vectorcraft/docs/type-parity.md

Type parity

Last reviewed: 2026-10-10 · Last updated: 2026-10-14 · Change: minor (Cmd+Shift+C aligns centre off the Mac, #1940; tab leaders are drawn in the tab's gap, #1877; type in symbols, pattern tiles, graph designs and opacity masks gets its layout bounds back on opening a native file, #1738; score unchanged; Escape while typing ends the edit, #1686; Select › Same on type, #1737; justify when creating point type, #1748; scores unchanged; OpenType stylistic sets, alternates, figure styles, superscript and subscript as character features, #1607; a wide word in non-rectangular area type moves down, #1615; scores unchanged; Character Styles New/Redefine capture the first selected character at run boundaries and end prior typing before capture; boundary and typing-history input tests and full workspace CI pass; scores and hours unchanged; Character styles retain explicit Auto leading, propagate resets and preserve local leading overrides; scores and hours unchanged; Linux font folders from fontconfig, #1529; commands and MCP add_text report area type that does not fit its frame, #1471; Tabs panel stop drags, #1458; Fit Headline in a frame one line tall, #1444; frames and paths beyond a billion points hold no text, #1451; scores unchanged; missing glyphs are looked for again after a font rescan, #1376; scores unchanged; Full-name font matching (#1258); Windows font-service QA pending; scores unchanged; Middle Eastern digit types: Character panel menu › Digits, {digits}; the font menu's script filter lists Thai fonts; Thai, Lao, Khmer and Myanmar lines break between words; the caret steps over whole clusters such as Thai consonants with their marks; Thai typed in a font without Thai falls back to a font made for Thai; earlier: Proportional Metrics in vertical type, vpal, #966; Cmd+Shift+C aligns centre off the Mac, a double-click on area type's bottom handle turns on Auto Size, #1940; MCP add_text exposes the existing vertical option for point, area and path type; horizontal remains the default; scores and hours unchanged; Vertical fullwidth question and exclamation marks keep their nominal glyph upright when the font has no vertical alternate; scores and hours unchanged. tab leaders are drawn in the tab's gap, #1877; type in symbols, pattern tiles, graph designs and opacity masks gets its layout bounds back on opening a native file, #1738; score unchanged; Escape while typing ends the edit, #1686; Select › Same on type, #1737; justify when creating point type, #1748; scores unchanged; OpenType stylistic sets, alternates, figure styles, superscript and subscript as character features, #1607; a wide word in non-rectangular area type moves down, #1615; scores unchanged; Character Styles New/Redefine capture the first selected character at run boundaries and end prior typing before capture; boundary and typing-history input tests and full workspace CI pass; scores and hours unchanged; Character styles retain explicit Auto leading, propagate resets and preserve local leading overrides; scores and hours unchanged; Linux font folders from fontconfig, #1529; commands and MCP add_text report area type that does not fit its frame, #1471; Tabs panel stop drags, #1458; Fit Headline in a frame one line tall, #1444; frames and paths beyond a billion points hold no text, #1451; scores unchanged; missing glyphs are looked for again after a font rescan, #1376; scores unchanged; Full-name font matching (#1258); Windows font-service QA pending; scores unchanged; Middle Eastern digit types: Character panel menu › Digits, {digits}; the font menu's script filter lists Thai fonts; Thai, Lao, Khmer and Myanmar lines break between words; the caret steps over whole clusters such as Thai consonants with their marks; Thai typed in a font without Thai falls back to a font made for Thai; earlier: Proportional Metrics in vertical type, vpal, #966) · Target: Adobe Illustrator 2026 (30.x)

Type is Illustrator's largest single area by use (weight 13 of 105 across "Type core" and "Type advanced" in target-app-parity.md). This checklist lists the features one by one. Status is from the code and tests (crates/text, crates/engine/src/cmd/type*.rs, textstyles.rs, crates/tools/src/text.rs) against Illustrator's public documentation; estimated unless noted.

Summary

Part	%	Remaining (h)
Type core (point, area, path type, Character/Paragraph, styles, threading, OpenType, fonts)	80%	14–19
Type advanced (CJK composition, Middle Eastern, spelling, Touch Type, Retype, variable fonts)	50%	20–28

