The Short Version
For a self-publisher laying out print books, Affinity now offers most of what InDesign does for free, which makes it the obvious place to start. InDesign remains the industry standard, with deeper long-document automation, mature ebook export including fixed layout, and the file format that publishers and many freelance designers expect. Choose Affinity if you want professional print layout without a subscription. Choose InDesign if you work with publishing teams, need advanced automation, or produce fixed-layout ebooks.
Where Each Stands in 2026
Affinity used to be three separate paid apps, including Affinity Publisher for page layout. Since Canva acquired it, they have been combined into a single app that is free for Mac and Windows with a Canva account; some AI features need a paid Canva plan. The layout tools that made Affinity Publisher popular with indie authors are part of that app, alongside vector illustration and photo editing.
Adobe InDesign is a subscription app for Windows and Mac, at around US$22.99 a month on an annual plan billed monthly, or included in Creative Cloud bundles. Publishers, magazines and book designers have relied on it for decades.
Feature Grid
| Affinity | Adobe InDesign | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free with a Canva account | Subscription, around US$22.99 a month annual |
| Platforms | Mac and Windows | Mac and Windows |
| Master pages and styles | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in illustration and photo editing | Yes, in the same app | Separate Adobe apps |
| Advanced automation | Solid core tools | GREP and nested styles, scripting, data merge |
| Ebook export | Primarily a print tool; check current options | Reflowable and fixed-layout EPUB |
| Industry file exchange | Opens some InDesign files via IDML | The standard format publishers use |
| Learning resources | Growing | Extensive |
Cost Over Several Books
Price is now the most dramatic difference. InDesign at around US$22.99 a month costs roughly US$276 a year, every year, and you need an active subscription to keep editing your files. Over five years, that is well over a thousand dollars.
Affinity's core app costs nothing. For an author formatting their own books, that removes the main reason not to use professional layout software at all. The real cost becomes your time to learn it, which is similar for both apps.
Long-Document Tools
Books are long documents, and both apps handle the essentials: master pages for running heads and page numbers, paragraph and character styles, text flowing across linked frames, and tables of contents generated from heading styles.
InDesign goes further for complex projects. GREP styles apply formatting automatically to matching text patterns, nested styles format the first words of a paragraph differently, scripting automates repetitive tasks, and the book feature combines several documents into one project with shared numbering and styles. For a straightforward novel, you may never need these at all. For a long nonfiction book with many tables, notes and cross-references, they save hours.
Typography
Both apps provide the controls good book typography needs: kerning and tracking, hyphenation and justification settings, baseline grids, OpenType features such as ligatures and old-style figures, and optical margin alignment. InDesign's paragraph composer has long been praised for even text color across justified lines, and its controls are slightly deeper. In practice, a skilled user can produce excellent pages in either; the designer's eye and patience matter far more than the software.
Ebooks
This is InDesign's clearest advantage. It exports both reflowable and fixed-layout EPUBs, which matters for picture books, cookbooks and highly designed books where pages must keep their exact layout. Reflowable export still takes preparation, such as mapping styles to tags and checking reading order, but the capability is built in.
Affinity is primarily a print layout tool. Check its current export options before relying on it for ebooks; many authors who lay out print in Affinity produce their ebook with a separate, text-focused formatter. Our guide to choosing a formatting tool by book type covers ebook-friendly options.
I lay out book interiors for print and ebook to each printer's specifications, from novels to image-heavy nonfiction.
Image-Heavy Books
For cookbooks, photo books, workbooks and illustrated nonfiction, both apps handle text wrap, image frames, linked or embedded graphics and color management. Affinity has one practical edge here: photo editing and vector illustration live in the same app, so you can retouch a photo or adjust a diagram without switching programs. InDesign users move between InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator, which Creative Cloud links smoothly but which requires those subscriptions too.
Either way, use high-resolution images, around 300 dpi at the printed size, and check how colors convert for print, since screens show colors a printer cannot always reproduce.
A 300-Page Novel in Each
The workflow is almost identical. You create a document at your trim size with margins, bleed and facing pages, build master pages for verso and recto running heads and page numbers, define styles for body text, chapter titles, first paragraphs and scene breaks, then place the edited manuscript into threaded text frames. Next comes the slow part in any app: working through every spread to fix widows, orphans, loose lines and awkward chapter endings.
Where they differ is in the finishing. InDesign's automation can apply small-caps openings or drop caps through nested styles and handle repeated patterns with GREP, while in Affinity some of those touches take more manual work. For a single novel, the difference might be an afternoon; across a long series, it adds up.
Fonts and Licensing
Both apps use the fonts installed on your computer. Check each font's license allows embedding in commercial books; many free fonts do, but not all. Adobe subscribers also get access to Adobe Fonts, a large library licensed for use in projects made while subscribed, which is a quiet advantage of the Creative Cloud ecosystem. Affinity users rely on their own licensed fonts or open-license families.
Working With Designers and Printers
InDesign's file format is the lingua franca of publishing. If you hire a book designer, work with a traditional publisher or join a team, they will usually expect InDesign files. That network effect is a real reason to choose it professionally.
For printers, the format matters less: both apps export print-ready PDFs with bleed, crop settings, color profiles and PDF standards such as PDF/X, which is what print-on-demand services and commercial printers actually receive. Both also offer preflight checks that flag missing fonts, low-resolution images and overset text before you export.
Switching Between Them
Affinity can open InDesign files saved in IDML format, InDesign's interchange format, which makes moving older projects possible, though complex layouts may need cleanup. Going the other way is harder. If you expect to hand files to InDesign users regularly, factor that in.
Learning Either One
Expect a learning curve with both. Book layout combines software skills with typographic judgment, and a first book usually takes several weekends. A sensible path for a first book:
- Learn the core concepts that both apps share: document setup, master pages, styles, threaded frames and export settings.
- Rebuild a page from a book you admire to practice typography decisions.
- Lay out one chapter fully before tackling the whole manuscript.
- Order a printed proof early; pages read differently on paper than on screen.
Skills transfer well between the two, so learning one makes the other much easier if your needs change later.
Who Should Choose Which
| If you... | Lean toward |
|---|---|
| Format your own print books and want no subscription | Affinity |
| Also design covers, illustrations or photos | Affinity, with everything in one app |
| Work with publishers or design teams | InDesign |
| Need fixed-layout ebooks | InDesign |
| Produce long, complex nonfiction with heavy automation | InDesign |
| Are learning layout from scratch on a budget | Affinity |
Frequently Asked Questions
Its layout tools are part of the combined Affinity app, which is free for Mac and Windows with a Canva account. Some AI features need a paid Canva plan.
For self-publishers laying out their own print books, often not. For designers working with publishers, producing fixed-layout ebooks or needing advanced automation, InDesign still earns its cost.
It can open IDML files exported from InDesign, though complex layouts may need adjustment.
Both export print-ready PDFs with bleed and correct settings for KDP and other printers.
InDesign, which exports reflowable and fixed-layout EPUBs. Many Affinity users create ebooks with a separate formatter.
You need an active subscription to open and edit InDesign documents, so keep exported PDFs of every finished book. Affinity files stay editable in the free app.
Both take time. Affinity is often considered slightly more approachable, while InDesign has far more tutorials and courses.