designcraft/ROADMAP.md

DesignCraft roadmap

DesignCraft aims at full Adobe InDesign parity — and to be better: faster, open (documented JSON format + IDML), scriptable by agents (MCP), and available on the web.

Status (2026-10-01)

Working today

• Document model: facing/non-facing spreads, parent pages with page-number markers, sections, layers, frames (text / graphic / unassigned), threaded stories, paragraph/character/object styles with based-on, swatches (process/spot/tints/gradients), corner options, text wrap, drop shadow, opacity/blend.
• Text engine: Knuth–Plass paragraph composer and single-line composer, dictionary hyphenation (public-domain Moby list + our own trained Liang patterns), justification with word/letter/glyph-scaling ranges, keep options (keep with next, keep lines together, widows/orphans), balance ragged lines, optical margin alignment, hyphenation zone/limit, columns, threading across frames and spreads, tabs, bullets/numbering, rules, shading, baseline grid, first-baseline options, vertical justification, wrap exclusions, overset detection, caret/hit testing.
• Rendering: vello_cpu (SIMD, multithreaded) — pages, items, images with mip levels, gradients, composed text.
• UI (egui): application bar + menus, Control panel (object and text modes), Tools panel with flyouts, document tabs, rulers, pasteboard, guides (margins, columns, bleed, baseline grid), frame edges, selection handles, text ports and threads, Properties / Pages / Layers dock, Swatches, Styles, Character, Paragraph, Stroke, Text Wrap panels, New Document and Preferences dialogs, Quick Apply (⌘Return), 4 brightness themes.
• Pen tool, Direct Selection anchor/handle editing, rotate from corners, Rotate/Scale/Shear tools, Eyedropper, snapping & smart guides, Align/Distribute, Find/Change (text + GREP), Story Editor, Paragraph Style Options, Effects panel, hidden characters, native macOS menu bar, measured InDesign 2026 look (Medium Dark): Properties sections per selection state, 21 pt spinner fields with arithmetic, Contextual Task Bar, inverse (black) text selection, Pages panel with drag-and-drop reorder / parent apply, Layers panel with per-object rows.
• Tools: Selection (click, marquee, move, Alt-duplicate, resize handles), Direct Selection, Type (draw frame, click caret, select, type), Rectangle/Ellipse/Polygon (+ frame variants), Line, Hand, Zoom.
• PDF export (krilla): real selectable text with embedded font subsets, DeviceCMYK/RGB + spot Separations, bleed boxes, crop/bleed marks + page info, pages or spreads, PDF/A-2b (PDF/X-4 output intent pending) — file.exportPdf, File › Export PDF…, designcraft-cli run --export out.pdf.
• IDML interchange (designcraft-idml): export and import of swatches, styles, fonts, preferences, parent spreads, spreads/pages, frames, groups, images (embedded or linked), formatted threaded stories — opens in InDesign 2026 and round-trips InDesign-exported files (file.exportIdml, file.openIdml, File → Export IDML…, CLI --in x.idml / --export x.idml).
• Tables (M8): tables anchored in stories (header/footer/body rows, merged cells, per-edge strokes, fills + alternating fills, insets, vertical justification, at-least/exact row heights); composed into the text column (columns scale to fit, rows break across columns/frames with repeating headers/footers, overset); rendered, exported to PDF (real text) and IDML (export + import); Table menu, Table panel, Create Table dialog, caret/typing/Tab navigation and cell selection in cells; table.* commands.
• Hyperlinks (text or frames → URL / e-mail / page) and bookmarks, exported as PDF link annotations and outline.
• EPUB 3 (reflowable) export: stories in reading order, CSS from paragraph/character styles, images, navigation (file.exportEpub, CLI --export x.epub).
• Data Merge (CSV or JSON rows, <<Field>> placeholders), spell checking (public-domain Moby list + document dictionary, suggestions), Step and Repeat (count or grid), snippets, object styles, Numbering & Section Options.
• Footnotes: Type › Insert Footnote (caret moves into the note), Document Footnote Options (numbering style incl. symbols, start/restart per page/spread/section, prefix/suffix, reference position/character style, paragraph style, separator, spacing, first baseline, rule above); notes composed at the bottom of the referencing column with the body text making room; edited in place on the canvas; rendered, exported to PDF (real text) and IDML (InDesign's structure, verified opening in InDesign 2026) and imported from IDML; footnote.* commands.
• Cross-references and text anchors: Insert Cross-Reference (paragraph by style, or text anchor), 11 formats with InDesign's building blocks (full/partial paragraph, paragraph text/number, page number, anchor name, chapter, file name) plus user formats; resolved live at composition — never out of date, no Update step; unresolved destinations show ??; PDF link annotations to the destination page; IDML export/import as InDesign cross-reference sources, hyperlinks, text destinations and formats (verified in InDesign 2026); xref.* / anchor.* commands.