Checklist

Feature	Status	Notes
Point, area and type-on-a-path type; vertical variants	done / partial	vertical point, area and path type have initial support; fullwidth ！ / ？ keep the nominal glyph upright when no vertical alternate exists (Unicode Tu); in a non-rectangular area a word too wide for the top lines moves down to the first line that holds it (#1615); Escape while typing ends the edit, keeps the type selected and switches to the Selection tool (#1802); text.create and text.createInPath take justify (#1752); MCP add_text forwards vertical to both commands
Area Type Options (rows, columns, inset, first baseline, Auto Size, Shrink Text to Fit)	done	the commands that make or restyle type say when it does not fit its frame; MCP add_text takes Auto Size and Shrink Text to Fit (#1471)
Threaded text, Fit Headline, Text Wrap	done	Fit Headline sees wrapping in a frame one line tall (#1444)
Type on a Path effects and options; brackets	done	#429
Character and Paragraph panels, styles with overrides	done	Character-style Auto-leading resets, partial definitions, local leading overrides, override markers, Undo/Redo and native serialization have regression coverage; differing paragraph alignments leave the shared alignment buttons unselected (headless regressions, full integration CI and visual review pass); mixed-value display for other paragraph fields remains missing
Character size and horizontal scale after object/group scaling	done	#1034: fields and setters compensate the stored affine; point size follows the transformed em-height axis, not the glyph ink bounds. Range edits, keyboard increments, leading and baseline shift use document points; rotation, reflection and shear remain editable.
Preserve font sizes while scaling a group	missing	Separate enhancement; scaling still scales text with the other artwork.
OpenType panel, Glyphs panel, alternates	done	Highlight Alternate Glyphs preference (#394) paints pink behind OpenType substitutions on screen; stylistic sets ss01–ss20, stylistic and titling alternates, proportional and lining figures, superscript and subscript are character-style features (text.setStyle {features}, #1607)
Font menu: samples, live preview, filters, favourites; font matching by any name; Find Font	done	#339; script filter: Japanese, Latin, Thai; the font scan on Linux also reads the folders fontconfig's configuration lists, such as TeX fonts under /usr/share/texmf/fonts (#1548, fixes #1529; not verified on Linux)
Missing glyphs set in an installed font made for their script (Thai, Lao, Khmer, Myanmar first; then any font that has them)	done	Thai: Leelawadee UI, Tahoma, Thonburi, Sukhumvit Set, Noto Sans Thai, TLWG
Full font-name matching (OpenType name ID 4)	done	#1258: loaded/cataloged faces and Missing Fonts searches; localized names and variable default faces; Windows font-service QA pending
Variable fonts	partial	named instances as styles; axis sliders missing
Colour fonts (OpenType SVG / COLR)	partial
Every-line and Single-line composers	done	tuned by eye, never compared side by side
Hyphenation… and Justification… options	missing
Optical Margin Alignment	missing	menu stub
Tab stops and leaders; Tabs panel	partial	Tabs panel and stops with leaders in the model (text.tabs.set); a stop drags from where the press landed (#1458); leaders fill the tab's gap, repeated on a grid so they line up from line to line (#1877)
Hidden characters (Show Hidden Characters)	done	type.hiddenCharacters
Spell check (Check Spelling, Auto Spell Check, custom dictionary)	missing	menu stubs; needs an openly licensed dictionary
Smart Punctuation, Change Case, Find & Replace	done
Caret: the arrows and Delete step over whole clusters (Thai consonant with its marks, combining accents, emoji); Backspace removes one character	done
Touch Type tool	missing	listed in the toolbar, not implemented
Retype (identify fonts in outlines/images)	missing	Illustrator's uses a cloud model
Snap to Glyph	missing	menu stub
Thai, Lao, Khmer, Myanmar: shaping (marks, reordering), lines broken between words, word-by-word caret and double-click	done	words found by ICU4X's line segmenter: dictionaries on the desktop, LSTM models on the web
Middle Eastern: bidirectional layout, Paragraph Direction	done
Middle Eastern: digit types (Character panel menu › Digits: Default, Arabic, Hindi, Farsi)	done	text.setFormat / text.setRangeStyle {digits}; the text keeps the typed digits, the glyphs and SVG export follow the style
Middle Eastern: Character Direction, kashidas, Middle Eastern composers, split caret	missing
CJK: input methods (marked text, candidate window)	done
CJK: kinsoku (Hard, Soft, None), Line-end Punctuation Half Width, tate-chu-yoko (auto)	done / partial	custom kinsoku sets, the Mojikumi Settings dialog and the other mojikumi sets missing
CJK: Proportional Metrics (palt in horizontal type, vpal in vertical type)	done	#966
CJK: ruby, manual tate-chu-yoko	missing	#633
Inline symbols in text	beyond Illustrator	not scored
Align Stroke (inside, outside) on live type's character stroke	beyond Illustrator	not scored; stroke.set {align} and text.setRangeStyle {strokeOptions: {align}}; saved natively, drawn around the glyphs on the canvas and in PDF, EPS and SVG (live text, stroke on the glyph outlines); visual bounds grow with it (#2294)

Character Styles menu New/Redefine and footer New capture the first selected character of a nonempty Type selection, including exact style-run and UTF-8 boundaries; New adds a definition without applying it. New/Redefine commands accept optional end for range capture. Start-only command affinity, existing UI caret/object behavior and paragraph capture at start remain unchanged. Pointer regressions assert captured definitions, linked-text updates and local overrides, complete-document Undo/Redo and saved state, with whole-object, collapsed-caret and range-Apply controls. Capture closes prior typing while preserving the Type selection. Live text and Select All regressions exercise menu New/Redefine and footer New, asserting that further typing retains the captured definition and that typing, capture and further typing have separate Undo/Redo steps. Focused engine and egui input tests pass for boundary capture, all three live-typing capture routes and the existing compatibility controls. Full workspace CI passes.

