Which software do professional designers use most to lay out books — InDesign, Affinity or something else?

"Which program do you use?" is usually one of the first questions an author asks the designer — and, almost always, what they really want to know is something else: whether they can do it themselves, whether the file will be accepted by the printer and whether the result will look like a publisher's book. The answer about the software answers all three, but not in the way the question suggests.

This article presents the tools used in professional book layout, what each does well, where each falls short and why the choice of program matters less than most people think.

1. The market standard: Adobe InDesign

InDesign is the layout software used by the vast majority of publishers, agencies and editorial designers in Brazil and worldwide. That is not a judgement of absolute quality; it is an observation about the ecosystem. Printers know its files, publishers exchange projects in it, translators and proofreaders work with its exports, and almost every tutorial, course and market template starts from it.

What it does best

• Nested paragraph and character styles, with inheritance — the base of any consistent book
• A baseline grid and fine control of leading, kerning, tracking and hyphenation by language
• Master pages and automatic numbering, with sections and a table of contents generated from the styles
• Book (.indb): several chapter files treated as a single volume, with continuous pagination
• Export to PDF/X with bleed, marks and colour profile, and to reflowable EPUB with a semantic structure
• Footnotes and endnotes, tables, indexes and automatic cross-references

Where it weighs

InDesign is sold only by subscription, and the monthly cost is significant for someone laying out one book a year. The learning curve is long: the program is made for those who will use it professionally, not for an occasional task. And it is generous to those who know what they are doing — and equally generous to those who do not, which means a poorly built file in InDesign looks as professional on screen as a well-built one.

Why the printer asks whether the file comes from InDesign

Not because the program is mandatory, but because the PDF it exports follows the printing standards predictably. A PDF/X-1a or X-4 generated by any competent software is accepted in the same way. What the printer wants is the right file, not the right program. See How are files prepared for the commercial printing of a book?

2. The professional alternative: Affinity Publisher

Affinity Publisher, by Serif, is InDesign's direct competitor and the growing choice of independent designers and small publishers. It covers almost everything a book requires — styles, master pages, baseline grid, notes, table of contents, PDF/X export — and is sold with a one-off licence, no subscription.

What it does well

The integration with Affinity Photo and Affinity Designer within the same document is the most praised feature: the designer edits an image or a vector without leaving the page. Performance is good on modest machines, and the interface is more direct for those coming from other programs.

Where it still trails

Managing long projects across several files is less mature than InDesign's "book" feature; EPUB export is not native and requires an external tool; hyphenation in Portuguese is acceptable, but with less control. And the market still exchanges files in InDesign format — a designer who works only with Affinity needs to agree deliveries with publishers who expect .indd. For independent-author projects, none of this is usually a blocker.

3. The niche options

Scribus

Free, open-source software with the essential layout features and good export to print PDF. It is used by small publishers, academic projects and those with a total budget restriction. The interface is dated and some workflows are laborious, but the printed result can be fully professional in the hands of someone who knows typography.

LaTeX

Not a visual layout software, but a code-based typesetting system. It is the standard in mathematics, physics, computing and much of academic production, because it handles formulas, references and automatic numbering in a way no other program matches. For fiction or general non-fiction, it is an unusual choice — fine visual control is possible, but it requires technical knowledge few editorial designers have.

QuarkXPress

The market standard before InDesign, still used by some publishers and newspapers with established workflows. Equivalent features, a much smaller user base in Brazil.

Self-publishing tools: Vellum, Reedsy, Atticus

Programs made for the author to lay out their own book from templates: Vellum (Mac only), Reedsy Book Editor (free, in the browser) and Atticus. They produce clean interiors for fiction and simple non-fiction, with export to print and EPUB, and are a legitimate option for those who will not hire a designer. The limit is structural: the author chooses among the ready-made designs, they do not create a design for their book. Grid, typography, hierarchy and rhythm are decisions of the tool, not theirs. On when that choice makes sense, see Do you have to hire a designer to publish a book independently?

4. Word, Google Docs and Canva: why not

Each of these programs solves a problem — and book layout is not it.

Word and Google Docs are word processors: excellent for writing and reviewing, unsuited to composing pages. They have no baseline grid, do not control typographic hyphenation, do not reliably manage widows and orphans, do not export with bleed and crop marks and treat styles fragilely. The PDF they generate is accepted by print-on-demand platforms, but the result carries all the program's limitations: automatic leading, irregular spacing, compressed images.

Canva is a design tool for short pieces — posts, posters, presentations. It works for simple covers and is used by many authors for that, but it was not made for long text: there are no real paragraph styles, notes, automatic table of contents or text flow across hundreds of pages.

The clearest sign of an interior made in a word processor

Leading of 115% to 120% (Word's automatic default), paragraphs with an indent and extra space, headings left alone at the bottom of the page and equal margins on all four sides. None of these mistakes has to do with talent — they all have to do with the tool. On the first two, read What is the difference between leading, heading spacing and paragraph spacing in book layout?

5. What really defines the choice

Between InDesign, Affinity and Scribus, the finished book can be indistinguishable. The difference is in four practical questions.

Who will the file circulate with?

If the project passes through a publisher, a proofreader who annotates on the PDF or a cover designer who needs the spine, InDesign makes it easier by being the common format. If the project is closed — designer and author, and the final file goes straight to the printer — any professional tool will do.

Will the book have a digital version?

A well-structured EPUB is born from a file with clean semantic styles. InDesign exports this natively; Affinity needs an extra step; the self-publishing tools do it well. On what changes between the formats, see Can the same layout file be reused for print and for the digital version (ebook)?

How many books per year?

A subscription makes sense for those who produce continuously. For a book every two years, Affinity's one-off licence or the free Scribus are more rational — as long as whoever operates it knows how to lay out.

Who will operate it?

This is the question that matters. An experienced editorial designer delivers an excellent interior in any of the three; an author with no typographic training delivers a problematic interior in any of the three. The software amplifies the competence of the person using it. It does not replace it. On what the designer does that the tool does not, read Why hire a designer who specialises in book layout?

Frequently asked questions

What is the best software to lay out books?

For professional work, InDesign and Affinity Publisher are the two references; the first is the market standard and the second the subscription-free alternative. Scribus is the serious free option. "Best" depends on who the file circulates with, whether there will be an ebook and who will operate the program.

Does Affinity Publisher replace InDesign?

For most independent-author and small-publisher books, yes. For workflows that exchange .indd files with publishers, translators and other designers, or that depend on native EPUB export, InDesign remains more practical.

Can you lay out a book in Word?

You can generate a PDF accepted by print-on-demand platforms, but the result is not a professional layout: Word offers no typographic control, no baseline grid and no adequate export for the printer. For simple running text, tools like Reedsy or Vellum are a better alternative than Word and a worse one than a designer.

What does the printer need to receive?

A print PDF (PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4) with bleed, crop marks, embedded fonts, images at adequate resolution and the correct colour profile — regardless of the software that generated it.

Do I need to buy the software to hire a designer?

No. The designer works with their own licence and delivers the final files (print PDF and, if agreed, the open file). If you want the editable file for future changes, agree that in the quote and check which program it will be delivered in.

Related articles

• How are files prepared for the commercial printing of a book?
• Do you have to hire a designer to publish a book independently?
• Can the same layout file be reused for print and for the digital version (ebook)?
• Is book layout the same thing as conventional graphic design?
• What does the designer need to receive from the author or publisher to start a layout project?

To understand every aspect of editorial design in one place, read the complete guide: Book designer: the complete guide to book layout and cover design