designcraft/ROADMAP.md

DesignCraft roadmap

Stage: pre-alpha · next: alpha, ~0% and ~15–25 h away; beta ~28 points and ~420–750 h beyond that (the core-workflow gate, not the percentage: ready for real work is already ~47%)

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-12 · Change: minor (window and menu quit confirmation) · Target: Adobe InDesign 2026

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.

Headline numbers

	Value	Kind
Feature breadth	~80% (69% of InDesign 21.6's in-scope menu items matched; 99% of our 275-row checklist)	measured bounds, estimate between
Ready for real work	~47% (range 42–52%)	estimated: weighted sum over the dimensions below
Mainstream practitioner	~42% (weekly core 60.7% × 0.88 interaction × 0.92 stability × 0.85 file exchange)	estimated
Essentials user	~54% (core features 72% × 0.90 launch × 0.88 discoverability × 0.95 files received)	estimated
Remaining to beta	420–750 Opus 5.5 agent-hours (~120–200 wall-clock hours with 4–5 agents)	estimated
Remaining to full parity	1,150–1,950 Opus 5.5 agent-hours	estimated

Audience	Ready	Opus 5.5 agent-hours to ~95%	Work that dominates
Full target (ready for real work)	~47%	1,150–1,950 (~70% parallel)	depth across all areas, scripting compatibility, localization, typography fidelity, INDD/IDML
Mainstream practitioner	~42%	500–850 (~65% parallel)	INDD import and IDML corpus, composition fidelity, weekly-area depth, PDF/X-1a and printing
Essentials user	~54%	135–250 (~50% parallel)	start-up robustness, context menus and copy/paste, threading, fonts, Windows printing

Why pre-alpha: it fails one of InDesign's core workflows, the alpha gate in docs/roadmap.md. A user can't thread a story from one frame to another: the in and out ports are drawn, but clicking the out port does nothing and there is no thread or unthread command. Long text flows only through autoflow on Place and Primary Text Frame, which users report adding and keeping pages wrongly (#165, #140, #194, #352). Everything else in the gate works end to end on macOS (document setup, styles, images, object editing, PDF export, save and reopen), and ready for real work (~47%) is above the alpha bar, so manual threading is the whole distance to alpha. Beyond that, beta needs INDD opening, IDML proven on real files, composition compared with InDesign's, and basic editing fixed on Windows and Linux. Details: docs/target-app-parity.md.

By dimension

Dimension	Ready	Hours	Doc
Features (depth)	55%	250–400	target-app-parity.md
Typography and composition fidelity	45%	120–200	typography-parity.md
File formats	40%	150–250 + 20–60 (INDD)	file-format-parity.md
UI/UX fidelity	45%	120–180	ui-parity.md
Stability	45%	60–100	gaps.md
Performance	65%	40–80	gaps.md
Localization	45%	120–180	localization-parity.md
Platforms	55%	40–80	hardware-parity.md
Hardware	45%	20–40	hardware-parity.md
Ecosystem (scripting, plug-ins)	15%	150–250	gaps.md
AI features	15%	60–120	gaps.md

All "Ready" figures are estimates; the weights and evidence are in target-app-parity.md.

Features

Breadth from docs/parity-checklist.md (cargo xtask parity, measured); Ready estimated.

Area	Breadth	Ready	Hours
Application shell & workspace	99%	55%	40–60
Documents, pages, spreads	100%	65%	20–35
Layers	100%	75%	5–10
Frames, shapes & paths	100%	60%	25–40
Transform	100%	70%	10–20
Fill, stroke, colour	100%	60%	20–35
Effects & transparency	100%	50%	20–30
Placing & links	93%	55%	20–35
Type & text frames	99%	45%	40–60
Typography	100%	45%	see typography-parity.md
Styles	100%	60%	15–25
Tables	100%	55%	25–40
Long documents	100%	45%	30–50
Interactivity & digital	100%	40%	30–50
Output & production	92%	55%	40–70
XML & automation	100%	35%	see Ecosystem
View & navigation	100%	65%	10–20
Undo, history, saving	100%	70%	5–10
Accessibility	100%	50%	15–25

Languages

Interface strings translated, of 1,724 measured. Detail: docs/localization-parity.md.

