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Adobe XD: Feature Requests (Read-Only): 07 : Integration with other tools

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InDesign integration

Would like XD to work with InDesign in much the same manner that AI and PSD files do. This might be more of a feature request for InDesign however I imagine they both play a role in working together.

Ultimately, in order for a design to be implemented correctly, we need to provide a detailed UI specification for engineering. This specification is often worked on by interaction and visual designers which is part of what makes InDesign an ideal solution for us.

The prototyping functionality is great for communicating how a design could work, but we still need an accompanying UI spec in order for it to be built correctly. This document is also used as a reference for QA down the line to validate the implementation.

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  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    IMO Xd and InDesign should be very cross compatible. For example you should be able to grab a text box in InDesign and paste into Xd. Ideally you should be able to grab any InDesign object and paste directly into Xd. That includes text, font styles, vector graphics, images, palette colors - maybe even character and paragraph styles. I'd like the ability to grab an entire InDesign page design and paste it in to Xd. It seems like Xd is InDesign's new born little sister. She can be so much more like her older brother InDesign if only she would mature a bit.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    I like what you're doing with XD but it seems to me you are throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

    indesign is already the most powerful layout program there is and starting from scratch seems silly.

    What I wish you would do is add a digital design toolset/mode to indesign that uses css properties, artboard similar to XD ect...

    Of course this won't happen because the XD and Indesign development teams are different teams working on different products but it would have been nice... as it is XD seems so many generations away from being anything I would prefer to indesign.

    Prove me wrong XD team.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    I've been using indesign as a mockup tool for websites for more than a decade. It's vastly superior to photoshop or illustrator for this job, however it lacks a dedicated toolset for web design or at least a good one so you more or less have to fake but it still works well.

    What i'm hoping for is Indesign layout power but with a dedicated web/css toolkit inside of XD. That being said much of what you need to do to improve XD you can discover by studying indesign.

    I'm not sure that I necessarily see the need to port projects back and for the between XD and inDesign so long as XD has the layout capabilities to make indesign unnecessary for this use. Copying and pasting would certainly be useful though.

  • Sevensleeper commented  ·   ·  Report

    Please integrate Indesign with XD. Indesign is by far the fastest way to layout period. It would be great to import indesign pages into XD and only have to then create the prototyping and effects. Then have the ability to export the assets for dev.

  • Anonymous commented  ·   ·  Report

    Nate I love your explanation and you explained much better that I ever could.

  • Fredrik Vindelälv commented  ·   ·  Report

    I Would also love the possibility to copy paste objects from indesign into XD. And it would be even better if i could use a library with objects created from Indesign and use them in XD!!!

  • Richard Ramsay commented  ·   ·  Report

    I am all for an InDesign integration with Xd however I mainly see it as an InD --> Xd integration rather than the reverse. Being able to copy/paste objects from InD to Xd would be a huge help for those of us using InD for wireframes and designs that can then be given a little polish when presenting the experience to clients.

    Additionally, if Xd could import InD libraries this would be fantastic!

    Link to forum post: https://forums.adobe.com/thread/2132445

  • Stijn Wizarts commented  ·   ·  Report

    why from XD to INDD? FROM INDD to XD makes more sense no?

  • Stijn Wizarts commented  ·   ·  Report

    Keep it simple.
    Photoshop is for photo and pixels, illustrator for vectors and indesign for layout. Let XD be a tool for asset exports and prototype - preview and sharing. + make it possible to make breakpoints (in indesign or in XD) and link the content + make a pixel perfect export to simple css guidelines for the developer (font sizes, fonts, line-heights, margins & paddings)

  • Nate commented  ·   ·  Report

    At a base level, I would hope that I could import assets from an XD file into INDD in much the same manner as an AI file in that the assets would be linked to original source and I would be able to designate a particular artboard to import (all the other stuff, like layers, would likely be useful for other users, as well).

    As XD, hopefully, evolves to include controls (radio buttons, dropdowns, etc.) it would be interesting to see if there was some way to import particular states (normal, mouseOver, mouseDown, etc.) of those controls into INDD for specification....but let's crawl before we walk :).

    Please keep in mind that I am not requesting the XD be able to "generate" a spec. While I have no doubt that there is way to make that successful and usable, the few attempts I have seen in the past from other prototyping tools tend to be fairly rough (to put it mildly). I am hoping to allow XD to work into my existing design workflow by being able to leverage assets as well as extend my ability to communicate designs through the special functionality provided by XD.

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