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InDesign

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  1. InDesign User Guide
  2. Get to know InDesign
    1. Introduction to InDesign
      1. What's New in InDesign
      2. System requirements
      3. Common questions
      4. Use Creative Cloud libraries
      5. GPU performance
    2. Workspace
      1. Workspace basics
      2. Contextual task bar
      3. Customize your workspace in InDesign
      4. Toolbox
      5. Set preferences
      6. Properties panel
      7. Touch workspace
      8. Default keyboard shortcuts
      9. Undo edits and manage History panel
      10. Document recovery and undo
    3. Generative AI (Not available in mainland China)
      1. Text to Image
      2. Generative Expand
      3. Generative Fill (beta)
      4. Generative AI FAQ
  3. Create and layout documents
    1. Documents and pages
      1. Create documents
      2. Work with parent pages
      3. Work with document pages
      4. Set page size, margins, and bleed
      5. Work with files and templates
      6. Convert PDFs to InDesign Documents (beta)
      7. Create book files
      8. Add basic page numbering
      9. Number pages, chapters, and sections
      10. Convert QuarkXPress and PageMaker documents
      11. Share content
      12. Understand a basic managed-file workflow
      13. Save documents
    2. Grids
      1. Grids
      2. Format grids
    3. Layout aids
      1. Rulers
      2. Align and distribute objects using rulers
      3. Measure objects using the Measure tool
  4. Add content
    1. Text
      1. Add text to frames
      2. Threading text
      3. South-East Asian Scripts
      4. Arabic and Hebrew features in InDesign
      5. Create type on a path
      6. Bullets and numbering
      7. Create math expressions
      8. Glyphs and special characters
      9. Text composition
      10. Composing CJK characters
      11. Text variables
      12. Generate QR codes
      13. Edit text
      14. Align text
      15. Wrap text around objects
      16. Anchored objects
      17. Linked content
      18. Format paragraphs
      19. Format characters
    2. Typography
      1. Using fonts in InDesign
      2. Kerning and tracking
      3. Scale and skew type
      4. Apply color effects to type
    3. Format text
      1. Format text
      2. Auto Style text
      3. Work with Style Packs
      4. Tabs and indents
    4. Review text
      1. Track and review changes
      2. Add editorial notes in InDesign
      3. Import PDF comments
    5. Spell check and language dictionaries
      1. Check spelling, autocorrect, and dynamic spelling
      2. Create, add, and manage dictionaries and words
      3. Change dictionary preferences
      4. Duden dictionary
    6. Add references
      1. Create a table of contents
      2. Footnotes
      3. Create an index
      4. Endnotes
      5. Captions
    7. Styles
      1. Paragraph and character styles
      2. Map, export, and manage styles
      3. Object styles
      4. Drop caps and nested styles
      5. Work with styles
      6. Leading
    8. Tables
      1. Format tables
      2. Create tables
      3. Table and Cell styles
      4. Select and edit tables
      5. Table strokes and fills
    9. Interactivity
      1. Hyperlinks
      2. Dynamic PDF documents
      3. Bookmarks
      4. Buttons
      5. Forms
      6. Animation
      7. Cross-references
      8. Structure PDFs
      9. Page transitions
      10. Movies and sounds
    10. Graphics
      1. Understand paths and shapes
      2. Draw with the Pencil tool
      3. Draw with the Pen tool
      4. Apply line (stroke) settings 
      5. Compound paths and shapes
      6. Edit paths
      7. Clipping paths
      8. Change corner appearance
      9. Frames and objects
      10. Align and distribute objects
      11. Linked and embedded graphics
      12. Integrate AEM assets
    11. Color and transparency
      1. Apply color
      2. Use colors from imported graphics
      3. Work with swatches
      4. Mix inks
      5. Tints
      6. Understand spot and process colors
      7. Blend colors
      8. Gradients
      9. Flatten transparent artwork
      10. Add transparency effects
  5. Find and replace
    1. Find and replace text
    2. Find and replace fonts
    3. Find and replace glyphs
    4. Find and replace using GREP expressions and queries
    5. Find and replace objects
    6. Find and replace colors
    7. Search options to find and replace
  6. Share
    1. Save and access cloud documents
    2. Organize, manage, and share cloud documents
    3. View and manage versions in cloud documents
    4. Common questions about InDesign cloud documents
    5. InCopy on the web (Beta)
    6. Share and collaborate        
    7. Share for Review
    8. Review a shared InDesign document
    9. Manage feedback
    10. Invite to edit
  7. Export, import, and publish
    1. Place, export, and publish
      1. Publish online
      2. Publish online dashboard
      3. Copy, insert graphics
      4. Export to Adobe Express
      5. Export content for EPUB
      6. Adobe PDF options
      7. Export to HTML5
      8. Export content to HTML (Legacy)
      9. Export to Adobe PDF
      10. Export to JPEG or PNG format
      11. Import SVG files
      12. Supported File Formats
      13. Export and import User Settings
    2. Printing
      1. Print booklets
      2. Printer's marks and bleeds
      3. Print documents
      4. Inks, separation, and screen frequency
      5. Overprinting
      6. Create PostScript and EPS files
      7. Preflight files before handoff
      8. Print thumbnails and oversized documents
      9. Prepare PDFs for service providers
      10. Prepare to print separations
  8. Extend InDesign
    1. Automation
      1. Data merge
      2. Plug-ins
      3. Capture extension in InDesign
      4. Scripting
  9. Troubleshooting
    1. Fixed issues
    2. Known issues
    3. Crash on launch
    4. Improve InDesign performance
    5. Preference folder read-only issue
    6. Troubleshoot file issues
    7. Unable to export InDesign file to PDF
    8. InDesign document recovery