• Index: page references (topic from the selection or up to 4 levels, sort keys; current page, to end of story, next n paragraphs, suppressed, See / See also), Generate / Update Index (section headings, nested or run-in, page ranges merged, Index Title / Section Head / Level 1–4 styles); IDML export/import as InDesign topics, page references and topic cross-references (verified in InDesign 2026); index.* commands.
• Text clipboard keeps formatting (character/paragraph formats, footnotes, cross-references, index markers, tables) and falls back to plain text when the system clipboard changed; Paste without Formatting (⇧⌘V); Change Case (UPPERCASE, lowercase, Title Case, Sentence case — formatting kept); Type › Insert Special Character / White Space / Break Character submenus.
• Anchored objects: items flow in the text inline (on the baseline, with Y offset; lines grow to fit) or above the line (left/center/right, space before/after); paste copied items into text to anchor them; Anchored Object Options and Release (back onto the page where shown); rendered, exported to PDF and to/from IDML (InDesign anchored object settings; verified in InDesign 2026); copy/paste and threading carry them; anchored.* commands.
• Ruler guides: drag out of the rulers (page guides, or spread guides on the pasteboard), drag to move, drop on a ruler to delete; Layout › Create Guides (rows/columns with gutters, fit to margins or page); Delete All Guides on Spread; guide.* commands.
• Links panel: every placed graphic with status (OK / Modified / Missing / Embedded, checked against the file on disk), page and effective PPI (low resolution flagged); Relink…, Go To, Update, Embed; links.* commands.
• Missing fonts: highlighted pink on screen (never in output), listed by Preflight; Type › Find/Replace Font (fonts in the document, missing first; replace in text, cells, footnotes and styles); font.list / font.replace.
• Damage-region repaint: after an edit the canvas re-renders only the frames whose composed text (or the items that) changed and patches its texture — pixel-identical to a full render; typing in a frame repaints in under a millisecond instead of a full-viewport render (22 ms measured on the sample).
• Crash recovery: unsaved documents are written to the recovery folder every 30 s and reopened (unsaved, remembering their files) after a crash; File › Revert and Save a Copy…; file.recovery.*, file.revert, file.saveACopy.
• Edit › Paste Into (copied objects become a frame's content, clipped by it; rendered, PDF and IDML both ways — verified in InDesign 2026); Polygon Settings (sides, star inset; double-click the Polygon tool).
• Color panel (fill/stroke proxy, CMYK/RGB/Lab sliders with channel ramps, tint slider for swatches, spectrum ramp, Add to Swatches) and Color Picker (double-click the proxy); mixed colours are unnamed (not listed in Swatches until added); object.color, swatch.addToSwatches, swatch.addUnnamed.
• Place text files: Word (.docx: styles by name with their attributes, bold/italic/underline/size/font, footnotes, tables, tabs, breaks), RTF and plain text, into the insertion point, the selected frame or a new frame; autoflow adds pages and threaded frames until the text fits; Remove Styles option (designcraft-textimport).
• Type on a Path (⇧T tool, type.onPath): a story along any line, curve or shape on screen and in PDF; Type on a Path Options (start, flip, baseline/ascender/descender/centre) and Delete Type from Path. On-path caret drawing and IDML TextPath are still to come.
• Preferences › Appearance of Black: 100% K on screen accurately (dark grey) or as rich black (window.richBlack); the printing/export side is still to come.
• Spreads of up to 10 pages: Add to Previous Spread and Allow Spread to Shuffle (Pages panel; layout.pages.toSpread, layout.spreadShuffle); inserted pages go around kept spreads.
• Page tool (⇧P) and layout.pageSize: pages of their own size (or a preset); the spine stays put and objects keep their place on their page.
• File › Print (⌘P): printer, copies, page range, spreads, marks, bleed; printed as PDF through the system spooler (file.print, file.printers, dryRun for agents). Shortcuts now act like choosing the menu item (dialogs open), and UI commands win shortcut ties (⌘N opens New Document).
• Nested styles (through/up to N sentences, words, characters, letters, digits, tabs, breaks, spaces or given characters) and GREP styles (regex → character style), edited in Paragraph Style Options and composed under local formatting; ui.dialog.open for agents. Nested line styles and their IDML mapping are still to come.
• Table and cell styles: cell styles (fill, insets, vertical justification, strokes, paragraph style) and table styles (region cell styles, border, alternating rows, spacing); apply from the Table panel, edits re-apply to every user; style.cell.*, style.table.*. IDML mapping is still to come.
• Style groups: paragraph and character styles shown in group folders, Move to Group (new, existing, none); style.group renames every use (styles, stories, table cells, footnotes, object styles).
• Scrubby zoom: drag the Zoom tool left or right to zoom continuously around the press point.
• Guides belong to the active layer: hidden with it (or with its Show Guides off) and locked with it.
• Pencil tool (N): freehand strokes simplified to smooth paths (Alt closes); Smooth and Erase are still to come.
• Edit › Keyboard Shortcuts: every command, click and press the new keys, conflicts shown, per-command and global reset; window.setShortcut.
