Would you like to speed up your work with free InDesign plugins? This software is robust but from time to time, you may need to improve your workflow or create something that is more than InDesign tools can provide.
Here, I will review 50 free and useful InDesign plugins from FixThePhoto and other third-party developers that will help you achieve amazing results.
50 Free InDesign Plugins
Below, you can find free Adobe InDesign plugins that you can download and use right away.
1. ColorGray InDesign Plugin
This InDesign plugin excels at converting color images to Grayscale without altering the initial color. It is perfect for TIFF and JPEG file formats. Photoshop pictures with multiple layers won’t work properly. So it is better to choose TIFF or JPEG.
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2. FindsLike
The plugin will assist you in selecting a number of similar elements that are scattered all over a spread or a page. You don’t need to “shift-click” multiple times to select numerous dispersed frames of one kind. Instead, you can just select one frame and take advantage of the “Select All Similar” feature (optimally via a keyboard shortcut). As a result, all similar frames will be selected simultaneously.
3. FrameReporter InDesign Plugin
Here is one of the most useful Adobe InDesign plugins to save your time. With its help, you don’t need to look through all the program’s palettes to find particular info. Forget about interrupting your workflow and moving the mouse everywhere to view the necessary indicator or a palette. The plug-in demonstrates necessary data about the document directly in your working space.
4. HistoryLog
This simple plug-in performs two main functions. Firstly, on each save, it adds a “live” time stamp to a specified text frame. Secondly, it saves an automated log of file changes to an InDesign document in a different specified text frame.
5. ImageHorn InDesign Plugin
ImageHorn is one of the best InDesign plugins for activating dynamic picture fitting. It is necessary for automatic re-applying of the selected fitting adjustments to a picture every time the user resizes the frame that includes it.
6. LibraryLoader
This InDesign plugins type will help you save the time when you are searching for many images for your document. It creates a palette of small images that you can drag and drop into the document. This palette appears automatically as soon as you open the folder.
With this plug-in, you will have the opportunity to see all images at the same time, without the necessity to open each one separately.
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7. Markdown InDesign Plugin
This plug-in is compatible with Adobe InDesign CS5 and higher. It is meant for converting InDesign documents or books into the Markdown format without resorting to third-party book design software. Markdown is a regular text formatting syntax that can be converted to HTML and other formats.
8. StitchText
With this plug-in, it will be easier for you to work with the threading of text frames in InDesign CS or higher. It has three main features that are Auto-Stitch, Auto-Unstitch and Quick-Stitch. This means that in addition to stitching, you can unstitch too and break the link between text frames.
9. TextGroups InDesign Plugin
Here is one of the most effective InDesign plug ins for grouping text conditions and toggling their visibility thanks to the use of parent conditions or alternative child conditions.
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10. APID ToolAssistant
This plugin doesn’t really add any new features to Adobe Indesign. What it does is boosts your workflow by helping other plugins run smoother.
11. MultiDo
With this free InDesign plugin, you can carry out several undo and redo operations at a time, using the new “Undo Multiple” and “Redo Multiple” menu options. This menu will rapidly update to show 100 latest operations.
12. BookBarCode
If you often design book covers, you will have to create barcodes. Most people use an external app but it’s more convenient to be able to do everything you want in InDesign. With this type of InDesign plugins, you can make a vector bar code from an ISBN that complies with EAN-13 and can be managed according to your wishes.
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13. PlaceAndScale InDesign Plugin
This plug-in automatically scales images with different resolutions to an assigned standard resolution that you have determined for your project. For example, you need to upload many JPEG images from different sources into one document. After each image is added, PlaceAndScale automatically scales them in accordance with the assigned resolution.
14. Aquafadas AVE InDesign Plugin
Using this neat plug-in, you can design customized eBooks and apps without the necessity to write code lines. It offers such functions as video, sliders, audio, interactive buttons, HTML5, etc.
15. Keyboard Shortcuts
If you work in InDesign, you know that in order to be productive in this software, you should use keyboard shortcuts. However, it can be quite disappointing to find and change shortcuts. Now, it’s in the past!
This InDesign plugin was developed by David Blatner and DTP Tools to help users find and set up shortcuts fast and easily.
16. Calendar Wizard InDesign Plugin
Designing calendars for business and customers is something that a lot of people are scared of. With this Adobe InDesign plug-in, you will get rid of this problem.
