Using InDesign on both Mac and PC

[MICHAEL856072]

I used to use InDesign as the editor on an international  B2B magazine. I retired in 2019 and no longer have InDesign on my Mac.

I have been asked by a charity to prepare some literature for them in InDesign. The problem is that they only work on PCs and I only work on a Mac.

1. Would we be able to buy one copy of InDesign with a licence for two users, one on a Mac and one on a PC?

2. If not, what other way would you suggest for me to be able to volunteer my services to the charity, which works with Down Syndrome children?

3. Would it be a one-off payment for the software or is there a subscription to pay as well?

[Test Screen Name]

1. There is no such thing as a single license for 2 users. 2 people can each subscribe, and share files. 
2. There is no particular difficulty about sharing between Windows and Mac.

3. There is no one off payment, only subscriptions. Be sure to read terms; most have a commitment of a year, with auto-renew. 

[Mike Witherell]

Why don't they just lend you their creative cloud username and login? Most organizations have multiple licenses and can assign one to you for the bit of time you work for them. It is their magazine and organization and budget and costs, after all. You are already volunteering your time for free.

[Test Screen Name]

Perhaps because they know that "lending a username" would be an egregious breach of the licensing terms, since usernames are always assigned to a single human and can never be transferred. An organisation with a team or enterprise license MIGHT be allowed to assign an unused license, but not necessarily; it depends on the team/enterprise terms. They are often tied to employees.

I do agree that if you are volunteering time and services then the charity might reasonably volunteer to pay the bill (and cover early cancellation fees etc. - be specific and detailed about termination or it could easily cost you over a hundred dollars to cancel).

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

Most modern licenses are "like a book" — anyone can be authorized to use it anywhere, on any system, but only one at a time.

The magazine could easily assign you a "seat" from within their licensed copies, as long as you are the sole user of it at the times you use it.

Or, it seems your services would be worth something under $50 a month for a license exclusively for your use.

[Mike Witherell]

I am not suggesting anything that breaches licensing terms. Organizations do often assign licenses and should do so for this OP volunteer person.

But even if they had only 1 license, it can be installed on multiple computers which can be anywhere. Only 2 of the multiple computers can use it (be signed in) at one time anyway. So in actual practice, it doesn't matter who the human is. Adobe has fences and curbs built into the way it works very effectively.

[Robert Tkaczyk]

Just to clarify - SIGNED IN and USING are two different things.

You can assign the same licence to two machines - work and home - but you can't use the same program on both at the same time - not sure about different programs - like Photoshop on one and InDesign on the other at the same time.. .

[Peter Spier]

Any licensing issues aside, if you are going to be working cross-platform it is VITAL that you all have exactly the same versions of any fonts used, and the best way is to use OpenType fonts that are NOT system fonts.