• Primary Text Frame (New Document) and Smart Text Reflow: pages are added while the primary story oversets and empty ones at the end removed, in the same undo step (Preferences › Type).
• Glyphs panel: every character of any font (rendered by our renderer), search by character or U+code, click to insert, recently used.
• UI scaling (Preferences › Interface, 50–200%; window.uiScale); the window title steps aside when the bar is crowded.
• Underline / Strikethrough Options: weight, offset, colour and tint (Character panel; screen, PDF and IDML).
• Relink to Folder and Relink File Extension (links.relinkFolder; missing links found by name).
• File › Package (⌥⇧⌘P): the document relinked to a Links folder, the placed files, an IDML copy, an optional PDF and a report (fonts, links, preflight, instructions); Copy Links To (links.copyTo).
• Load Swatches / Save Swatches for Exchange (.ase: CMYK, RGB, Lab, Gray; spot or process) from the Swatches panel menu; swatch.load / swatch.save.
• Pathfinder (Object › Pathfinder and a Pathfinder panel): Add, Subtract, Intersect, Exclude Overlap, Minus Back; curves stay curves (flo_curves); object.pathfinder.
• Make / Release Compound Path (⌘8; nested paths become holes), Create Outlines (⇧⌘O; one path per text colour), Scissors tool (C) with path.split.
• Transform Again / Individually / Sequence Again (⌥⌘3; a moved copy repeats like Step and Repeat), Clear Transformations; Layers: Merge, Delete Unused, Hide/Lock Others, Show/Unlock All; Break Link to Style (paragraph and character).
• Floating panels: tear a panel off the dock (its float button, or drag its header away) into a movable, resizable window; Dock puts it back; positions persist; window.floatPanel / window.dockPanel.
• Place SVG (vector in PDF export via krilla-svg, resvg on screen, text in the bundled fonts), Photoshop (.psd composite), BMP, and Illustrator files saved with PDF compatibility (.ai). New designcraft-images crate (L2) for sniffing, sizes and decoding. EPS is still missing.
• View › Display Performance: Fast (grey boxes, no effects, ⌥⇧⌘Z), Typical (72 ppi proxies, ⌥⌘Z), High Quality (⌥⌘H, our default — the renderer is fast enough).
• OpenType menu (Character panel): discretionary ligatures, fractions, ordinal, swash, titling, contextual alternates, slashed zero, the four figure styles and stylistic sets 1–20; type.openType; mapped to IDML's OTF attributes.
• Add Anchor Point (=), Delete Anchor Point (-) and Convert Direction Point (⇧C) tools (click toggles smooth/corner, drag pulls out handles), with path.addAnchor, path.deleteAnchor, path.convertAnchor.
• Gradients: the Gradient Swatch tool (G) drags a gradient's start and end across objects (Shift: 45°); the Gradient panel sets type, angle, reverse and edits stops on a ramp (drag, add, drag off to remove, location, colour). Edited gradients are unnamed swatches; object.gradient; the vector round-trips through IDML.
• Document Setup (⌥⌘P): intent, number of pages, start page # (an even start begins with a left page), facing pages, size presets and orientation, bleed and slug per edge; layout.documentSetup {} reports the setup.
• Stroke panel: cap, join, miter limit, alignment, type, Start/End arrowheads (12 kinds, drawn on screen and in PDF; the path is shortened under pointed heads) and gap colour under dashes and dots.
• Preferences (⌘K: General, Type, Units & Increments, Grids, Guides & Pasteboard, Display Performance) backed by prefs.set (application) and document.preferences (units, increments, grids — undoable, saved with the document); scaling applies to content and scales stroke weights (Include Stroke Weight), and X/Y/W/H measure the stroke's outer edge (Dimensions Include Stroke Weight). Quick Apply (⌘Return) finds paragraph, character and object styles as well as commands.
• Parent item overrides: Cmd+Shift-click a parent item on a page (or Override All Parent Page Items, ⌥⇧⌘L) makes an editable local copy that hides the parent's; Remove All Local Overrides and Detach All Objects from Parent in the Pages panel menu.
• Place PDF: placed PDF pages are sized by their crop box, drawn on screen through hayro (with mip levels) and embedded in exported PDFs as vector form XObjects (krilla), <PDF> in IDML.
• Menus expose the engine's features (TOC, numbering & sections, text variables, hyperlinks, cross-references, footnotes, step and repeat, spelling, fitting/content, effects, Data Merge, Preflight, EPUB); any menu command with parameters gets a dialog generated from its parameter documentation.
• Table of contents (generate/update, dot leaders) and text variables (running headers, last page number, chapter number, file name, dates, custom) resolved per page.
• Soft effects: blurred drop shadow, inner shadow, outer glow, basic feather.
• ~200 commands, all reachable through the JSON control channel; headless CLI rendering to PNG.
• MCP server (designcraft-cli mcp [--connect PORT], docs/mcp.md): headless engine or the running app; commands, batch, document/story inspection, page renders as images, window screenshots, pointer/keyboard/dialog input.
• Web build (apps/designcraft-web, trunk): the same UI on WebGPU with a WebGL2 fallback; open/place via the browser file picker or drag-and-drop, save/export as downloads.

