Best for
Best for designers and publishers producing multi-page print and digital documents who want AI help with images and copy fitting inside the layout.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Graphics & Illustration Comparison
Adobe InDesign vs. Linearity
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for marketing and brand teams that want prompt-generated campaign assets to stay editable and on-brand.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Adobe InDesign | Linearity |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | From $22.99 / month InDesign single app, annual plan billed monthly, with 25 generative credits a month. Creative Cloud Pro is $69.99 a month with 4,000 credits, $34.99 for the first 3 months for new subscribers. InDesign for Teams is $37.99 and Creative Cloud Pro for Teams $99.99 per licence a month. | lower value From $10 / month Pro plan billed monthly, or $8 / month billed annually. |
| Free trial | 7-day free trial | Free plan with 2,400 welcome credits valid for 7 days, no credit card required |
| Commercial use | Not stated | Yes, with exceptions the vendor names: SF Symbols icons may not be used commercially, fonts depend on their own licence, and Unsplash images cannot be sold without significant modification |
| Output | Page layouts for print and digital publishing, exported as PDF, EPUB, HTML or IDML | Editable, layered designs: social posts, ads, emails, slides, vector graphics and animations |
| Hosting | Not stated | Web app, plus native apps for Mac, iPad and iPhone; Curve runs on macOS Big Sur or iPadOS 14 and later |
| Made in | Not stated | Germany (Linearity GmbH, Solingen) |
| What it makes | Multi-page layouts for print and digital: brochures, magazines, eBooks, posters, presentations, interactive catalogues and web versions through Publish Online | Editable, layered marketing designs from a prompt, such as social posts and stories, ads, emails, slides, banners and posters, plus vector illustrations in Curve and motion graphics in Move |
| Raster, vector or both | A layout app rather than a painting or drawing tool. Frames, paths and shapes are vector objects; photos and Illustrator artwork are placed as linked files, with Illustrator layers and artboards chosen on import. Placed images are retouched through Adobe Express from inside InDesign, not edited pixel by pixel | Both on one canvas: Curve draws scalable vector artwork and edits raster images beside it, and Auto Trace converts images, logos and sketches into editable vector paths |
| File formats and exchange | Places graphics, PDFs, videos and text files, accepts artwork and text pasted from Illustrator and Photoshop, and converts a PDF into an editable InDesign document | Saves the native .curve format, opens and edits PDFs as native Curve documents, edits SVG files, and imports and exports Figma, Illustrator and Sketch files. The free plan has basic export options and Pro adds advanced ones, without the split being itemised |
| Colour management and print | ICC colour management with printer profiles and colour conversion on PDF export, CMYK process and spot swatches from colour-matching systems such as PANTONE+, and mixed-ink swatches. Separations Preview checks plates, ink limits and overprints, trapping runs built in or through Adobe In-RIP, and print PDFs use presets such as PDF/X-4 with printer's marks, bleed and slug | CMYK values can be picked in the colour picker and documents previewed in CMYK, but CMYK export is available only for TIFF. Bleeds are defined and previewed in the PDF export settings. No ICC profile choice or spot colours are documented |
| Brand, styles and templates | Paragraph and character styles, parent pages, Flex Layout and Adjust Layout, editable templates from Adobe Stock, more than 20,000 Adobe Fonts including variable fonts, and Creative Cloud Libraries for shared assets; Data Merge builds variations from CSV or TXT data | Brand kits with logos, colours, fonts and templates applied to every generation; Studio adds unlimited brands and Business adds brand management; locked templates, approval workflows and roles for teams |
| Platforms | Desktop app only: Windows 10 and 11 (64-bit) and macOS 13 Ventura to 26 Tahoe on Intel or Apple silicon. A touch workspace runs on Windows touch-screen devices. Adobe's requirements list no iPad, mobile or web version | The design generator runs in the browser; Curve and Move are native apps for Mac, iPad and iPhone, on macOS Big Sur or iPadOS 14 and later. Curve creates, edits and exports offline, while syncing and online libraries need a connection |
| Licence and pricing model | Subscription only, as InDesign on its own or inside Creative Cloud Pro, for individuals or for teams, on annual plans billed monthly. Every plan includes a monthly allowance of generative credits. No perpetual licence is offered | Subscription billed monthly or yearly, with yearly billing worth two free months, in Free, Pro, Studio, Business and Enterprise tiers, each with a credit allowance. Free uses Curve and Move with limits, paid plans without. No one-time purchase is listed, and education discounts are offered on selected plans |
| Export and handoff | Export to PDF, EPUB, HTML and IDML, Preflight for missing files, fonts and low-resolution images, Share for Review links, cloud documents, Publish Online and export to Adobe Express for quick edits by a team; InCopy covers editorial workflows | Exports SVG, PDF, EPS, PNG, JPEG, TIFF and the native .curve format; Move exports MP4, MOV, GIF and Lottie; imports and exports Figma, Illustrator and Sketch files, and a Figma plugin sends frames to Curve and Move |