Language	Code	Status	Translated
English	en	full	100%
Simplified Chinese	zh	partial (no canvas IME)	83%
Spanish	es	partial	83%
Hindi	hi	none	0%
Arabic	ar	partial (RTL UI and composition)	85%
French	fr	partial	83%
Portuguese (Brazil)	pt-br	partial	61%
Indonesian	id	none	0%
Japanese	ja	partial (no canvas IME)	95%
German	de	partial	83%
Korean	ko	none	0%
Vietnamese	vi	none	0%

Also shipped: Italian (85%), Ukrainian (83%).

Upcoming

Ranked; detail and estimates in docs/roadmap.md, the full list in docs/gaps.md.

1. Alpha gate: manual text threading (out-port click, thread/unthread commands) and Primary Text Frame fixes (#165) (15–25 h)
2. Basic editing on every platform: copy/paste, context menus, caret formatting (30–50 h)
3. CI running cargo xtask ci on pull requests (4–8 h)
4. Open INDD through a clean-room converter, owner decision on #114 (20–60 h)
5. IDML real-file corpus and fixes (60–100 h)
6. Composition oracle against InDesign; optical kerning; overset rule (80–140 h)
7. Start on any GPU; find every installed font (25–50 h)

Documents

target-app-parity.md (assessment) · gaps.md (work list) · roadmap.md (milestones, plan) · parity-checklist.md (presence checklist) · typography-parity.md · file-format-parity.md · ui-parity.md · hardware-parity.md · localization-parity.md · architecture.md · agents: agents.md, mcp.md, control-protocol.md · CJK: cjk.md, cjk-typography.md · Arabic: arabic-typography.md

Progress log

Newest first.

• 2026-10-12 · Window close and application/menu Quit ask about unsaved documents; later Cancel keeps every tab open, including earlier Don't Save choices. Approvals are rechecked after edits. Cancelable macOS Dock Quit remains open (#544). No readiness percentage change.

• 2026-10-12 · Each running app keeps recovery data in its own locked folder; current folder and lock ownership are checked before writes and cleanup. Failed isolation disables recovery with a warning instead of sharing document IDs. No readiness percentage change.

• 2026-10-12 · Native engine saves and exports replace files atomically; failed writes retain the original, private staging preserves Unix permissions, and valid long filenames work. Desktop Services and CLI raster exports remain separate follow-ups. No readiness percentage change.

• 2026-10-11 · The View menu follows InDesign's: proofing first, then zoom, Rotate Spread, Screen Mode, Display Performance, rulers, Extras, Grids & Guides and Structure; the view items that sat at the end of the Type menu moved there. No readiness percentage change.

• 2026-10-12 · Words in capitals hyphenate like capitalized words (FERRUM COM-MODI), as in InDesign; Hyphenate Capitalized Words off keeps them whole. No readiness percentage change.

• 2026-10-11 · transform.move {copy}, Edit › Duplicate and Step and Repeat return the copies' ids, so a script can go on with them. No readiness percentage change.

• 2026-10-11 · object.fill and object.stroke refuse a swatch name the document doesn't have (it painted nothing) and suggest the name meant (Paper → [Paper]). No readiness percentage change.

• 2026-10-11 (printing): file.printers and file.print use craft-libs/craft-print for CUPS and Windows. DesignCraft retains PDF export, page selection, spreads, marks and bleed; dry runs create no temporary PDF or print job. Windows selects matching or default driver paper and shrinks oversized sheets without enlarging smaller ones; queue duplex defaults are preserved. Headless tests exercise exported bytes, job settings, dry runs and refusals; shared native Windows CI passes, including paused-queue submission and cleanup. PostScript, production print controls and physical output validation remain open. No readiness percentage change.