Revision history

Date	Change	Summary
2026-10-16	minor	Align Stroke on live type: the characters' stroke goes inside or outside the glyphs without creating outlines, for every run or a range; kept in the native file and in canvas, PDF, EPS and SVG output (#2294); beyond Illustrator, scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-14	minor	Cmd+Shift+C (Align center) works on Windows and Linux too, where egui reported it as a copy (#1940); scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-14	minor	Cmd+Shift+C (Align center) works on Windows and Linux too, where egui reported it as a copy; a double-click on area type's bottom middle handle turns on Auto Size (#1940); scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-14	minor	MCP add_text exposes the existing vertical option for point, area and path type; horizontal remains the default; scores and hours unchanged.
2026-10-14	minor	Vertical fullwidth question and exclamation marks keep their nominal glyph upright when the font has no vertical alternate; scores and hours unchanged.
2026-10-14	minor	Tab leaders are drawn: the leader's characters fill the tab's gap in the tab's font and size, whole copies on a grid from the frame's edge so leaders line up across lines (fixes #1877); scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-14	minor	Type inside symbols, pattern tiles, graph designs and opacity masks gets its layout bounds back on opening a native file, so warped type in a symbol looks the same after save and reopen (#1833, #1738). Score unchanged (estimated)
2026-10-14	minor	Escape while typing ends the edit, keeps the type selected and switches to the Selection tool (#1802, #1686, #1656); Select › Same matches type on its characters' fill and stroke (#1746, #1737); text.create, text.createInPath and the MCP add_text tool take justify, so point type can be centred on or end at its point (#1752, #1748); scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-13	minor	Area type in a non-rectangular shape moves a word too wide for the top lines down to the first line that holds it instead of breaking it (#1617, fixes #1615); Stylistic sets (ss01–ss20), stylistic and titling alternates, proportional and lining figures, and superscript and subscript glyphs can be turned on as OpenType features of a character style (text.setStyle {features}), and the OpenType panel keeps them (#1611, fixes #1607); scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-13	minor	Paragraph/Properties alignment buttons show mixed alignment without changing range commands; headless regressions, full integration CI and visual review pass; other mixed paragraph fields, scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-13	minor	The font scan on Linux also reads the folders fontconfig's configuration lists, such as TeX fonts under /usr/share/texmf/fonts (#1548, fixes #1529; not verified on Linux); scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-13	minor	Character Styles range capture samples the first selected character at run boundaries and closes prior typing; boundary and typing-history input tests and full workspace CI pass; lifecycle and range controls retained; scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-13	minor	The commands that make or restyle type, and MCP add_text, report area type that does not fit its frame, and add_text takes Auto Size and Shrink Text to Fit (#1500, fixes #1471); a tab stop in the Tabs panel drags from where the press landed, a stop just added included (#1487, fixes #1458); scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-13	minor	Fit Headline no longer pushes the tracking to its ceiling and loses glyphs when the frame holds one line (#1445, fixes #1444); text frames, wrap shapes and type paths with coordinates beyond a billion points hold no text, and layout limits its search for room, instead of hanging (#1451); scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-12	minor	Character styles retain explicit Auto leading, propagate resets and preserve local leading overrides; scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-12	minor	A character no installed font had is looked for again after the fonts are rescanned, so installing a font fixes it without a restart (#1376, from #992); scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-12	minor	Full-name font matching and Missing Fonts searches (#1258): synthetic static/variable font regressions; Windows font-service QA pending; scores and hours unchanged
2026-10-11	minor	Middle Eastern: digit types done (Character panel menu › Digits: Default, Arabic, Hindi, Farsi; text.setFormat / text.setRangeStyle {digits}); Character Direction, kashidas, composers and the split caret still missing; scores unchanged at this rounding
2026-10-11	minor	Thai, Lao, Khmer and Myanmar words for the caret (Ctrl/Alt+arrows) and double-click; combining marks count as part of a word; score unchanged (estimated)
2026-10-11	minor	Font menu: a Thai script filter beside Japanese and Latin; score unchanged (estimated)
2026-10-11	minor	Thai, Lao, Khmer and Myanmar text breaks its lines between words (ICU4X line segmenter) instead of only at spaces; score unchanged (estimated)
2026-10-11	minor	The Type tool's arrows and Delete move by grapheme cluster, never between a Thai consonant and its vowel or tone marks; score unchanged (estimated)
2026-10-11	minor	Thai (Lao, Khmer, Myanmar) missing from the font in use falls back to an installed font made for the script instead of whichever face covering it loaded first; score unchanged (estimated)
2026-10-11	minor	Proportional Metrics done: palt in horizontal type, vpal in vertical type (#966, #1082); ruby and manual tate-chu-yoko still missing
2026-10-10	minor	#1034: transformed character controls and regression coverage; preserving group font sizes remains a separate enhancement. Scores/hours unchanged at this rounding.
2026-10-10	major	First checklist, split out of the parity table's Type core and Type advanced rows