| AI features | Text to Image generates images from a prompt, Generative Expand resizes images to fit a frame, Auto Style formats text into headings, subheadings and paragraphs, Auto Alt Text writes alt text while images are placed, Rewrite adjusts copy length and tone with the layout in mind, and an AI Assistant in beta answers questions and handles routine tasks | Yes, Linearity AI composes complete designs from a text prompt and a brand kit, with AI resize and translation, background removal, upscaling, AI Grab, Magic Eraser and Auto Trace; usage is paid for with credits |
| API | Yes. The InDesign API in Adobe Firefly Services offers REST endpoints for data merge, renditions to PNG, JPG or PDF, custom scripts, document info and PDF-to-InDesign conversion. On the desktop, UXP scripts and plug-ins in JavaScript and HTML extend the app, AppleScript and VBScript are also supported, and InDesign Server provides a multithreaded SOAP engine for publishing systems | No developer API is documented. The help centre and FAQ cover the apps, accounts, billing and troubleshooting, with no API keys or developer documentation on any plan |
| Deployment | On-premise | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise |
| Support | more entries Chat, Phone, Community forum | Email helpdesk, Community forum |
| Onboarding | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Personal consulting | Documentation and knowledge base, Guided onboarding |
| Company size | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | more entries Adobe InCopy, Adobe Express, Adobe Stock, Adobe Fonts, Adobe Firefly | Figma, Brandfetch, Unsplash, Icons8 |
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Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.
The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Adobe InDesign From $22.99 / month Linearity From $10 / month
- Free trial Adobe InDesign 7-day free trial Linearity Free plan with 2,400 welcome credits valid for 7 days, no credit card required
- Deployment Adobe InDesign On-premise Linearity Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based, On-premise
- Support Adobe InDesign Chat, Phone, Community forum Linearity Email helpdesk, Community forum
- Output Adobe InDesign Page layouts for print and digital publishing, exported as PDF, EPUB, HTML or IDML Linearity Editable, layered designs: social posts, ads, emails, slides, vector graphics and animations
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Adobe InDesign
Strengths
- Generative image tools work inside the page layout
- Auto Style and Rewrite speed up formatting and copy fitting
- Export to PDF, EPUB, HTML and IDML, with Preflight for print
- REST API for data merge and renditions at scale
Limitations
- The single-app plan includes only 25 generative credits a month
- The AI Assistant is still in beta
- Subscription only, with the listed prices on annual plans
Linearity
Strengths
- Generated designs stay layered and editable
- Brand kits apply logos, colours and fonts to every generation
- Vector design (Curve) and animation (Move) included in paid plans
- Free plan with no credit card required
- Private designs are not used to train its models
Limitations
- AI use is metered in credits, and the free plan's welcome credits expire after 7 days
- The native apps run only on Apple devices
- Some export formats require a paid plan
- Enterprise pricing is not published
Plans
Pricing
Adobe InDesign
- InDesign $22.99 / month Annual plan, billed monthly. 25 generative credits a month, 7-day free trial.
- Creative Cloud Pro $69.99 / month Annual plan, billed monthly; $34.99 for the first 3 months for new subscribers. InDesign plus more than 20 Adobe apps and 4,000 generative credits a month. Students pay $19.99 a month in the first year, then $39.99.
- InDesign for Teams $37.99 / licence / month Annual plan, billed monthly.
- Creative Cloud Pro for Teams $99.99 / licence / month Annual plan, billed monthly.
Linearity
- Free $0 2,400 welcome credits valid for 7 days, one brand and 5 GB of cloud storage. No credit card required.
- Pro $10 Per month, or $8 / month billed annually. 800 credits a month and unlimited use of Curve and Move.
- Studio $30 Starting from $30 a month, or from $25 billed annually. From 3,250 credits a month and unlimited brands.
- Business $80 Starting from $80 a month, or from $67 billed annually. From 6,500 credits a month, 500 GB of cloud storage and Linearity Intelligence.
- Enterprise Not stated Custom pricing by company size, with SSO and a dedicated account manager.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Adobe InDesign
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Linearity
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Reviews are not published yet. The form on a tool's page works and reaches us, but nothing from it appears on this site, so no score here is based on a review. The rules below are the ones that will apply once reviews go live.
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Adobe InDesign https://www.adobe.com/products/indesign.html · checked against the official source on 2026-10-18
Linearity https://www.linearity.io · checked against the official source on 2026-10-11
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.