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DesignCraft Advances with v0.11.0 to v0.13.0 Releases, Enhancing Layout Tools and CI Infrastructure

designcraft

DesignCraft, an open-source Rust-native page and layout design editor aiming for Adobe InDesign compatibility, has issued three new releases. These updates include improvements in user interface, document handling, continuous integration workflows, and platform support adjustments.

About DesignCraft

DesignCraft is an open-source page and layout design editor developed entirely in Rust. It targets feature parity and performance improvements over Adobe InDesign, catering to users seeking a free, open, and high-performance desktop publishing tool. The project emphasizes clean-room implementation and aims to support complex page layout workflows familiar to professional designers.

Key Updates in Recent Releases

v0.11.0

Released on October 21, 2026, this version marked a notable platform support change: FreeBSD aarch64 builds were dropped due to continuous integration (CI) time constraints, though FreeBSD x86_64 and other platforms remain supported. The release also introduced enhancements to the CI process, including running cargo xtask ci on pull requests and main branch pushes, and switching to a shared nix workflow for build consistency. Documentation was updated with badges for SonarCloud and CodeRabbit, reflecting ongoing quality and security efforts.

v0.12.0

Published shortly after on October 22, 2026, v0.12.0 continued the trend of dropping FreeBSD aarch64 support for the same CI time reasons. This release focused on security and usability improvements:

  • Enforced HTTPS for curl downloads to enhance security.
  • Improved time handling by replacing custom UTC conversions with the chrono crate.
  • Enhanced paragraph rules and layout guides, including support for dragging and snapping column guides.
  • Added macOS-specific improvements such as persistent menus after language changes and a dedicated Language submenu.
  • Improved text handling with features like pasting text into carets and showing trailing spaces.
  • Introduced support for importing InDesign keyboard shortcut sets.
  • Completed the French interface translation and strengthened internationalization testing.

v0.13.0

The most substantial update, released on October 25, 2026, brought a wide array of improvements across the application:

  • Continuous Integration: Adopted one test binary per crate and integrated nextest for testing efficiency; introduced a shared gate workflow and FreeBSD nightly builds.
  • User Interface: Allowed browser zooming of pages, improved Discord button sizing, and made the start screen scrollable on smaller windows.
  • Document Handling: Fixed flaky test issues related to export creation dates; improved autoflow to fill existing pages before adding new ones; enhanced search functionality to include text inside table cells; and refined paragraph style options with features like Align to Grid.
  • File Import/Export: Improved IDML export to support graphics in table cells; handled UTF-16 plain text files with BOM; preserved PDF layer settings; and enhanced EPUB export with split document options.
  • Text and Styles: Added support for optical margin alignment with size control; joined underline and strikethrough into a single text-decoration in EPUB CSS; and preserved style export tagging during renaming.
  • Performance and Stability: Fixed panics in PDF post-processing, clamped polygon side counts, and ensured non-finite numbers are excluded from imported documents.
  • Developer Experience: Reduced cognitive complexity in various UI and engine components, addressed SonarCloud maintainability issues, and improved CI workflows.

Platform Support Note

Both v0.11.0 and v0.12.0 releases explicitly dropped FreeBSD aarch64 builds due to CI time limitations, a known issue flagged for future resolution. FreeBSD x86_64 and other platforms continue to be supported.

Contributions and Community

These releases saw contributions from new community members, including @nikolainyegaard, @HEOJUNFO, @andeecollard, @zuujiscom, @bflatastic, and @FredApps, highlighting ongoing community engagement.

Conclusion

The recent DesignCraft releases demonstrate steady progress toward a robust, open-source alternative to Adobe InDesign. With improvements spanning UI, document fidelity, and developer tooling, the project continues to refine its capabilities while managing platform support challenges. Users and contributors can follow the project's development and detailed changelogs on its GitHub repository.

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