• 2026-10-10 (UI.4–UI.5): Panel tabs can move into other groups, split the dock, float, resize and return to their saved locations through shared docking transactions. Layouts persist in custom workspaces; UI and control commands share the same validated action path. Shared pane geometry and widget-state theme application retain all five palettes and local fonts. Split panes send keyboard input only to the focused canvas and scope contextual toolbar IDs per pane. No readiness percentage change.

• 2026-10-10 · Version 0.6.0; releases add a Linux riscv64 tar.gz (cross-compiled, CLI smoke-tested under QEMU).

• 2026-10-10 · Readiness per audience: full ~47% (method aligned with the standard, was 42%), mainstream practitioner ~42%, essentials user ~54%, each with hours to ~95%.

• 2026-10-10 · Stage re-normalized to pre-alpha under craftrules' core-workflow gate: text can't be threaded by hand (no out-port click, no thread command).

• 2026-10-10 · Full re-measure against InDesign 2026 21.6 (menu dump, bundle formats and localizations, 124 issues): breadth ~80%, ready ~42% (down from the ~83% "including depth" of 2026-10-04, on user evidence and the INDD gap); progress docs restructured to the craftrules standard (docs/parity.md → docs/parity-checklist.md; new target-app-parity, gaps, roadmap, architecture, typography, file-format, UI, hardware and localization docs). Landed today: split columns (#295), PDF export options dialog (#196), column rules (#274), Paragraph Rules dialog (#263), Character Style Options (#144), PDF/X-4 RGB handling (#223), Spanish hyphenation (#222), Japanese (#272), Italian (#218) and Ukrainian (#236) interfaces, relocated packages relink (#244), graphics backend chosen before the window (#297), IDML table styles (#288), warichu (#280), list numbering from IDML (#298), security hardening (#153, #155), many text-composition fixes (#282–#293).

• 2026-10-09 · Version 0.5.0; many user reports triaged into issues (#160–#265).

• 2026-10-08 · Version 0.4.0.

• 2026-10-07 · Community PRs: data merge, Brazilian Portuguese, PDF/X-4 flags, Office fonts on macOS; CJK 1.x (Korean line breaking, fallback fonts in Package); PrintCraft renamed PdfCraft.

• 2026-10-06 · Snapping to parent items, Windows packaging, ARM64 workflow, control-channel hardening.

• 2026-10-05 · FreeBSD build; caret-boundary fixes.

• 2026-10-04 · Never-crash pass across importers and the engine; rotate spread view; kashida in styles; previous estimate: breadth 99%, "~83% including depth", ~170 h remaining.

• 2026-10-03 · Release 0.1.1; separations, XML tagging, track changes, PDF/X-4 output intent, split window, buttons, menu customization.

• 2026-10-02 · Hyperlinks/Bookmarks panels, conditional text, tagged PDF, lists across stories, style groups, Glyphs panel, High Contrast theme.

• 2026-10-01 · First commit; skeleton, IDML, PDF, tables, footnotes, cross-references, index, spelling and parallel composition on the first day.

Revision history

Date	Change	Summary
2026-10-10	minor	Full number 42% → 47% (method aligned with the standard: plain weighted sum, no new evidence); readiness table with hours per audience
2026-10-10	minor	Headline adds mainstream practitioner (~42%) and essentials user (~54%); method in docs/target-app-parity.md
2026-10-10	minor	Stage alpha → pre-alpha under the new core-workflow gate: manual text threading is missing; alpha gate table added to docs/roadmap.md
2026-10-10	major	Restructured to the progress-docs standard; full re-measure; the "Working today" inventory moved to docs/target-app-parity.md, milestones to docs/roadmap.md, the CLI/MCP section left to docs/agents.md (which already covered it)
2026-10-04	major	Parity estimate: breadth 99%, depth ~83%, ~170 h
2026-10-01	major	First roadmap: status, milestones