The plug-in grants the possibility to design customized and flexible calendars, add plenty of various options, such as holidays or moon phases. The most pleasant part of these calendars is the fact that you can make them in more than 20 different languages.
17. FutureFolio InDesign Plugin
If you need a digital publishing tool using which you will be able to design magazines for mobile phones in InDesign, this variant of InDesign plugins is what you need. It doesn’t matter if you are going to create just a print replica or a fully interactive magazine. With this plug-in, you can achieve great results without much time and effort.
18. Claquous 2
In the majority of cases, we use Illustrator if we want to make pie charts and work with graphics. However, it’s very convenient to be able to do all this in InDesign when we don’t have much time. Claquos 2 is a great variant of plugins for InDesign. It allows you to generate pie charts straight into InDesign and offers a lot of advanced functions that InDesign and Illustrator originally don’t have.
19. QR Code Maker Pro
This plug-in grants the possibility to create QR codes straight in InDesign. It supports Number, Latin, Kanji, and UTF-8 modes.
20. ImageLibraryLoader
The plug-in provides a hovering library-palette full of pictures. They are automatically extracted from one or more folders.
21. TextStitch InDesign Plugin
The aim of the plug-in is to help users thread text frames in InDesign CS and later. It has three primary functions: Quick-Stitch, Auto-Stitch and Auto-Unstitch.
22. LikeFindsLike
This InDesign plugins variant allows you to quickly select plenty of similar items that are distributed all over the page or spread. Now, you won’t have to click multiple times in order to select a lot of similar frames. You can simply select one and use the Select All Similar option to select the remaining frames in one click.
23. ImageHorn
ImageHorn was created for dynamic image fitting that automatically re-implements selected fitting parameters to the image whenever you change the size of the frame that has it.
24. PDF2Id InDesign Plugin
Price: $199
This plug-in will be very helpful for those who have ever worked with layouts already existing in PDF format. Using it, you can import a PDF file and convert it into an INDD file that you can easily edit after. Instead of building upon the PDF structure that can ruin the possibility of editing, the plug-in does it by means of interpreting the layout.
25. MFC
Price: $39.95
This is, perhaps, the most robust find/change plug-in for InDesign on the list. It can launch several queries at a time and makes it possible for you to clean your documents in InDesign without any problems. This will be very useful for those who deal with long text documents and constantly need to clean up many typing errors, such as GREP and glyphs. The plug-in will save your time and you’ll be able to do everything faster.
26. Blatner Tools
Price: $99
Blatner Tools is a set of 12 InDesign plugins that can help you make your work faster. These plug-ins perform automatic style creation, auto fractions, provide more than 50 new customizable shortcuts, such as adjusting layers, swatches, styles, etc.
27. DocsFlow
Price: $200
With this plug-in, you can connect your Google Docs and Spreadsheet with InDesign. Also, you can edit InDesign and Google Docs documents separately and be sure that you won’t lose anything.
28. Text Count
Price: $119 a year
This plug-in will help you manage the number of words in documents. It offers a real-time panel and can export full reports.
29. EasyHistory
Price: $9.99
If you need to find the history panel in InDesign, you can do it with the help of this plug-in. It gives you an opportunity to look at all the undo and redo steps in one handy palette. Also, the plug-in automatically takes screenshots of the active spread when you save your document.
30. MadeForLayers
Price: $149
This is an InDesign and Illustrator plug-in that optimizes and makes it easier for you to create and edit complex documents. You will be able to do this task without spending much time and making a lot of mistakes in your layered documents. Also, using this plug-in, you can combine layers into layer views and display various language or regional options of a document with just one click.
31. EditMarks ChangeBars
Price: $110
This variant of InDesign plugins paints a customizable red bar next to the changes in the left frame margins. In such a way, it indicates what parts of the documents have been changed.
32. ID2Office
Price: $199
This plug-in can convert texts, fonts, the structure of paragraphs, frames that connect information, charts, graphics, etc. with appropriate Word, PowerPoint and Keynote formats. It converts all the pages into the same ones but in the Word, PowerPoint or Keynote files.
33. MagnetoGuides
Price: $178
This plug-in will be very helpful for those who create layouts for structured, recurrent materials, such as charts and tables. It automatically changes the position and the size of files with many pages, no need to combine them in groups.
34. SudokuGenerator
Price: $298
If you are working with a newspaper, magazine or newsletter in InDesign, you will have a chance to add Sudoku right to your document.