Learn how to run Adobe InDesign quickly and efficiently on Windows and macOS.

Several factors affect how efficiently InDesign performs, such as your operating system, hardware configuration, workflow, and selected options. If you notice InDesign running more slowly than usual, try the techniques provided for optimizing not only InDesign's performance but also the performance of your other apps.

The hero is a visual representation of optimizing operating system, hardware and working on Illustrator effectively with characters working on the system, color themes and outline view

Before you begin, ensure that you have installed the latest version of InDesign.

Update InDesign

Select the tabs below to view and follow the listed steps to improve your InDesign performance.

By configuring your operating system to run efficiently, you increase the amount of memory available to apps, which helps them run smoothly. Here are several steps to optimize Windows and macOS and improve InDesign performance.

Manage fonts

Ensure that you:

  • Install only the fonts you need to improve system performance and the performance of apps that access fonts.
  • Use a font management utility to help you manage many fonts.

Use a PostScript printer driver

Non-PostScript printer drivers can conflict with InDesign. Therefore, Adobe recommends setting a PostScript printer driver as the default printer in macOS. The PostScript printer must be connected to your computer directly or via a network to complete the following steps.

Step 1. Set a PostScript printer as the default printer

  1. From the Apple menu, choose System Preferences, then select Printers & Scanners.

  2. If a PostScript printer isn't listed, select +, navigate to a PostScript printer, and select Add.

  3. Select a PostScript printer from Default Printer pop-up menu.

Step 2. Configure InDesign to print to a non-default printer

  1. Open any document in InDesign, and choose File > Print.

  2. In the Print dialog box, choose Adobe PostScript File or the name of the printer from the Printer menu and select Save.

If the interface is customized, then some procedures vary. For example, the path to navigate to the Control Panel may vary. Choose Start > Settings > Control Panel or Start > Control Panel, depending on your version of Windows. 

Increase available memory

To increase performance, choose the right size for your paging file (the area of the hard drive that stores virtual memory). For best performance, choose a hard drive not used for the InDesign scratch disk. Administrator rights are required to change the paging file size. InDesign performs best when the paging file's maximum size is about three times the amount of installed RAM.

  1. Quit all apps.

  2. Type Control Panel in Windows Search in the task bar.

  3. Choose System > Advanced system settings.

  4. In the System Properties dialog box, choose the Advanced tab.

  5. Select Settings in the Performance section, and then choose the Advanced tab.

  6. In the Virtual Memory section, select Change.

  7. Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box.

  8. From the Drive list, select a hard drive that has at least three times the amount of your computer's installed RAM. For example, if your computer has 64 MB of RAM, select a hard drive that has at least 192 MB of free space.

Disable driver features

Some video adapter drivers offer advanced settings for accelerating or modifying graphics display. Sometimes, these settings can adversely affect screen redraw performance in InDesign. Disable driver-specific features to determine the best settings for use with InDesign. For more information, see the documentation for your video adapter.

Manage fonts

Ensure that you:

  • Install only the fonts you need to improve system performance and the performance of apps that access fonts. 
  • Use a font management utility to help you manage many fonts.

Limit startup applications

Apps that start automatically on Windows compete with InDesign for available RAM.

 To prevent apps from starting automatically, do the following:

  1. Quit all apps.

  2. Start Windows Explorer.

  3. Disable startup apps by moving all icons and shortcuts from the Startup folder (OSDisk\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp) to another folder.

  4. Restart Windows.

To close apps specified to start automatically in the registry, do the following:

  1. Restart Windows and press Ctrl+Shift+Esc.

  2. Choose the Processes tab. Select an app name, and select End Task.

  3. Restart InDesign. If InDesign's performance improves, then contact the application's manufacturer for assistance to permanently disable it from starting automatically. 

