvy with Publisher. I get far more Publisher than QX, that's for sure.

[Guest]

The main difference is price, Indesign is around 5 times more expensive than Publisher, but it's almost the same. Many people use it just because somebody else said is better but they haven't really used any other program and they aren't qualified to compare it.

Adobe has a better but not well-known product called Framemaker.

[BobLevine]

You've just responded to an eight year old post with what can arguably be described as nonsense.

[Mark_Hebert]

Emma,

Here is what I did last November when I was tired of using Quark 6.5 after using InDesign for the last six years. I wrote a thorough purchase request. I showed the time saving features of ID as opposed to Quark such as opening placed images in Photoshop from within ID. How our house styles could be automated with scripts and GREP Styles. How the use of Open Type fonts made things easier for us. And the fact it runs on two machines would help if one was down for a while when we had a deadline. I got my purchase order through and have been using the whole suite ever since on all our publications. I just made my case and really studied both programs. You could do the same. Then came the price. We were missing our original Illustrator install disc and had miss-matched versions of Dreamweaver and Flash and it was a mess. I guess I made my case because we upgraded from Photoshop and got the whole CS4 Design Premium suite.

Let me know if you need anything else to help you out.

[kdwmson]

From the perspective of an inhouse art dept. for a printing company that also prints outside work, I can tell you that our preflight people love Indesign and HATE Publisher. They have a much more difficult time getting Publisher files to rip properly. On that basis alone I would avoid Publisher. You will wind up having more late printed jobs or higher quotes for print jobs in the long run.

Even if InDesign were only an equal to Publisher in an art dept. (which of course it is far better) you would still be far better of with InDesign.

[Printer_Rick]

Transparency. Layers. Color management. Better previews. Numeric transform control.

And 10,000 other reasons to boot Pub and evolve.

[Guest]

From a "We need to upgrade — and here's why" perspective, it probably comes down to "InDesign is the industry standard."

Publisher isn't designed — or targeted, really — to professional publishing or design of any kind. Publisher is an entry level program, designed more for home users and basic office publishing (for secretaries and administrative personnel and the like).

See it's wikipedia entry here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Publisher

— Printing companies don't like — or won't accept — Publisher files.

— InDesign has powerful text and graphic features that Publisher doesn't.

— InDesign includes time-saving features (links, scripts, etc.) that Publisher can't match.

There are a million other reasons, including "Like, d'uh."

d

[Stix_Hart]

Coincidentally I have just been having a quick look through Publisher 07 for Dummies because a customer has asked me to give them a template they can do quick paste ups in of new products, and Publisher is at least better than Word. As well as admitting that most printers don't keep a copy of Publisher, in there was the tip 'If your printer has a three-color printing press don't use four colors. That requires an extra print run and will cost you more money'.

I thought this was worth sharing for a laugh. If you have to ask why this is extremely funny you don't get it!

[Emma_1889]

Thanks for all the  info

Emma.