Can I create a PNG from InDesign?

Question

I usually have to export my InDesign file into an eps, then convert it to PNG in illustrator. Does anyone know an easier way?

Answer 1

Sadly, there isn't a straighter native way. There has been some threads on the topic on Adobe forums and even an Adobe employee recommends exporting the image in PDF and opening it in Photoshop — though it is kind of same as exporting it to a EPS and opening it in Illustrator.

One other thread comes to the same conclusion, but someone does indeed notice that it may be achievable with scripting.

Workaround for Windows: Install PDFCreator, which adds a virtual printer to your system. While PDFCreator is designed to create PDF-prints (for desktop & home use), it can print as PNG:

Create more than just PDFs: PNG, JPG, TIFF, BMP, PCX, PS, EPS

Then you could just print the pages you want as PNGs. (There might be some problems regarding transparency, though.)

^{_{Sadly, I'm yet to know any alternatives for OS X — but I'd be happy to hear one, since it's currently my primary platform.}}

Answer 2

I don't know of an easier path than that—though I use Photoshop to rasterize EPS files—but it is a fairly simple thing to script (at least from a scripting standpoint).

Answer 3

If you want to make a PNG for each page, simply choose File > Export and select PNG as the format.

If you want export individual items, this can be done pretty simply with a script. in5, our InDesign to HTML5 exporter, generates PNGs as part of its output. You could use our product and collect the images, or you could try the built-in epub export and see if you can collect the images produced (just renamed the package to .zip and unzip to get access to the files), or write your own script/hire it out.

Edit: According InDesign Secrets,Layout Zone will also export a PNG of any item.