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When will Adobe InDesign would be available on IPad Pro

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
February 14, 2020
5 replies
95280 views

Hi Does anyone know whether Adobe are planning on developing InDesign for the iPad Pro?

***** Title renamed by Moderator "VS" *****

Feature request

Correct answer Dov Isaacs

You aren't going to see InDesign on iPad anytime in the near future. Stop holding your breath. Quite frankly, I don't understand what is “boring” about a MacBook (or for that matter, any Mac or Windows system). The real issue is working on a platform that is appropriate for the job.

S

susant7221

Participant

Adobe has just launched Illustrator for the IPad Pro-is it such a stretch for InDesign? If they can figure out how to make a person appear younger or older with just a slider-you think they could translate InDesign to the IPad Pro or any other tablet.

Dov Isaacs

Legend

Read the rest of this thread!

It is absolutely not a matter of “translating” InDesign to the iPad!!!

Unlike Photoshop and Illustrator that primarily deal with one type of file format, raster and vector respectively, InDesign is at the heart of some very complex production workflows in which content of multiple types both from local file systems and the network is placed into InDesign documents. Often, many gigabytes of content (text, vector, raster, and mixtures of same) using many different fonts (and font styles) and ICC color profiles come together into an InDesign document and InDesign-based workflow with output directed to screen, print, or both (either directly or through a bunch of other file formats).

It isn't a matter of translating high level language code from Intel-based processors to ARM-based processors, but rather, trying to deal with the exceptionally limited operating system services and user-accessible features that iPadOS provides compared to either Windows or MacOS. Problem areas include font (a four letter word beginning with an ‘f’) support, color support including support for ICC color management profiles and spot colors, and general hierarchical and network file system support.

Yes, one could put together an InDesign Junior program that supports a limited subset of InDesign features or a version that is somewhat incompatible with InDesign on Windows and MacOS, but we strongly suspect that our users would be screaming about the actual usefulness of such a product.

It has been pointed out that Adobe now has iPadOS versions of both Photoshop and Illustrator, but the feature sets of both including the ability to deal with all graphic arts assets is somewhat limited. It is very easy to demo such iPadOS product versions dealing with simple designs without external dependencies (including myriads of fonts, profiles, plug-ins and scripts), but you would find an iPad an exceptionally-challenging environment for complex designs and real world production workflows where Wacom tablets, keyboards, and large (and multiple) high-resolution, color-calibrated monitors reign supreme (even large screen notebook computers running Windows or MacOS don't really cut it in those environments).

May I recommend the following:

(1) Go to https://indesign.uservoice.com/ and vote for such a version of InDesign (with justification and real use cases) or if there isn't already such a request, start one. Adobe's InDesign product mangement and engineering doesn't officially monitor these communities. Here, you are primarily talking to other InDesign users.

(2) Directly lobby Apple to extend iPadOS from it's “walled-garden” environment to one that can host real world production environments that require file system access and support for user-installed fonts (other than by store purchases and special services), profiles, scripting, plug-ins, etc.

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

federicos45176481

Participant

Ok inDesign will be a dream on iPad for a long time, well.
But update Adobe Comp to open the iD files, at least the one page ones..

J

janell16

Participant

I just spoke on chat with a rep that said it was in the works but no date for release. Hope so, because I thought I could do everything from adobe and got an iPad Pro but now I'm stuck!!! Not very pro when a pro can't use it the way they need.

Dov Isaacs

Legend

Here at Adobe we'd be very interested in knowing what “rep” you had a chat with gave you such erroneous information.

At no point has Adobe ever promised or even hinted at InDesign on iOS or iPadOS. As I have personally explained earlier in this thread, there are any number of very important reasons why anything resembling a full version of InDesign could not be readily implemented on an iPad.

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

Goofy Foot Press

Inspiring

I explored this question extensively before deciding to include an iPad Pro as part of my workflow, and I can't remember a single instance of anyone saying that InDesign works competently (or even works at all) on iOS or iPadOS. Quite to the contrary, most sources talked about about the problems iOS and iPadOS have with handling hierarchical file systems which are a key part of InDesign.

Dov Isaacs

Legend

Adobe doesn't generally pre-announce products.

That having been said, implementing InDesign on an iPad had numerous challenges including:

(1) Poor or almost non-existant support for hierarchical file systems that may be readily accessed and manipulated by users. This is critical for a paradigm where documents depend on linked content either on the local “system” or on an accessible server. It would be very difficult to move a packaged InDesign document to the iPad as the file system currently is and to allow other applications access to the linked contents.

(2) Poor support for user-installed fonts.

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)

T

TrueTake

Participant

HAD numerous challenges, meaning development is underway?? I hope so, I'd like to keep my iPad Pro but I'll have to trade it in for a boring MacBook if there's no hope.

S

Sinfireproductions

Participating Frequently

One will also note that all the iOS versions of Adobe applications are subset functionality to what is released on MacOS and Windows. This includes not only Photoshop, but also Acrobat…

The real issue isn't whether or not a ps or Mac are noting. The real issue comes with people with professions like me. I work for a large national GC as a project manager and am also a manufacturer/ distributor of my own product. I live on planes traveling the country from job site to job site. Taking a computer onto these job sites is not a feasible option. I need software that I can load onto my iPad Pro. We do not even need a fully functional version with all of the bells and whistles, but a touch optimized workspace ( as you already have available within the pc software) to be able to edit files sent to us on the fly.
You mention one of the hurdles being unsupported fonts. There is a very simple solution for this. As with html5 coding you have open font and font face tags referring them to a css file telling them where to find the font online to sho it. I know that adobe has enough cloud space to add a code snippet directing the app to take the specified font in the app as people use it and giving it a font face attribute, linking the font to the app. You do not need to preinstall any actual font files. Just the names and as chosen by the user they become available within the projects.
The other is the support of hierarchical file systems. As with the other mobile apps, the ONLY supported file system that it requires are the actual InDesign files and the ability to use images and pdf's in editing.
This is the problem with most software developers. Because of the worries of bad reviews and backlash from the community, it's become an all or nothing situation when it comes to mobile platform releases. What people truly need is a happy medium.... a lite version that can be used on the go, so our marketing people and clients don't have to wait until we have a computer available to sit and work on. Something with fully functional viewing capabilities, but basic limited editing capabilities. ( the ability to add a notes layer to mark up files sent to us so they can be returned to the sender to modify from their end without having the notes actually embedded into the images, the ability to resize and rearrange existing sections in the documents as well as modify verbiage in existing text boxes, the ability to replace and resize and reposition images within the documents.) what we DO NOT need is an app to create documents from scratch. As was said, this is better done on a computer platform and could never be done on a mobile device with the precision and functionality that a professional document needs.

BobLevine

Community Expert

I doubt it. If you want to see what it would look like try Adobe Comp or find a friend with InDesign on a Windows touch device.

It's very basic. You can throw a layout together but trying to do real work is not a lot of fun.

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