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`).
- 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) 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)

**Breadth: ~63% weighted** (P0 core 86%, P1 44%, P2 15%) over the 275 features of the InDesign catalogue, scored
row by row in [docs/parity.md](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 55%**.

**Remaining work: about 600 wall-clock hours of a single Claude Opus 5.5 agent** (±30%), or roughly 150–200 hours with
four agents in parallel on separate crates:

| Work | Estimate |
|---|---|
| Open P0 (23: autosave/recovery, Preferences, Color panel/picker, Gradient tool, Place PDF/SVG, DOCX/RTF import, PDF/X-4, parent overrides UI, …) | 35 h |
| Open P1 (66: type on a path, nested/GREP styles, table/cell styles, pathfinder, glyphs panel, package, print, variable fonts, …) | 165 h |
| Open P2 (68: liquid/alternate layouts, books, buttons & forms, XML, conditional text, HTML, tagged PDF, …) | 205 h |
| Depth and pixel fidelity of every dialog, panel and menu against InDesign 2026 | 130 h |
| Performance (incremental composition, GPU raster) and interchange hardening (IDML/PDF corpus) | 85 h |

Basis: this session landed 12 arcs (footnotes, cross-references, index, anchored objects, guides, Links, Find Font,
clipboard, menus, damage repaint, agent scripting) in about 13 hours on a heavily loaded machine — roughly 1–3 hours per
catalogue row depending on size.

## 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](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 | |