DesignCraft
The free alternative toInDesign
DesignCraft is an open source rewrite of InDesign, built from scratch by the ArtCraft team. You find InDesign’s menus, panels and shortcuts: spreads and parent pages, threaded text frames, paragraph and character styles, tables, text wrap, swatches with CMYK and spot colors. It exports a print-ready PDF (bleed, crop marks), PDF/A, EPUB, PNG and even an editable PowerPoint. MIT or Apache 2.0 license, free on Mac, Windows and Linux, with no subscription. The catch: it is a pre-alpha, which the team rates 47% ready for real work. It opens .indd and IDML files with no guaranteed fidelity, and copying and pasting objects is still buggy on Windows and Linux.
Versus InDesign: the match
Price
DesignCraft
€0, on every platform
InDesign
€27/month, one year commitment
License and sign in
DesignCraft
No subscription, no license server, no telemetry
InDesign
Adobe account required
InDesign files
DesignCraft
Opens .indd and IDML, fidelity not measured yet
InDesign
Its native format
| VS | DesignCraft | InDesign ↗ |
|---|---|---|
| Price | €0, on every platform | €27/month, one year commitment |
| License and sign in | No subscription, no license server, no telemetry | Adobe account required |
| InDesign files | Opens .indd and IDML, fidelity not measured yet | Its native format |
| Scripts, plug-ins and AI | None of these yet | Scripts, plug-ins, and 25 AI credits a month |
| Maturity | Pre-alpha, started in October 2026 | Over 25 years of development |
How to install it (even from zero)
The simplest path: download DesignCraft from its official page. It installs like any other app, with no subscription. The prompt below has Claude pick the right file for your machine and check the download.
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Paste this prompt into Claude (Code or Desktop)
It detects your system, downloads the right version and checks it has not been tampered with:
Je veux installer DesignCraft (le logiciel de mise en page open source qui reprend InDesign, dépôt GitHub officiel storytold/designcraft, site getartcraft.com/apps/designcraft) à la place d’un abonnement InDesign. Guide-moi pas à pas et pose-moi des questions si besoin. Repère d’abord mon système (macOS, Windows ou Linux) et mon processeur (Apple Silicon, Intel, x64 ou ARM). Télécharge ensuite la dernière version publiée dans les releases du dépôt storytold/designcraft, ou sur la page officielle getartcraft.com/apps/designcraft, en prenant le fichier qui correspond : l’image disque universelle sur Mac, l’installateur .msi sur Windows (x64, ARM64 ou 32 bits), l’AppImage, le paquet .deb, le paquet .rpm ou le Flatpak sur Linux. Vérifie l’empreinte SHA-256 du fichier avec le fichier SHA256SUMS.txt publié avec la même version, et arrête-toi si elle ne correspond pas. Installe l’appli et vérifie qu’elle démarre. Si macOS bloque l’ouverture, explique-moi comment l’autoriser dans Réglages Système, sans désactiver la sécurité de mon Mac. Rappelle-moi que DesignCraft est encore en pré-alpha : je garde mes fichiers InDesign d’origine et je travaille sur des copies. Si j’utilise Claude Code, propose-moi aussi d’installer l’outil en ligne de commande designcraft-cli de la même version et de brancher son serveur MCP (designcraft-cli mcp), pour que tu puisses mettre en page à ma place. Pour finir, ouvre le magazine d’exemple livré avec l’appli, puis un de mes documents InDesign exporté en IDML, et dis-moi ce qui s’affiche bien et ce qui manque. Review the GitHub repository and check whether it is safe to install given my machine and my infrastructure. Ask me as many questions as possible, using widgets, to clarify my request and be as precise as you can.
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Open a real document
The best test: a brochure, a catalog or a magazine from your work, exported from InDesign as IDML. Look closely at line breaks and page count: the text can reflow differently.
- 3
Keep InDesign for client files
.indd and IDML files open with no guaranteed fidelity, and neither InDesign scripts nor plug-ins run in it. For your own layouts, try DesignCraft for a week before you renew your subscription.
Paste this prompt into Claude (Code or Desktop)What you actually do with it
Your layouts without a subscription
Spreads, parent pages, threaded text, styles and tables: your everyday brochures and magazines, without the €27 a month.
A print-ready PDF
CMYK, spot colors, bleed and crop marks: it exports a print-ready PDF, as well as PDF/A, EPUB or an editable PowerPoint.
Claude lays out for you
Every menu, tool and panel can be driven through its MCP server: your agent creates the document, places text and images, applies styles and exports.
Project health, at a glance
Before installing an open-source tool, one question matters: is the project alive? These scores are computed from public GitHub data. They are not made up.
75/100
GoodHealthy, followed project: a good everyday choice.
- Activity
- 100
Is the code moving? (commits in the last 30 days)
- Maintenance
- 100
How fresh is the latest update? Fresher is better.
- Community
- 78
Stars and contributors: people around means help and fixes.
- Maturity
- 40
Project age. Old enough to be solid, still alive.
- Momentum
- 55
Current pace versus its usual pace: speeding up or dozing off?
The repo in numbers
- GitHub stars
- 4.9k
- Forks
- 3.4k
- Contributors
- 98
- Commits
- 3.4k
- Project age
- 0.1 yrs
- Last commit
- today
- Size
- 29.4 MB
- License
- Apache-2.0
Built with
- Rust 98.3%
- Max 1%
Scores computed automatically from the GitHub API (last-30-days activity, update freshness, community size, project age). Refreshed daily.
Loucash’s take
6/10
After PhotoCraft, FilmCraft, LightCraft, VectorCraft and EffectCraft, the same team takes on InDesign. Spreads, parent pages, threaded text, styles, swatches: everything is in the same place, with a real paragraph composer and a print-ready PDF. It even opens .indd and IDML files. What may bite: it is still a pre-alpha, started on 1 October. The team itself rates it 47% ready for real work: InDesign files open with no guaranteed fidelity, text can reflow differently, and copying and pasting objects is still buggy on Windows and Linux. For a personal brochure or booklet, it is worth a try. For a client file, keep InDesign for now.
It’s for you if: You lay out brochures, catalogs, magazines or books, you pay for InDesign mostly for parent pages, styles and PDF export, and you want to stop the subscription. If you swap .indd files with clients or printers, or you rely on scripts and plug-ins, keep InDesign for now.
Also worth a look in the library
PhotoCraft
Content & social€27/moThe open source Photoshop, rewritten from scratch: layers, masks, adjustment layers, styles, type, vectors, brushes and real PSD files. Free, offline and with no account, still in alpha.
View details →
FilmCraft
Content & social€27/moThe open source Premiere Pro, rewritten from scratch: multitrack timeline, trims, Lumetri-style grading, effects, audio mixing, captions and export. Free, with no account, still in alpha.
View details →
VectorCraft
Content & social€27/moThe open source Illustrator, rewritten from scratch: pen, Pathfinder, Shape Builder, gradients, type, layers, and SVG, PDF and PDF-compatible .ai files. Free, with no account, still in alpha.
View details →
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