How InDesign frustration led to a custom-built digital layout software

I finally decided to move away from the PDF format for RetroFuturista, and Issue 006 is the first result of that shift. To be honest, the whole thing started because I find designing and paginating in InDesign mortally boring. It’s a tedious, static process that just didn’t fit what I wanted the magazine to become.

If you are interested in how it works, please drop us an email.

The original idea was actually quite modest: I just wanted to build a simple importer that would take articles from the website and automatically layout them into a digital magazine. That first attempt was a total disaster, but it forced me to rethink the whole approach. I realized I wanted a space where I could actually play with the layout, motion, and typography in a way that felt natural.

So, I built this custom editor. It’s essentially a synthesis of things I’ve been experimenting with for a while, like motion design, typography, and even some old “failed” experiments like my glitch editors. Now, all of that is integrated into a single environment.

Technically, the editor works with a block-based system where everything is dynamic. It handles over 2,000 Google Fonts and features a proprietary FX chain that can apply effects like “Bad TV,” “Scanlines,” or “Pixelate” to both images and text in real-time. I’ve also added a “ShapeDrawer” tool which allows for complex text-wrapping around images—something that is usually a nightmare to do in web design but essential for a magazine feel.

One of the most important features is that the magazine is now fully exportable as a standalone static site. You can download the entire issue and open it in any browser on your computer. It works completely offline, which was a huge goal for me in terms of making the content permanent and independent.

The only catch with the local version is how it handles video. Because of browser security restrictions and the way YouTube handles embeds, you can’t play videos directly within the local file. To solve this, I added a “Play on YouTube” button that takes you to the video online, which keeps the downloaded package light and ensures it actually works without security errors.

I’ve also implemented an “App-in-App” feature. This allows me to drop in a single HTML file or use an iframe to embed interactive elements—like a quiz, a small game, or even a synthesizer—directly into the pages. It basically turns the magazine into a container for other small web apps.

It’s still very much a work in progress, and there are things to refine—like better image scaling and adding tables—but as a functioning demo, Issue 006 shows exactly where this is going. It’s a tool built out of a need for aesthetic independence and a desire to stop doing boring manual layout work.

DIY RetroFuturista Magazine Editor — Technical Specifications

• Standalone Static Site Export: The engine generates a self-contained project as a downloadable .zip archive. +2
• Zero-Dependency Portability: The exported package includes a root index.html and a media/ folder containing all processed assets. +1
• Offline-First Functionality: Once exported, the magazine functions entirely without a server or internet connection, acting as a portable web app. +1
• Permanent Digital Object: By utilizing static HTML and local paths for media, the publication remains accessible regardless of future platform changes. +1

2. Fully Responsive & Mobile-Friendly Engine

• Adaptive Viewports: The layout utilizes responsive media queries and dynamic CSS variables to adapt complex editorial designs to any screen size. +4
• Mobile-Specific Assets: Supports independent image sources, positioning, and scaling specifically optimized for mobile devices. +3
• Touch Navigation: The exported JavaScript includes native handling for touch events and swipes for fluid mobile interaction. +1
• Dynamic Font Scaling: Includes specialized utilities to automatically scale typography (rem) for smartphone viewports. +3

3. Visual & Layout Engine

• Block-Based System: A modular architecture featuring 14+ specialized blocks, including masonry galleries, interactive buttons, and rich text. +4
• ShapeDrawer (Custom CSS Shapes): A vector tool that generates CSS shape-outside polygons, allowing text to wrap dynamically around complex subjects. +4
• Typography Control: Native integration for 2,000+ Google Fonts with granular control over weights, styles, and drop-caps. +3
• Proprietary FX Chain: Real-time visual manipulation via Canvas and CSS, featuring 17+ effects such as RGB Shift, Jitter, Pixelate, and Glitch. +2

4. Advanced Interactivity

• App-in-App Integration: Uses an iFrame-based architecture to embed standalone HTML/JS modules directly within the magazine pages. +1
• Interactive Navigation: Features a dynamic Table of Contents (TOC) and navigational overlays for seamless movement between articles and sub-pages. +3
• Smart Video Fallbacks: Handles YouTube and Vimeo embeds with specific logic to maintain lightweight exported packages and offline compliance.

Matteo Damiani

Matteo Damiani is an Italian photographer and author. Curator of the sites Retrofuturista.com; weirditaly.com; china-underground.com and others