Next (in order): books, footnotes in EPUB / span columns / split footnotes · table/cell styles, text rotation in cells · PDF/X-4 output intent, tagged PDF · UI for Data Merge/spelling/hyperlinks.

How far from full parity (estimate, 2026-10-02, updated)

Breadth: ~79% weighted (P0 core 99%, P1 73%, P2 15%) over the 275 features of the InDesign catalogue, scored row by row in docs/parity.md (cargo xtask parity recomputes it). Many features scored done still lack some of InDesign's options or dialog details, so overall parity including depth is about 68%.

Remaining work: about 430 wall-clock hours of a single Claude Opus 5.5 agent (±30%), or roughly 110–150 hours with four agents in parallel on separate crates:

Work	Estimate
Open P0 (3: PDF/X-4 output intent and validation, EPS place, remaining Preferences sections)	12 h
Open P1 (39: type on a path, variable fonts, overprint preview, per-page sizes, pages per spread, image import options, gradient feather, nested line styles, Smooth/Erase tools, …)	85 h
Open P2 (68: liquid/alternate layouts, books, buttons & forms, XML, conditional text, HTML, tagged PDF, …)	190 h
Depth and pixel fidelity of every dialog, panel and menu against InDesign 2026	90 h
Performance (incremental composition, GPU raster) and interchange hardening (IDML/PDF corpus)	55 h

Basis: since the first estimate this effort landed about 45 arcs (from parent overrides, Preferences, Stroke panel, gradients and Pathfinder to table/cell styles, nested/GREP styles and Print) in roughly 14 hours on a heavily loaded machine — about 1–2 hours per catalogue row.

Agents: CLI and MCP

Every command is reachable from designcraft-cli (run, script with $N.path result references, app for the running window, describe, commands), from MCP (designcraft-cli mcp, tools including execute and batch with the same references), and from the app's JSON control channel. See docs/agents.md.

Milestones

#	Milestone	State
M0	Skeleton + vertical slice	✅
M1	Selection, transform, layers, pages, MCP	in progress
M2	Type I (Type tool, threading, Character/Paragraph, composer)	in progress
M3	Styles (nested/GREP, bullets, keeps, span columns)	started
M4	Color & effects	started
M5	Graphics & links	started
M6	Files & export (native, IDML, PDF, PNG/JPEG)	in progress (IDML ✅, PDF export)
M7	Long documents (sections, TOC, index, footnotes, books)	in progress (sections, TOC, text variables/running heads, hyperlinks, bookmarks, footnotes, cross-references, index)
M8	Tables	✅ core (table/cell styles, rotation, diagonal lines pending)
M9	Performance (MT composition, tiles)	in progress (glyph path cache, culling, parallel compose 6.7× faster, perf harness)
M10	Find/Change, spelling, Preflight	in progress (Find/Change ✅, spelling ✅, Preflight)
M11	Layout power features (liquid/alternate layouts, data merge)	started (data merge, step & repeat, snippets)
M12	Interactive & digital (EPUB, HTML, interactive PDF)	started (EPUB, PDF links/bookmarks)
M13	Automation (scripts, batch)
M14	1.0 polish & packaging