Performance comparison using Adobe InDesign CS3 with Parallels and VMware Fusion and Windows Vista.

VMware versus Parallels running Adobe InDesign CS3

Adobe InDesign CS 3 is not as power hungry as Photoshop. But it can still be fairly sluggish to use under many conditions and so testing it with virtualization software was always going to be interesting.

We ran three basic tests with common tasks that a graphic designer will be performing on a regular basis. Whilst these may not be conclusive, they do give us a good idea of how InDesign performs under different daily situations.

The first test simply involved importing a large Photoshop file. We stopped the clock when the file became available for placing in the InDesign document. We then timed how long it took for the high resolution preview to display for the imported graphic.

The final performance test looked at which was the fastest when it came to creating a PDF document using Adobe InDesign's built-in export feature. As with the Photoshop speed test, we have also included the results for the same tests running natively under OS X.

Photoshop speed test results

	VMware	Parallels	OS X
Place File	8.45	23.73	1.42
High-res Preview	2.72	4.52	2.31
PDF Export	6.79	4.27	2.55
All times are in seconds

Adobe InDesign place file test

InDesign high-res preview	PDF export from Adobe InDesign

Shorter bars are better

Once again the results were a mixed bag, but with VMware Fusion pulling ahead in two of the three tests. However, InDesign performs better in the PDF export test under Parallels. Interestingly, Adobe InDesign performed somewhat more sluggishly than Photoshop under both VMware and Parallels. It was usable, but not an environment which we would choose to work in for too long.