Illustrator or InDesign

The line that actually divides the 2 programs

The line between Illustrator and InDesign is text flow, not page count. InDesign is built on the idea that a story is longer than the frame that holds it, so text pours out of one frame and into the next, repaginating everything after it when you add a sentence at the top. Illustrator is built on the idea that an object sits where you put it. Illustrator does thread text between objects, so this is not a matter of missing features, but nothing downstream of that flow is automated: there is no page numbering that renumbers itself, no page template that pushes a change to 60 pages at once, and no contents list that rebuilds from the headings.

Ask 3 questions of the job. Does the text run past 1 page. Will anybody insert or remove text after the layout is built. Does the document need numbered pages, footnotes, a contents list or an index. One yes points at InDesign, and 3 yeses make Illustrator a bad decision you will pay for in the second round of amends rather than the first.

What InDesign has that Illustrator does not

InDesign carries 7 things that have no Illustrator equivalent, and every one of them exists to manage repetition across pages.

• Parent pages, called master pages in older releases and older tutorials, which push a change to every page based on them at once.
• Automatic page numbering, inserted as a marker with Type > Insert Special Character > Markers > Current Page Number, shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N, which renumbers itself when pages move.
• Threaded text frames with a real story model, so text added on page 3 pushes through to page 40.
• A generated table of contents, built from paragraph styles at Layout > Table of Contents, plus footnotes, endnotes and indexes.
• Data merge at Window > Utilities > Data Merge, which fills a layout from a spreadsheet, for 500 name badges or a price list.
• A preflight panel that flags missing links, missing fonts and overset text while you work, and File > Package, which collects the document, its fonts and its links into 1 folder for the printer.
• Typographic controls for running text, including a baseline grid and optical margin alignment in the Story panel, which is the hanging punctuation control Illustrator has no version of.

Styles exist in both programs, and both have Paragraph Styles and Character Styles panels, on F11 and Shift+F11 in InDesign. The difference is what a style change does: in a 40 page InDesign document it reflows the whole book, and in Illustrator it restyles the text objects and leaves you to fix everything the reflow moved.

What Illustrator has that InDesign does not

Illustrator carries the drawing tools, and InDesign's are deliberately thin. The Pathfinder panel, shortcut Shift+Ctrl+F9, and the Shape Builder tool, shortcut Shift+M, for building shapes out of other shapes. Image Trace for converting a raster picture into paths. Gradient meshes and freeform gradients. The Appearance panel, shortcut Shift+F6, which stacks several fills, strokes and live effects on a single object. The Blend tool, shortcut W. Recolouring a whole illustration in 1 dialog with Edit > Edit Colors > Recolor Artwork. Illustrator, operation by operation takes those tools one at a time, and the length of that list is the real answer to why a drawing does not get built in a layout program.

Illustrator also has the canvas for it: 1 document holds up to 1000 artboards, and a single artboard goes to roughly 227 inches, about 577 cm, on a side, which covers vehicle graphics and exhibition panels. InDesign does have a Pathfinder and a Pen tool, so simple shapes are fine there, but a logo built in InDesign cannot be delivered in the formats anybody will ask for. The deliverable for a mark is .ai, .eps, .svg or a vector .pdf, and the native format of a layout program is .indd, which no sign maker, embroiderer or web developer wants to receive.

The common jobs, answered

• Logo or wordmark: Illustrator, always, and Kerning and tracking is worth reading before you set the letters, because a wordmark is 8 spacing decisions rather than 8 characters.
• Business card: either, and Illustrator if the card carries artwork rather than only text.
• Single sided flyer or poster: Illustrator.
• Three fold leaflet, 6 panels: either, and InDesign if the text is doing the work.
• Twelve page brochure: InDesign.
• Two hundred page catalogue with prices from a spreadsheet: InDesign, with data merge.
• Infographic, map or technical diagram: Illustrator.
• Packaging artwork with a dieline: Illustrator.
• Annual report with a contents list and footnotes: InDesign.
• Presentation or slide deck for print: InDesign, using parent pages for the repeating furniture.

How the 2 programs work together

The 2 programs are not alternatives in professional work, they are a sequence, and the sequence is worth setting up properly.

1. Draw the logo, icons, maps and diagrams in Illustrator and save each as its own .ai file.
2. Build the document in InDesign, with parent pages and paragraph styles set before any content goes in.
3. Place the artwork with File > Place, shortcut Ctrl+D in InDesign, and leave it linked rather than embedded.
4. Edit the artwork in Illustrator when a change is needed, save the same .ai file, and accept the update in the InDesign Links panel.
5. Run the preflight panel before output, and fix every missing link and overset text warning rather than exporting past them.
6. Export to the PDF preset the printer asks for, commonly PDF/X-1a or PDF/X-4, and package the job with File > Package if they want the working files as well.

Note that Illustrator places files too, with File > Place on Shift+Ctrl+P, and the same linking discipline applies there. The 1 rule that prevents most production accidents is to keep the artwork linked in both directions, so that a change is made once, in the program that owns the file. If step 1 is the unfamiliar half of that sequence, Illustrator: the first hour builds a single piece of artwork from new document to export, which is the shape every item placed at step 3 starts as.

What choosing wrong actually costs

Choosing wrong costs time in the second round of changes, never the first. A 16 page document laid out on 16 Illustrator artboards looks finished until the client cuts 2 paragraphs on page 3, at which point every subsequent page is moved by hand and the page numbers, which were typed, are all wrong. A logo drawn in InDesign looks finished until the sign maker asks for outlines and the file will not give them cleanly. Both mistakes are recoverable and both are expensive, and neither is a matter of skill: they are a matter of picking the program whose model matches the document.

Not every tool comparison is decided on features. Some are decided by what happened to the company: Corel bought Jasc Software and the distribution rights to Paint Shop Pro in October 2004, and the program is still sold and still supported today, which is why Jasc Paint Shop Pro is written as the history of a name rather than as a feature table. Illustrator against InDesign is not that kind of question. Both are current, both are actively developed, and the answer stays what it was in the first sentence: 1 page of anything, or many pages of text.

Where to go next

ILLUSTRATORIllustrator, operation by operationILLUSTRATORKerning and trackingKerning and tracking in IllustratorILLUSTRATORIllustrator: the first hourIllustrator for beginners: the first hourPAINTSHOP PROJasc Paint Shop Pro: the image editor, and which version is currentJasc Paint Shop Pro and what became of it