  4. Repeat steps 2-5 for each remaining startup app.

After restarting, check whether InDesign performance improves and re-enable shortcuts and icons. For more information, see Take control of your Windows start-up. 

Re-enable shortcuts and icons

If InDesign performance does not improve after limiting start-up applications and restarting, do the following:

  1.  Add the icons and shortcuts back to the Startup folder and re-enable the them in Windows Explorer.

  2. Isolate the performance problem to one or more programs and place them in the Startup folder using Windows Explorer and re-enable their icons and shortcuts.

If the performance of InDesign improves after restarting Windows, do the following:

  1. Restart your computer after re-enabling each set of icons and shortcuts and testing InDesign's performance.

  2. Repeat this process until the performance of InDesign degrades. 

  3. Isolate the icon or shortcut that is causing the performance issue and remove it again. Contact the program's manufacturer to see if an update is available.

The hardware you use affects InDesign performance: the faster the processor or hard drive, the faster InDesign can process information. Other hardware enhancements, such as installing additional RAM, using a multiprocessor system, or optimizing and defragmenting drives, can also improve performance.

Choose your operating system and try the steps below to optimize hardware:

Use a faster processor

The speed of your computer's central processing unit (CPU) affects the speed of InDesign. Because InDesign manipulates large quantities of data and performs many calculations, its speed depends on the processor's speed. Consider using a computer with a faster processor.

Install additional RAM

If InDesign has insufficient RAM, it uses hard disk space (virtual memory, scratch disk, or both) to process information. InDesign is fastest when it can process information in memory without using a hard disk.

Optimize disk space

Here are a few ways to optimize disk space:

  • Check your hard disk for errors or defragment files with a third-party disk utility (for example, Norton Utilities). If you're running macOS, the drive must be repaired with a third-party disk utility.
  • Save your files to drives with faster access speeds. For example, use an internal hard drive rather than a network server or external drive.

Use a faster processor

The speed of your computer's central processing unit (CPU) affects the speed of InDesign. Because InDesign manipulates large quantities of data and performs many calculations, its speed depends on the processor's speed. Consider using a computer with a faster processor.

Install additional RAM

If InDesign has insufficient RAM, it uses hard disk space (virtual memory, scratch disk, or both) to process information. InDesign is fastest when it can process information in memory without using a hard disk.

Optimize disk space

Here are a few ways to optimize disk space:

  • Check your hard disk for errors, defragment files, and make the best use of available hard disk space by using the CHKDSK.exe and Disk Defragmenter programs. For more information on Windows, see Improve performance for Windows.
  • Save your files to drives with faster access speeds. For example, use an internal hard drive rather than a network server or external drive.
  • If you want to save a file to a network or external drive, save it to an internal hard drive. Then, close the file and use Windows Explorer to copy it to the network or external drive.

Use a PostScript printer

For best results when printing from InDesign, use a PostScript printer. Most non-PostScript printers rely on display information, host computer resources, and proprietary printer drivers to relay print information to the printer. Therefore, they can take much longer to print than a PostScript printer.

1. Start with a clean preferences file

  1. Close InDesign, if it is running.

  2. Depending on which OS you use, navigate to the path:
    macOS: ~/Library/Preferences/Adobe InDesign
    Windows: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\InDesign

  3. Rename the Preferences folder:
    macOS: Rename the folder InDesign <Version> Settings to InDesign <Version> Settings_old
    Windows: Rename the folder Adobe InDesign <Version> Settings to Adobe InDesign <Version> Settings_old

  4. Restart InDesign.

2. Ensure that your onboard GPU card is the default for all display activities.

Cause: With laptops that have an on-board graphics card (integrated GPU) and an additional (add-on GPU), users are reporting that InDesign does not pick the available add-on GPU. InDesign defaults to the integrated GPU. When launched, InDesign uses the same hardware that drives the laptop’s display. If your add-on GPU isn't rendering the laptop’s display, InDesign will use the integrated GPU.

Possible solutions: When you have an add-on GPU, to use GPU Performance in InDesign, ensure that the add-on GPU powers all the display-related functionality on your laptop.

  • Using your BIOS settings, ensure that the add-on GPU is used by default. If possible, disable the onboard GPU.
  • In your Operating System settings, ensure that the add-on GPU is used as the default to drive all display functionality. For example, for NVIDIA GPUs, you can use the NVIDIA Control Panel to set a global option that ensures the default GPU used for all display functionality uses the NVIDIA hardware.
  • Use the hardware device manager software to disable the onboard GPU. This causes the computer to default to the add-on GPU.
Note:

Using the add-on GPU device causes power consumption to rise and significantly reduces battery life while operating on battery power. This will reduce the period of time available for the laptop to function before needing to find a power source.

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