Open Madosuite
Pre-alpha

Design, a free page layout and desktop publishing app in your browser

Lay out magazines, books and brochures with parent pages, threaded text, styles and print-ready PDF. A free alternative to InDesign.

Open DesignDesign vs InDesign

Opens

IDMLINDD (import)

Saves

IDMLPDF/X-4PDF/A-2bEPUBPPTXPNG

What Design does

From the app’s own documentation, version 0.15.2.

Tools

  • Spreads, parent pages and layers
  • Threaded text frames across columns
  • Paragraph and character styles
  • Tables and text wrap
  • Knuth-Plass paragraph composer and hyphenation
  • Baseline grid and optical margin alignment
  • CMYK swatches
  • PDF/X-4, PDF/A-2b and EPUB export

Files it opens

IDMLINDD (import)

Files it saves

IDMLPDF/X-4PDF/A-2bEPUBPPTXPNG

Not there yet

  • Its full list of gaps is long; treat it as a preview

What Design replaces

The paid apps people use for the same job. Prices from the vendors’ US pages on 14 November 2026.

Design instead of InDesign

InDesign costs US$22.99 a month on an annual plan, billed monthly.

Read the comparisonDesign instead of Creative Cloud Pro

Creative Cloud Pro costs US$69.99 a month on an annual plan, billed monthly (US$779.88 a year paid up front).

Read the comparison

Open a file with Design

Open .idml files

The exchange format of Adobe InDesign, the way layouts move between versions and apps.

Open .indd files

Adobe InDesign’s own layout file.

Design questions

Is Design free?

Yes. Design is part of Madosuite, which is free. It runs in your browser on your own device.

Which files does Design open?

IDML, INDD (import). It saves IDML, PDF/X-4, PDF/A-2b, EPUB, PPTX, PNG.

Is Design ready for real work?

Pre-alpha. Not there yet: its full list of gaps is long; treat it as a preview.

Can Design replace InDesign?

For laying out magazines, books, brochures and print, often yes, and free. Design is pre-alpha: try it for a layout, and keep a proven tool for a print deadline.

Where are my files kept?

In the browser on your device, inside Madosuite’s own Linux machine, in its home folder. Your files are not uploaded to us. Clearing the site’s data in your browser deletes them, so download what you want to keep.

Who makes the apps?

The suite apps are the ArtCraft team’s open-source Crafting Apps, under the MIT or Apache-2.0 licence. Madosuite puts them on one desktop in your browser, with Files, a Terminal and Edix, the code editor. See credits.

More apps in Madosuite

Word

Write and lay out documents with the ribbon, styles, tables, track changes and references you already know, and save real .docx files.

Grid

Spreadsheets with 500+ functions, dynamic arrays, pivot tables and charts, saved as .xlsx.

Deck

Build slide decks with themes, charts, transitions and animations, open and save .pptx, and present full screen.

Photo

Edit images with layers, masks, adjustment layers, layer styles and type, and open and save real .psd files.

Design is DesignCraft 0.15.2 by the ArtCraft team, open source under MIT or Apache-2.0. Credits.