Adobe InDesign Trial for Magazines, Books and Brochures

A word processor is fine for a letter, but brochures, catalogues and books need control over columns, images and type across many pages. InDesign is the desktop publishing program printers and publishers most often expect files from.

What you can build in InDesign

• Multi-page documents: Master pages, automatic page numbers and linked text frames that flow from page to page.
• Professional typography: Paragraph and character styles, baseline grids and fine control over hyphenation.
• Print output: Export press-ready PDF files with bleed and crop marks.
• Digital publications: Interactive PDFs and EPUB e-books from the same layout.

Getting the trial

1. Use the Download button to open Adobe’s InDesign free-trial page.
2. Choose the plan you want to try, sign in and complete checkout. Adobe says you are not charged until the trial ends.
3. The Creative Cloud desktop app downloads and installs InDesign.

The trial lasts 7 days on Windows and macOS (iPad is also listed; phones are not). It converts to a paid plan unless you cancel in your Adobe account, and Adobe allows a full refund if you cancel within 14 days of billing.

Cost after the trial

At the time of writing, InDesign alone is US$22.99 per month on an annual plan billed monthly. Creative Cloud Pro adds Photoshop and Illustrator, which you will often use alongside InDesign for images and graphics.

For a free option, Affinity has a layout studio for page design, and LibreOffice Writer can handle simpler documents.