35. StoryParker
Price: $58
This plug-in will help you deal with the mess on the page. Using it, you can select several items, place them on the pasteboard and StoryParker tracks their initial placement. If you want to place them back, they will return automatically as they know their previous position.
36. MindThes
Price: $49
MindThes is a complex thesaurus plug-in for InDesign. It offers thesaurus support in InDesign and Adobe InCopy for more than 30 different languages.
37. Typefitter
Price: $59.88 a year
This type of Adobe In Design plugins can automatically find and fix any text issues, such as text overset, short lines, unbalanced columns, etc. This plug-in will be very helpful for those who work with complex types of composition.
38. Annotations for Adobe InDesign
Price: $12.90 a month or $119 yearly
Luckily, to get PDF notes and comments you don’t necessarily need to scroll and switch between different applications. With this plug-in, you have the possibility to load your PDF notes straight into your layout in InDesign. It will be easier for you to adjust and modify your design according to the feedback from clients or the team.
39. MagicTints
Price: $39
This is another type of InDesign plug ins that can convert multiple images into the same color palette in your document. Its machine-learning-trained engine can automatically implement a color scheme from one image to multiple other images, maintain contrast and illumination without the necessity to use a LUT or external image editing.
40. Pattern Maker
Price: $49 per year
With this plug-in, you can generate patterns according to three templates of core pattern: Crosses, Lines and Scallops. You will be able to design, save and use patterns again. Place all the settings in a preset and use them multiple times. You can modify all the patterns with simple controls that will help you make it fast and easy to create interesting fills for the document you are working on.
41. Active Tables
Price: $79
This type of Adobe In Design plugins adds tables, formulae calculations, the function of sorting tables and other spreadsheet-related tasks like in Microsoft Excel. It integrates with styles of paragraphs and helps you make it easier to style and format table data.
42. Layer Tools
Price: $49
Layer Tools are two InDesign plug ins combined. With their help, you can export layers that you have selected into your document and import them from it. Also, using these plug-ins, you will be able to bundle layers into folders, record visibility and settings into Layer Comps.
The good part about Layer Comps is the fact that it allows you to make many versions of a layout inside an InDesign file. This simplifies the test running of various options for your customers, without the necessity to keep a lot of different documents on the computer.
43. Grid Calculator Pro
Price: $299 or $9 a month
This variant of Adobe InDesign plugins creates grid-based layouts. With its help, you won’t have to produce guides necessary for creating a good grid for your future document. Grid Calculator Pro will do the job for you. It is especially suitable for designers who often need to adjust templates.
44. EasyCatalog
Price: $1299
This is one of the most popular plugins for InDesign. It was developed to help you design catalogs, brochures, price lists, and plenty of other kinds of data and design-oriented documents. There, you will be able to create various templates for catalog pages and fill them from external sources of information.
45. Power Header
Price: $59
This plug-in adds a lot of new functions to already existing ones in InDesign. It allows you to personalize adjustments in order to automate practically everything that is connected with the headers of documents.
46. MathMagic
Price: $499
The next variant of InDesign plugins is MathMagic. It simplifies editing mathematical formula in InDesign. WYSIWYG interface and several robust functions of this plug-in allow you to edit different mathematical expressions and figures.
47. Reflective Object
Price: $59
When you create the layout of documents with facing pages, some basic manipulations may require you to change the layout on every page that has elements with a particular position regarding the spine. This plug-in can automatically implement all changes you make to your InDesign documents.
48. LinkOptimizer 5
Price: $259.95
This InDesign plugins type is great for automating your workflow. It works with Photoshop to change the size of images that are connected with your InDesign document by removing extra image data. Also, it offers a lot of image adjustment options, such as color conversion, sharpening, etc. and converts picture formats.
49. FrameReporter
Price: $178
With this InDesign plugins option, you won’t need to look through strewed InDesign palettes to get the required data. It already shows significant information about your InDesign document exactly where it’s convenient for you, in your working area. You don’t need to stop and drag a mouse everywhere in order to open necessary indicators.
50. Color2Gray
Price: $38
This plug-in makes it possible to quickly give uploaded color images gray shades, without the necessity to change the initial color of the image. You will be able to perform it in a matter of seconds. This plugin is particularly valuable for designers and publishers looking to optimize their documents for monochromatic output or to achieve specific visual effects.
Ann Young
Hi there, I'm Ann Young - a professional blogger, read more
